The first IngramSpark payment
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
— Lao Tzu
This is not a post about profit. It’s about proof.
This is the first of several posts documenting how different publishing platforms actually pay out over time, with Amazon KDP and Draft2Digital to follow in the future.
When you publish independently, especially through systems that move slowly and quietly, there’s a long stretch where everything feels theoretical. Files uploaded. Buttons clicked. Statuses updated. But no real-world confirmation yet.
This was the moment when the system stopped being abstract.
Uploading the book
I uploaded the book, Bye-Bye, Boobies, to IngramSpark and moved through the usual stages: file checks, approvals, and then waiting for the proof copy to be printed and shipped. That part alone took time, and it’s something I talked about in more detail in this how it felt to hold my first proof copy.
After fixing the mistake in the book, the book existed, but only technically. No sales. No movement. Just a listing that was slowly being populated around the world and it went live/on sale right at the end end of August inside their dashboard.
I actually didn't share that the book was live as I was waiting until I could share that it was available on the Indigo site. I had thought that was an automatic process, turns out that it isn't. I wrote the real process to get your books onto Indigo's site here, but that's another story.
Surprise! The first book sold anyway
On October 2nd, I received confirmation from IngramSpark that I had sold a copy of my book! Even more surprising was that it was in Australia!
One.
That email mattered far more than the number suggests. It meant the distribution channels were active. It meant the metadata was working. It meant a real person, somewhere, found the book and ordered it.
Nothing else needed to happen yet for this to feel significant.
The long wait to get paid
IngramSpark pays on a delay. Sales are reported first, then held, and payment follows roughly 90 days after the sale is confirmed and you don't get that confirmation of sale until you have the end of the month sales report email.
That delay is important to understand going in, as there is a lot of confusion online about how you get paid from places like IngramSpark. Unlike some other platforms, this is not instant feedback of sales. It’s a system designed around bookstores, wholesalers, and returns windows, not quick wins.
So after that first sales confirmation email, there was nothing to do but wait.
The payment confirmation
On December 23rd, a second email arrived. This one confirmed that a payment was being issued.
The amount was small, of course, it was only one book after all. Almost comically small when I look at it but that didn’t matter at all to me it was a reminder that someone in Australia was the first person who bought my book!
Why this process matters
People used to frame their first dollar earned in business. Not because it paid the bills, but because it proved the loop worked. This one book payment felt like the publishing version of that. It confirmed that this was a great choice of a platform for my books because:
- A book was uploaded.
- A unit was sold.
- The system tracked it.
- The system paid out.
Once that cycle exists, it can repeat. Slowly, quietly, over time and is has proven to work for me with books selling in five countries in the first few months without any ads or personal/family purchases. You can see which countries we know are books are in here.
That’s how long-term publishing works.
This payment wasn’t income in any meaningful sense. It was confirmation and that’s worth documenting.
You can explore all of our current titles on our Books Page.
If you'd like to help share our works, visit our Libraries Page for circulation details and ISBNs.
Our books are available through major retailers including Chapters, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, and Waterstones.
