The Short Answer

In the KDP vs Ingram Spark choice, if a physical bookstore ordering your paperback is a real goal, IngramSpark is the tool that gives you the terms stores expect: a wholesale discount you set (53 to 55 percent is the range commonly reported) and a returnable setting. KDP Expanded Distribution exposes neither of those levers to you.

If you only want more catalog listings and most of your sales come from Amazon anyway, Expanded Distribution costs nothing extra and needs no second account. Many sellers run KDP for Amazon and IngramSpark for everything else, and that combination has one strict rule about Expanded Distribution, covered below.

The Expanded Distribution terms below come from Amazon's KDP help page. IngramSpark's fees and discounts are widely reported but change often, so as of September 2026 confirm them on the price sheet in your IngramSpark account and on kdp.amazon.com before you commit a book.

• Choose Expanded Distribution for standard trade books that are eligible, when you want zero setup and see bookstores as a bonus. Some low-content and puzzle titles may be excluded, so check eligibility first.
• Choose IngramSpark when you want a real shot at store and library orders, a hardcover, or control over discount and returns.
• Use both when Amazon is your main channel and you also want wide reach, with Expanded Distribution switched off and the pricing kept aligned.

How Each Program Actually Works

KDP Expanded Distribution

On KDP, Expanded Distribution is a checkbox in a paperback's Rights and Pricing step. Tick it and Amazon makes the title available to distributors, and through them to booksellers, libraries and academic buyers. The wholesale terms are set by Amazon; you never see or negotiate them.

Amazon's help page sets the royalty at 40 percent of the list price in the distribution channel, minus printing costs, applicable taxes and withholding. It also says that enrolling does not guarantee a distributor will accept the book, or that a particular bookseller or library will order it. Read that sentence twice before promising anyone a bookstore launch.

Eligibility has limits. Only paperbacks qualify, so hardcovers are out. The eligibility page currently names content types such as journals, notebooks, planners and coloring books, plus content that is excessively reused or repeated (checked September 2026). Check the current list on KDP for your exact trim and ink.

IngramSpark

IngramSpark is Ingram's publisher-facing print-on-demand service. You upload a print-ready interior and cover, set a list price, pick a wholesale discount and a returns option, and the title is offered through Ingram's catalog to retailers and libraries. Because Ingram runs one of the largest book-distribution networks, a store's ordering system can find your title next to traditionally published books.

The ISBN there is yours. As of September 2026 IngramSpark does not supply a free ISBN for its own distribution, so you appear as publisher of record under a number you bought. Confirm this in IngramSpark's title setup.

Side-by-Side Comparison

The setup and revision rows are the ones that changed most recently. Secondary coverage of the February 2026 price sheet describes title setup and revisions as free. IngramSpark also reportedly charges a per-sale market access fee on print books, and sources give different rates. Open the price sheet in your IngramSpark account and read the current figure rather than trusting a secondary source.

The Expanded Distribution eligibility and royalty rows come from Amazon's help page. The IngramSpark discount range and fee rows are secondary-sourced, so confirm them in your account.

Which Route Gets a Book Onto a Store Shelf

Bookstores buy on trade terms. They want a discount off list price so they can mark the book up, and they want to send unsold copies back. A title with no returns option is a financial risk to a store, which is why physical shops rarely stock non-returnable books.

With Expanded Distribution you control neither lever. Your title can still appear in catalogs, and libraries and academic buyers can order it. A store buyer weighing your book against a returnable one, though, will pick the returnable one.

IngramSpark lets you set both levers, which makes it the more credible path to store orders. Even so, a listing makes the book orderable, not stocked. Chains such as Barnes and Noble make their own buying decisions, and independent shops mostly order when a customer asks for a title or a local author walks in.

The practical route to shelves mixes the right settings with real outreach: a returnable listing, a sensible discount, a professional cover and a one-page sell sheet for local stores. A discount setting alone gives a store no reason to want the book.

On the use-both route, Amazon may list both editions, and delivery estimates can differ between them. Search your own title a few weeks after launch to see what a customer sees.

What About Barnes and Noble Online?

Ticking Expanded Distribution can lead to a listing on retailer sites, including Barnes and Noble's, but Amazon does not promise any distributor or seller will accept the title. Check for the listing yourself a few weeks after publishing instead of assuming it appeared.

Being available to order online and sitting on a shelf are different outcomes. Only the first is something either program can plausibly deliver.

Royalty Math With a Worked Example

The formulas are simple enough to redo with your own numbers. Every printing-cost and fee figure below is an assumption for illustration, not a quoted price. Regular and large trims use different fee tables on both platforms, and 8.5 x 11 puzzle books fall in the large-trim group, so pull your own printing cost from each platform's calculator.

• KDP Expanded Distribution: royalty = 0.40 x list price - printing cost. The 40 percent is Amazon's fixed share, which works out to the same thing as a 60 percent wholesale discount.
• IngramSpark: compensation = list price x (1 - wholesale discount) - printing cost, then any per-sale fees.

Assume a $14.99 paperback. Real printing costs differ between the two printers, so read the table as the shape of the comparison, not a forecast.

With identical printing costs and no fees, the 55 percent row beats Expanded Distribution by about $0.75 a copy, which is 5 percent of the list price. That gap is thin. A printing-cost difference of $0.75 erases it, as the fourth row shows, and a market access fee shrinks it whether or not printing costs match. If Ingram's printing cost or fees come out higher for your trim, the ranking flips, so run both platforms' calculators before treating either as the higher payer.

For scale, Amazon marketplace sales through KDP pay a higher share than the 40 percent Expanded Distribution rate. Check the current royalty bands on KDP's help page before you set a price, because Amazon has changed the bands for lower-priced books.

Margins on low-priced books are thin on either platform. Test a price you would actually charge in the free KDP royalty and printing-cost calculators, which model regular trim only. They cover KDP, not IngramSpark, so take Ingram's figures from its own calculator.

ISBNs, Pricing and the Rules That Trip People Up

The rule that catches people is narrow. Per Amazon's KDP help page, a paperback already distributed through another service is not eligible for Expanded Distribution. The restriction concerns Expanded Distribution only, and it does not stop you from running a KDP paperback and an IngramSpark edition side by side.

There are two valid ways to do that, and Expanded Distribution stays off on KDP in both.

In the first, you buy one ISBN, use it on both platforms and leave Expanded Distribution off. You get a single edition, so Amazon shows one listing, but you cannot use a free KDP ISBN.

In the second, you keep a free KDP ISBN on KDP (Expanded Distribution off) and use a purchased ISBN on IngramSpark. That creates two editions, which can split your Amazon listing and reviews. Decide which one you want featured and confirm the buy button points to the edition you earn most on. Whether a different ISBN would change the Expanded Distribution eligibility is not something to assume, so check the KDP help page before you rely on it.

A free KDP ISBN lists KDP as publisher of record, while an ISBN you buy carries your own imprint and lets you move the title between platforms. Upload the identical interior to both printers and check trim, page count and cover template against each printer's spine calculator. Keep list prices aligned as well, because a price gap on the same book invites a retailer to undercut you.

Hardcovers get a separate note. KDP offers a hardcover option, but Expanded Distribution does not cover it. If you want a hardcover in the wider market, IngramSpark is where that edition lives.

Puzzle-book sellers should confirm whether their titles clear the eligibility list covered earlier, because Amazon's wording on excessively reused or repeated content targets the pattern low-content publishers tend to fall into. If you assemble pages from a generator, our guide to KDP interior templates covers how to keep each book distinct.

Which One Fits Your Situation

For puzzle and worksheet books the answer is usually not the wide route at all. The volume comes from Amazon search, and the print-on-demand economics are covered in our print on demand overview and the KDP publishing category.

Setting Up Both Without Collisions

Screen labels on both sites change, so treat the names below as a guide and follow what your account shows.

Mistakes That Cost Sellers Money

If you publish several titles at a time, a spreadsheet with one row per book and columns for ISBN, list price, discount, returns setting and platform status removes most of these errors. For sellers producing puzzle pages in volume, KDP Creator outputs a ZIP of numbered 300-DPI PNG page images with a manifest, which you assemble into the interior PDF yourself; it is a 3-day trial with a card required, not a free tool.

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