If you’ve already read our main post about Advanced Reader Copies, then you already know two things:
- Paperback or hardback ARCs are typically only the right choice if you are trying to get a specific, high-value person to read and review your book.
- Amazon’s Print-On-Demand service currently does not allow authors to order ARCs through their platform.
With that said, how to make ARCs? This is where IngramSpark, the other main POD service, comes in. If you’re looking to create a hardback version of your book or a batch of physical ARCs, IngramSpark is currently the best platform available to do so.
You’ll have to create an account and enter in all of your book’s information over from KDP. As long as you choose the same dimensions as your paperback, you can use the same print interior and cover files that you already have.
If you want to do a hardback, then this gets a lot more complicated. You may be able to get away with using the same files for a case laminate hardback at the same dimensions of the paperback, but any different sizes or a dust jacket means that you are going to have to get everything reconfigured. Honestly, a hardback ARC is way more trouble than it could possibly be worth, and so I recommend just sticking to a paperback ARC for the cost and ease.
Once you have all of your book’s information entered and all necessary files uploaded, you’ll then be asked to review and approve everything. From there, you’ll be able to order however many copies you’d like for only the cost of production and shipping.
That’s not to say that you should order all of your ARC copies right away, though. I always recommend first getting just one beta copy to make sure that everything is printing correctly. If there does happen to be an issue, then you’ll actually be able to fix it. Finding out that something is wrong when you open up a box of ARCs is already too late. At that point, your choice is to either live with the error or to spend even more time and money to fix it and order more.
As long as you take a few extra precautions, setting up your print ARCs through IngramSpark is essentially as easy as copying and pasting everything already on your KDP.
