ISBN and distribution frustrations continue! 😵‍💫🫠📖 (a quick update)

I wanted to share a quick PRINT publishing issue I’ve been dealing with.

I published The Dreamer through BookBaby, and they supplied the ISBN. Recently, I noticed my book was no longer showing up on Ingram or Bookshop.org. After contacting BookBaby, I abruptly learned that as of January 1st, their catalog is no longer distributed through Ingram. BookBaby employees learned this at the same time as I, so they were equally confused.

Because of that change (and because BookBaby supplied the ISBN), switching distribution has been way more complicated than I expected. At this point, I’m basically forced to use IngramSpark for bookstores and libraries, while still using BookBaby for Amazon/direct sales and ebook distribution.

I have an appointment with IngramSpark tomorrow (that I had to pay $25 for!) to get guidance on the best next steps. And going forward, I’ll definitely be purchasing my own ISBNs to maintain full control, especially given the chaos in the publishing industry.

Please continue purchasing my book everywhere! It’s just the listings for bookshops and libraries that are a little messed up right now. And it’s only the PRINT book that’s causing issues. My ebook is unaffected.

I’d rather be working on Book 2 (working title, The Divide) than this madness! I’m hoping to release that this year! Mario Robert, my book artist, has been working on 8 character illustrations that I will be sharing at some point as well. I’m soooooooo excited about this. 🚀🖤👽

Thanks for reading my rant. Wish me luck! More soon.

PS Did I mention that self-publishing is like working 10 different jobs?

xo, Linda