Parisian Phoenix Publishing

First, let me say that I am mostly happy with the product, customer service and distribution of IngramSpark. But it’s now December 11 and I’ve been waiting since November 16 for ten copies of Sometimes I Get…

For some reason, this hardcover seems to get lost in the system every time I print it. I don’t think Ingram ever printed hardcovers at my local facility, but now that they closed that Pennsylvania facility it’s a damn random guess of when you’ll see the books.

I ordered eight copies of Juicy Bits five days before I ordered sometimes and they arrived more than two weeks ago. I let them sit around my house for more than a week and mailed them to contributors more than a week ago. Yet, Sometimes I Get… just packed at the Tennessee facility today.

Today. We have one show left in the season, so let’s hope they arrive before that show on Saturday.

Now, normally I try to be forgiving to businesses, and knowing I needed these books and the holiday season was around the corner, I paid for the Express Service and standard shipping– the service level, by my calculations, should have meant the books would have printed before or right after the Thanksgiving holiday. The standard shipping, which is actually twice the cost of basic shipping, should have meant the arrival of the books at the least “just in time” for our event Dec. 2.

Around the end of November, I saw the same book on Amazon for $7 and some change. That is several dollars, like almost enough to buy a latte at Starbucks, less than what Ingram charges me to print and ship copies. The books we ordered for this show came to $11 per copy.

So, I ordered four from Amazon (the maximum allowed because they just want you to buy other things too) and I ordered a copy of Jerry Waxler‘s memoir. Because I’ve added some of Jerry’s events to my schedule and wanted to read more about him.

Meanwhile, I emailed IngramSpark and a customer service rep told me someone higher up the totem pole would need to address my issues. I never got another response. So, I emailed again when Amazon informed me that my books were leaving Tennessee on Friday morning of last week and would arrive today.2qa

According to my account, my order was still mysteriously “printing.”

A customer service representative responded and basically said those turn around times are only an estimate. Needless to say, I’m still in discussion with them. My Amazon books arrived (and I did get the royalty on the sale, and I unboxed them on TikTok).

And today, five days shy of a full month later, my books have progressed to the packing department.

I’ll keep you posted.