Why IngramSpark rejects the PDF
It is usually trim, fonts, colour, or a jacket whose spine belongs to another page count. Path A or B rebuilds the interior; Path D, the cover.
IngramSpark sells into bookstores and wants a press file, not an office PDF. Their file-creation guide insists on embedded fonts, a stable PDF, and often a press colour profile (not screen RGB). They also dislike extra crop marks, a trim that does not match the title form, and a cover whose spine is not the spine of the pages you sent.
If the reject names fonts: do not use the system’s “print to PDF” or a blind Canva export. Path A (Word) and Path B (already-paginated PDF) deliver the interior with type inside the file. Generate again and upload that paid download, not the watermarked preview.
If it names colour or PDF/X: ask Ingram (or your spec) which code they want. On this site, in the same 19 USD session, you can download RGB and the CMYK variants we have: GRACoL (coated or uncoated, different years), FOGRA 39/51/47/52/29, SWOP, Japan Color. We do not invent a “generic Ingram” profile. You pick the one they wrote down. Do not close the tab until you have the file. Interior paper matters: do not send coated GRACoL to a cream novel interior.
If it names size or margins: the PDF must be the trim you set on the title, with the gutter that belongs to that page count. Path A or B calculates it (Amazon and Ingram minima, reading comfort, extra if the stock is thick). Generate with the full manuscript or PDF, not the 5-page sample.
If it names the jacket: do not blindly reuse the KDP one. Ingram’s mold changes with paper and pages. Path D builds one PDF — back, spine, front — from the interior spec. Hardcover is not an enlarged paperback: there is board, a hinge, and a different wrap. ISBN and barcode have a box; do not cover it with art. You buy an ISBN from your national agency, not here.
Signatures: Ingram sometimes says not to pad, and that they will add a manufacturing leaf. An even count and a signature of 4 are usually enough. If your PDF already closes on 76, 80, or 84, the spec sheet and the jacket speak the same number. Read the reject calmly: it almost always points to one of these five things, not to “your book is badly written.”
