Question: Does anyone have experience with paperback publishing?

Hello!

I popped the question bit in the title because I know I can have nonsense titles that don’t have anything to do with the post, but this time it does!

I am finally looking at publishing my book in paperback and I wondered if any of you have any advice or tips?

I’m looking at Ingram Spark or with the merging of CreateSpace (acting like I know what I’m talking about here) I’m also looking at publishing directly through Amazon KDP. I’m hesitant with the latter because to meet their margins for expanded distribution and get out of the red it’s putting my book up to $12.99 which, for an unknown author, seems too high. I was hoping more for a 6.99 – 7.99 GPD (my laptop is American and I can’t find the pound sound *shakes fist*) margin like I see most paperbacks at. I think Ingram might make this more doable.

I won’t lie, I’m pretty damn confused and anxious about the whole ordeal. Of course with an ebook, if I find out there is a mistake I can quickly fix it, with paperback I’m not feeling quite so confident.* I’m especially worried about choosing the incorrect trim size, I’ve already seen that should I choose one avenue then my preferred one (5.06×7.81) isn’t the best option – which sucks. Honestly, I really like the 4×6 (roughly) Terry Pratchett’s books come in but KDP doesn’t offer this size.

Back to the point, has anyone published with KDP or, if not, published with Ingram Spark and sold on Amazon while enrolled in KDP Select? I have emailed Ingram about this to find out if it’s even possible, so if no one is sure but would like to know I’ll of course share my findings.

So, yes, there’s a lot that could go wrong and I’m trying to prevent that as much as possible, but paperback seems like a good next step.

Thank you!

*thought I’d edit in here that I know about proof copies, still worrying!