The phrase "print-on-demand" gets used loosely in conversations about selling books online, which can create genuine confusion when people encounter BooksCloud alongside names like IngramSpark and Lulu. These are fundamentally different services designed for fundamentally different purposes. Understanding the distinction clearly will help you determine which model - if either - is right for your business.
The Core Difference: Whose Books Are You Selling?
This is the most important question, and the answer separates the two models entirely.
IngramSpark and Lulu are publishing platforms. Their purpose is to help authors get their own manuscripts printed and distributed. If you wrote a book, you upload your manuscript and cover files, and IngramSpark or Lulu prints copies on demand as orders come in. You are the author. You are the publisher. You are selling your own intellectual property.
BooksCloud is a dropshipping fulfillment app for retailers. Its purpose is to help Shopify store owners sell commercially published books - books written by other people, published by major and independent publishers, available in BooksCloud's catalog of 2M+ titles from 30,000+ publishers. You are not the author. You are the retailer. You are selling books that already exist in the commercial marketplace.
These are entirely different business models aimed at entirely different people.
What BooksCloud Is (and Is Not) in the POD Sense
BooksCloud's catalog does include some print-on-demand titles alongside its warehoused inventory. The distinction there is operational: some titles in BooksCloud's network are printed when ordered (POD), while others are picked from physical warehouse stock. For standard in-print books, most orders ship within 3 days of going to fulfillment. For POD titles within the catalog, fulfillment can take 4-12 days.
But even those POD titles within BooksCloud are commercially published books by other authors - not self-published manuscripts uploaded by you. BooksCloud is not a mechanism for publishing your own work. It is strictly a retail dropshipping platform.
The Business Models Side by Side
IngramSpark / Lulu - Author Publishing
- You provide the content (manuscript, cover)
- You own the copyright and set royalties
- Distribution goes to libraries, bookstores, online retailers
- Ideal for: authors, self-publishers, content creators building a publishing brand
- You earn a royalty per copy sold, net of printing and distribution fees
BooksCloud - Retail Dropshipping
- You sell existing published books from BooksCloud's catalog
- You set the retail price and keep the margin
- Distribution is direct-to-consumer via your Shopify store
- Ideal for: entrepreneurs, niche store operators, e-commerce merchants adding books to their product mix
- You earn the spread between your retail price and BooksCloud's cost + $7 shipping
Why the Confusion Exists
The confusion arises because both models involve books being printed or shipped without the retailer holding physical inventory. In BooksCloud's case, your store never touches the books - they ship directly from BooksCloud's fulfillment center to your customer. In IngramSpark's case, books are printed when ordered and shipped from their printing facility. The "no inventory" aspect is similar. The purpose - and what you are actually doing - is completely different.
"This is an excellent, well-designed app that allows you to add a massive variety of books to your store. The customer service is also excellent."
Which Model Do You Need?
If you have written a book and want to sell it: IngramSpark or Lulu.
If you want to build an online bookstore selling commercially published titles across any genre or niche: BooksCloud.
If you want to sell other people's books and your own on the same Shopify store: you could theoretically run both - BooksCloud for the retail catalog and IngramSpark distribution for your own titles listed separately. They serve different inventory channels.
The models are not competitors. They solve different problems for different people.