If you dream of writing a book, you might imagine sending your manuscript to one of the behemoth publishing houses, like Penguin Random House or Simon & Schuster. The problem is, these publishers only accept a tiny fraction of the manuscripts they receive.
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You might still be in luck, though: Self-publishing has emerged as a viable option for getting stories to readers. Novels such asThe Martianand Fifty Shades of Grey were both self-published books before becoming bestsellers and inspiring blockbuster movie adaptations. In fact, according to WordsRated, the number of self-published books increased 264% between and , with $1.25 billion worth of self-published books sold annually.
Here&#;s how to skip the gatekeepers and print your own book on your own terms.
Yes&#;you can print your book more easily than you might think. Many book printing companies are user-friendly and offer high-quality printing with custom design options. Some book printers can also help you distribute your work on sites such as Amazon.
The cost of printing your book depends on several factors, including the number of pages, trim size, binding style, cover type, paper weight, and ink color and quality.
For example, a black and white paperback book of fewer than 108 pages can cost as little as $2.30 per book, whereas a standard 300-page paperback novel runs closer to $5 or $6 per book. Larger trim sizes, hardcovers, and the colored ink can set you back further. For instance, an 8.5-by-11-inch 100-page photo book with a hardcover, premium color, and the highest quality paper costs $29.69 on Lulu, an online self-publishing and distribution platform.
Some book printing companies, such as IngramSpark, charge a fee to upload your manuscript to their site. Other printers, like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, let you upload your manuscript for free. Alternatively, you can cut down on costs and avoid stocking inventory by using print-on-demand services to sell your book.
You&#;ve finished writing your book&#;congratulations! The hardest part may be out of the way, but there are still a few steps left to bring your book to life. Most book printing companies offer numerous customizations that affect the quality and cost of the final product.
Here&#;s how to print your own book in nine steps.
While it can be daunting to open your work to criticism, it&#;s essential to get fresh eyes on your writing&#;as many as possible before locking down a final draft. Whether you need high-level feedback or a proofread for grammar, spelling, and clarity, other readers can pick up on elements you&#;ve overlooked, catch mistakes big and small, and help improve your manuscript overall. You can hire a professional editor, ask someone you know with experience or interest in your genre, or ask for review from a combination of readers from both your professional and personal networks.
Most custom book printing companies offer a variety of book sizes. The type of book you publish likely informs the dimensions you choose. For instance, novels, trade books, comic books, and children&#;s books tend to take on different shapes; novels are smaller and thicker, whereas children&#;s books are usually large and flat. For guidance, consider the sizes of similar books already in print.
Paperback books are cheaper to produce but less durable than their hardcover counterparts. Hardcover books (also known in the industry as "trade cloth" or "hardback") are considered the highest quality and can add a degree of professionalism to your work. You may also have to choose between glossy and matte cover finishes and decide whether to include a book jacket.
Your binding style affects your book&#;s look, durability, and cost. A saddle stitch binding can be a reasonable option for short books and pamphlets. Wire-O binding is another cost-effective style commonly seen on notebooks. However, most authors opt for a higher quality binding style, like perfect binding for paperback books or case wrap binding for hardcover books. Both of those binding styles form a flat spine where the title and author&#;s name can be printed.
As you select your ink, keep in mind that most printers charge a premium for internal color printing. Also consider that your paper options will usually come in various weights and finishes. If you're unsure about which types to choose, use industry standards as guidelines. For example, standard black-and-white pages are reader-friendly and cost-effective for novels and most other types of books. If you&#;re publishing a photo book or comic book, you may want to opt for heavier paper and color printing to do justice to your artwork.
If you can&#;t remember the font of the last book you read, it&#;s probably because the graphic designer made a good choice. Like grammar and punctuation, typesetting is usually only noticed if it&#;s poorly done because it becomes a distraction. Try a few options to ensure your fonts and margins are unobtrusive and match your book&#;s tone and style. For ideas, look to similar books or guides, like this font guide from IngramSpark. Once you&#;ve typeset your manuscript and decided on your book size, you&#;ll have your page count.
The old saying might be wrong: you can, in fact, judge a book by its cover&#;and your potential readers will. Your cover says a lot about your publication&#;s content and quality. Make your design eye-catching and convey the book&#;s purpose and tone. If you have the budget, consider hiring a professional graphic designer to create a high-quality book cover.
Before printing your book, make sure your files are high resolution and formatted correctly. Read and follow your chosen printing service's upload guidelines carefully. You'll typically submit two files: the book cover and the manuscript. Unless otherwise specified, upload your files in PDF format, with your images set for a minimum resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch).
Before buying bulk copies of your book and distributing them, request proof copies&#;i.e., trial impressions to review and make corrections before final printing. When everything looks good, you can put your book on the market with the help of your book printing company.
Before settling on your book printer and marketplace, it's best to explore all of your options. Here are three popular book-printing companies that can help you self-publish a high-quality book.
Launched with the Kindle in , Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is a well-known self-publishing platform geared toward ebooks. However, it also offers options for printing paperback and hardcover books. KDP is simple for beginners and provides a cover creator tool, which can be helpful if you don&#;t have the expertise or budget to hire a professional to design your book cover.
Self-publishing with KDP gives you instant access to Amazon and Kindle&#;s marketplace. KDP also offers print-on-demand services, so you don&#;t have to buy in bulk or worry about stocking inventory. Publishing is free, and printing fees are subtracted from your royalties when you make a sale.
There are a couple downsides to self-publishing with KDP. For one, Amazon requires that you abide by its exclusivity clauses. In other words, Amazon owns your ISBN (your book&#;s numeric commercial identifier), which means you&#;re limited to selling your book through Kindle and Amazon. The other downside to KDP is its relatively limited customization options compared to other book printing companies.
Offering custom book printing starting at $49 per title, IngramSpark is another popular book printer and distributor. IngramSpark promises its high-quality books are indistinguishable from traditionally published books. You can customize your binding style, colors, laminate type, trim sizes, and book cover style, giving you full control over the final product.
Because IngramSpark uses a print-on-demand model, they only print the exact quantity you sell. Use its price calculator to estimate how much you might pay to print and ship orders directly to you and your customers. You can then distribute your professional quality books through IngramSpark. Unlike with KDP's exclusivity clause, IngramSpark let you make your title available to libraries, schools, and stores, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Another popular self-publishing company that offers a wide variety of printing options is Lulu. You can work off a template or build your book with custom sizes, binding options, interior cover options, paper type, and cover finishes. Lulu offers on-demand printing, or you can save money with bulk order discounts. Use their price calculator to figure out your cost per book.
Once you have a finished product, Lulu can also help you distribute it through a variety of channels, including: the Lulu Bookstore, your websites, or online retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Yes. With the right resources and book printing companies, self-publishing can be straightforward and affordable.
Printing your book can cost as little as $2 per copy or as much as $30 per copy, depending on factors such as size, length, and print quality. For a 300-page paperback novel, you&#;ll likely spend $5 or $6 per copy.
You can sell self-published books just about anywhere. Many book printing companies can help you distribute your publication to libraries and on websites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Whether you&#;re looking to publish a textbook containing your research, a manual, a workbook for your students, a reference textbook, a fashion, biology, or history textbook, you&#;re going to need to know how much it will cost to print them.
When you imagine a textbook, you often think of thick, hard-cover books containing 100s of pages of information, which feel and look expensive. And the truth is, printing textbooks can be very expensive. However, printing textbooks can also be extremely affordable!
By looking at the different factors that have varying degrees of influence on the end price, you&#;ll be able to better understand how much it will cost to print your textbooks and what ways you can minimize the cost as much as possible.
Below are the various factors which are broken down into a few categories to help you determine the end cost of printing textbooks. We&#;ve even included a few tips on how to cut the costs of printing textbooks.
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The more textbooks you print, the higher the price will be. However, as you increase the quantity, the price per textbook decreases. This is important to remember because if you plan on printing more textbooks down the road, it will be cheaper to order a larger quantity at once rather than separate small orders.
For example, if you were looking to print 100 5.5&#; x 8.5&#; 50-page softcover textbooks, the price could be around $6-$10 per textbook. If you were to increase the quantity to 500, the price per textbook would drop to around $2-$6.
If you want to save by ordering your textbooks in bulk, but only need a certain quantity at a given time, ask your printer if they offer inventory fulfillment so they can hold on to your textbooks until you need them, so you don&#;t need to worry about storing them.
When it comes to the cover of textbooks, there are paperback textbooks, hardcover textbooks, and cloth hardcover textbooks.
Paperback or softcover textbooks will be your cheapest option with hardcover and cloth hardcover books being around 5-20 times more expensive than paperback books.
While printing paperback books will be your cheapest option, it is important that you choose a heavier or thicker paper for your cover. For example, the inside pages of your textbook need to be thin enough for easy binding, like a 100# or 80# text weight paper. However, if you were to select the same type of paper for your textbook cover, it would lose durability and the inside pages of your textbook would not be protected.
Choosing a thicker paper for your textbook cover isn&#;t as expensive as you may think either. For example, if you were to print 300 8.5&#; x 11&#; 80-page saddle-stitched textbooks with the inside pages and cover both being 100# text weight paper, the cost would be around $8 per textbook. If you were to choose a thicker paper for the cover, like an 80# cover weight stock, the price per textbook would be around $9.
Also, keep in mind, your printer will typically offer a set of house stocks which will be the cheapest option when printing your textbooks. This is because your printer&#;s house stocks are regularly used by other customers, they always have them on hand, and it&#;s easier for them to pair your textbooks with other jobs when laying them out on press sheets.
At Conquest Graphics, we offer our &#;Conquest Preferred&#; paper. Some of the default preferred stocks we carry include 100#, 80# and 70# gloss and velvet text, 100# and 80# gloss and velvet cover, and 14pt C2S cover paper.
Turnaround time is the time it takes to print your textbooks and depending on when you need your textbooks, there will be different prices associated with different turnaround times.
The cost to print textbooks increases when you give your printer less time to print your project. This is because giving your printer a small timeframe for printing gives them less time to find similar jobs they can print alongside your textbooks, which saves them paper and time.
For example, if you were to print 100 6&#; x 9&#; 32-page textbooks and needed them in 4 days, the price would be around $50-$70 more than if you needed them in 7 days.
To save money on printing your textbooks, always plan ahead so you can choose a longer turnaround time.
Often textbooks will include imagery on the cover as well as inside pages and printing your textbooks in full color will help drive attention to the information you&#;ve published. Plus, when it comes to ink, many printers&#; default is full-color printing, and opting for black-and-white print will only decrease the price, if at all, slightly.
When it comes to coatings for your textbook, adding a coating to the inside pages and cover, or just the cover will increase the price. Often a coating is not necessary for the inside pages, however, adding a coating, like a UV coating to the cover of your textbook will increase its durability. Because of this, it&#;s recommended to add a coating to at least the cover of your textbook.
If you were to add a UV coating to the cover of 200 8.5&#; x 11&#; 40-page textbooks, the total price would only increase around $30-$40.
When considering a coating for your textbook, keep in mind that UV coatings will be much cheaper than aqueous coatings since it takes a lot less time and resources to print using UV coating.
The larger your textbook is, the more paper or press sheets it will use which translates to higher prices.
Printing smaller sizes like 5.5&#; x 8.5&#; or 6&#; x 9&#; textbooks is the cheapest choice. However, it&#;s also important to note that depending on how much information and details you need to include within your textbook, it may need more room so that your published content doesn&#;t come across as cramped and overwhelming. If this is the case, adding a few more pages will typically be cheaper than increasing the size of your textbook depending on how many extra pages you will need.
For example, if you were to print 500 20-page 8.5&#; x 11&#; textbooks, it would cost around $150-$200 more to add 4 more pages while if you were to increase the size to a 9&#; x 12&#; textbook, the price would increase around $500-$550.
If your textbook needs to be larger, but you&#;re trying to save money, selecting a different paper type, turnaround time, page count, or quantity will help you reach your target price.
Just like how a larger size influences the cost to print a textbook, the page count also influences the cost.
The higher the page count, the more paper your textbooks will require, which results in higher prices.
For example, if you were looking to print 500 5.5&#; x 8.5&#; 64-page textbooks, but then decided to increase the page count to 72, the total price may increase around $200-$300.
At Conquest Graphics, we offer textbooks between 8-96 pages. However, if you are looking to print longer textbooks, you can easily contact one of our customer service team members via or at (800) 707-.
There are several textbook binding options to choose from and each method will impact the final cost to print textbooks differently.
The most common binding method for textbooks is perfect binding, however, the cheapest binding method is saddle stitching. Saddle-stitched textbooks are created when pages are laid on top of each other and then folded in nested order. Staples are then punctured or stitched on the &#;spine&#; of the folded textbook pages.
Perfect bound textbooks use glue to bind the inside pages to the spine of the textbook cover creating a flat or squared-off spine on which you can print details on. Perfect bound textbooks are great for displaying on bookshelves for this reason, but they are much more expensive than saddle-stitched textbooks.
The other 2 book binding options to choose from include spiral binding and wire-o binding.
Spiral binding uses a plastic spring-like coil that is weaved through uniformly placed holes on the edge of stacked textbook pages. For wire-o binding, the pages and punched-out holes along the spine are set up like spiral binding. However, instead of a plastic coil, it uses a metal c-shaped comb that is placed into the hole openings and then clamped shut. Because of the extra materials used and time spent to create spiral and wire-o bound textbooks, it is more expensive compared to saddle stitching.
To get the lowest price possible for your textbooks, it&#;s advised to stick with saddle stitching. However, if you&#;re interested in the benefits of the other binding methods listed above, or need a higher page count that saddle-stitching cannot accommodate, contact us by or at (800) 707-.
Publishing a textbook and having a commercial printer print your textbooks is typically the most cost-effective option since they can help ensure your design and published content is set up properly, and they can print, bind, and ship your textbooks directly from their facility.
Depending on the varying factors listed above, when it comes to the cost to print textbooks, it could cost anywhere from $45-$15,000 and beyond.
If you&#;re interested in taking advantage of printing your textbooks with a commercial printer, click below to check out our booklet pricing calculator to get an idea of how much printing your textbooks could cost you. If you have questions or are interested in a different binding option or a larger page count, please contact us to receive a free quote!
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