Printing and binding your book doesn’t have to be expensive at all!
Getting your book professionally printed and bound for under a tenner may seem like the kind of situation that involves a catch, but it isn’t; and yes, we do realise this is exactly what you’d expect a shady printing press operator to say. Bear with us!
We have an extensive printing network specialising in digital printing, also known as printing on demand. This allows us to print books much quicker and more efficiently than would be possible with more traditional printing methods, without sacrificing quality. Our books are perfect bound using high-quality, FSC-certified paper. Most importantly, digital printing is not reliant on volume, meaning we can print as little as one copy at a time and you don’t have to pay for extra books you don’t need!
What are the primary factors that determine the cost of printing a book?
You have quite a lot of control over how much it’ll cost to print your book. There are three main factors that affect printing costs (and you can influence all of them):
- Paperback or hardback: A paperback book will be several pounds cheaper to print than a hardback. This makes paperback the most popular format by far.
- Book block in B&W or colour: To print a page in colour, 4 different ink colours are required: cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK). When printing in B&W, only one colour (black) is required. This makes it much cheaper to print in B&W than in colour. Your cover will always be printed in colour, and won’t affect the cost of printing.
- The number of pages: This one is pretty self-evident, but the more pages your book contains, the more ink and paper need to be used to print it. This means that the longer your book, the more expensive it will be to print.
In addition, the following factors can come to influence book-printing prices:
- The format (i.e. the dimensions) of your book: All things being equal, an A4 will naturally cost more to print than an A5. Don’t worry though: twice as large does not mean twice as expensive in this case!
- Cover finish: While there is a slight difference in price between the matte and glossy cover finishes, it’s a question of a couple of pence.
- Paper type: As mentioned earlier, there are three different paper types for you to choose from: cream (90 g), white (80 g), and semi-gloss white (115 g). Our white paper is the cheapest, but the difference in price between the paper types is minuscule.
Finally, the number of books you print will affect the final cost; that goes without saying. Fortunately, we’ve set up our printing system in a way that allows us to apply a progressive bulk discount as the size of your order increases. This keeps it affordable even if you’re planning on printing a large number of books.
Want to print your book as cheaply as possible? Opt for a paperback in black and white with as few pages as you can manage. On the other hand, if you want to give your book the VIP treatment, slap a nice hardcover on it, fill it with colour pages and enjoy it; books are still a relatively guilt-free indulgence!
What does it cost to get your book printed?
You can use our pricing calculator to figure out how much it would cost to print your book the way you want it. There are numerous customisation options that you can use to tweak your book, including the cover type (paperback or hardback), the dimensions of your book, the paper type and the number of pages. Explore the various options to find a setup that works for you.
The pricing calculator will show you what it would cost to print your book, as well as applicable bulk discounts. We offer bulk discounts starting from 3 copies or more. Find out how much it would cost to print and bind your book.
An example of how much it would cost to print a book
Let’s say you want to print an A5 paperback book in B&W with 150 pages on cream paper. If you were to enter this information into our pricing calculator, you’d see the following table. It gives you a clear overview of how much it would cost to print a single copy, in addition to when bulk discounts would be applied to your order:
| 1 - 2 | 3 - 9 | 10 - 49 | 50 - 99 | 100 - 249 | 250 - 499 | 500 + |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
£7,49 Per book | £6,84 Per book | £6,31 Per book | £6,03 Per book | £5,78 Per book | £5,54 Per book |
How printing costs influence the retail price of your book
Should you also wish to sell your book, keep in mind that the cost of printing the book will have an impact on the retail price as well. The more expensive a book is to print, the more you’ll have to charge for it to make a profit. When selling directly (either via your own website, in person, or via the author webshop we provide), the effect of higher printing costs is manageable.
However, you can also decide to sell your book via third-party sales channels like Amazon or Kobo (for which you’ll need to buy an ISBN). If you opt for this route, you’ll need to fork over up to 45% of the retail price to these companies, as they want their cut for letting you use their platform. This means you’ll need to charge more for your book. If your book also happens to be very expensive to print, the retail price can quickly get out of hand and scare away potential customers.
In other words, the cost of printing your book has a direct impact on its final retail price. So, if you’re planning on printing and selling a hardcover, for example, we’d recommend also making a cheaper paperback version of your book. Your customers will appreciate having several options to choose from.
Need to print a lot of books? We also do offset print runs!
Are you certain that you’re going to be selling a lot of books? Or are you planning to distribute books personally? In that case, you might want to consider placing a large print order. Starting from around 400 copies, we’ll switch from digital to offset printing. This is a mechanical printing method which is more expensive to set up but becomes more cost-effective than digital printing at higher quantities. The price per book will be considerably lower using this method, but keep in mind that all the books will be delivered to you at once, meaning you will need to organise storage and distribution yourself. Interested? Get in touch with us!
Printing books abroad: costs and considerations
Need to have books delivered to mainland Europe? No problem. Our printing network is expansive, allowing you to print books directly in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. This means lower shipping costs, quicker delivery and no customs hassle. This is an ideal solution if you’re regularly selling and shipping books in/to continental Europe. Want to know more? Get in touch!