You don’t must be knowledgeable author or have a publishing contract to turn out to be an writer. You’ll be able to embark on a self-publishing journey by utilizing a print-on-demand service.
Print-on-demand books are a wonderful method to publish and sell your writing. Whether you’ve got an existing readership or want to make your debut, print on demand is low price and efficient.
On this post, explore 10 of the preferred on-demand book printing services. Study their production times, publishing options, and the extra services they supply.
Why select print-on-demand book publishing?
Print on demand is an ideal alternative for each recent and seasoned writers, as a result of its ease of use. Armed with a manuscript and a few basic design software skills, you possibly can produce professional-quality paperbacks or beautiful hardcover limited editions.
The principal good thing about print on demand is it removes the necessity for a big upfront inventory investment, a typical problem with self-publishing. As an alternative of shopping for boxes of books hoping they’ll sell, books are printed as orders are available in and sent on to the client.
If you happen to have already got an audience, you need to use print on demand to sell books online, on to your followers on Instagram or your email list.
Best print-on-demand book web sites for self-publishing
Explore the next print-on-demand publishing services to search out the very best option for creating your individual books, magazines, or pamphlets.
This list was curated with insights from content author Braveen Kumar. After careful consideration, he selected Lulu Direct to self-publish his book.
- Lulu Direct
- Blurb
- Acutrack
- IngramSpark
- BookBaby
- Kindle Direct Publishing
- Barnes & Noble Press
- Contrado
- Gelato
- Printify
1. Lulu Direct
- Production time: Three to 5 days.
- Minimum order requirement: No.
- Book products available: Hardcovers, paperbacks, comic books, magazines, ebooks.
Lulu Direct makes a speciality of print-on-demand self-publishing. With this service, you possibly can print and sell your books in your individual store, retaining all of the revenue.
There’s quite a lot of book formats and options, including hardcover and paperback, black-and-white and color, together with a number of paper types. Bindings include perfect certain, coil, saddle stitch, hardcover case wrap, and hardcover linen with dust jacket bindings.
Content author Braveen Kumar used Lulu Direct to print his poetry book as a result of the available profit margins. His book cost $3 to print and $6 to $9 to ship, and sold for $20.
Lulu Direct also enabled Braveen to sell his book in his Shopify store, aligning together with his long-term goal of constructing a brand and selling other products. By connecting his store to Instagram, he could tag his book in posts and provides customers the choice to purchase directly while browsing social media.
2. Blurb
- Production time: Printing and binding takes 4 to 5 business days.
- Minimum order requirement: No.
- Book products available: Trade books, magazines, notebooks, photo books, ebooks.
Blurb is a book printing company that gives a dedicated print-on-demand service. It provides a good selection of paper types and its own design software to help you in laying out your product to satisfy the standards of booksellers.
If you happen to’re planning sell your book to the mass market, you may find Blurb’s integrated bookstore and network of hundreds of outlets helpful. Retailers can decide to order and stock your books directly through Blurb.
Blurb integrates with Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, and InDesign, simplifying the means of formatting and submitting your designs. While there’s no dedicated Shopify app, you possibly can direct customers out of your Shopify store to Blurb to put an order.
3. Acutrack
- Production time: Book are pre-produced and warehoused. Most orders ship inside one business day.
- Minimum order requirement: Yes.
- Book products available: Paperback, hardcover, spiral certain, journals, coloring books.
Acutrack is a book printing and success service that prints and stores your books, ensuring immediate success upon order placement. It offers quite a lot of book types, including hardcover, paperbacks, and coloring books. Acutrack also accommodates different book sizes, allowing for custom creations like coffee-table books.
With a dedicated Shopify app and integration capabilities with greater than 100 ecommerce platforms, Acutrack provides real-time shipping and tracking information for all of your orders. Online reviews commend the corporate for its responsive customer support and speedy success times.
4. IngramSpark
- Production time: Custom quote required.
- Minimum order requirement: No.
- Book products available: Paperback, hardcover (with dust jacket), ebooks.
IngramSpark is a print-on-demand service offering a number of options for self-publishing a book. You’ll be able to specify book size, paper type, finish (matte versus glossy), paper color, paper weight, and canopy. It even offers a special textured hardcover cloth.
IngramSpark’s standout feature is its distribution network. It connects with greater than 40,000 independent bookstores, chain stores, and libraries to assist get your titles in front of readers.
While most users are satisfied with the standard of books printed by IngramSpark, some reviewers indicate that the prices may be higher in comparison with other services.
5. BookBaby
- Production time: Three to 5 days for many orders of lower than 500 books.
- Minimum order requirement: 25 books.
- Book products available: Perfect certain, paperback, hardback, ebooks, audiobooks.
BookBaby’s print-on-demand service provides black-and-white and full-color printing for each paperback and hardcover books, together with digital publication options. It even produces audiobooks using realistic AI voices, offering 60 different narrators and 96 different languages and dialects.
With BookBaby, you possibly can list your print-on-demand book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and quite a lot of wholesale distributors. The platform also provides editing services, including line editing, proofreading, and synopsis writing.
6. Kindle Direct Publishing
- Production time: One to 3 days.
- Minimum order requirement: No.
- Book products available: Paperback, hardcover, ebook, ebook series.
If you happen to’re planning to sell primarily through Amazon, you need to use their service to print and ship your titles. Kindle Direct provides digital and print publishing and facilitates easy accessibility to Amazon’s Kindle store.
Listing your products is free, though a commission is charged on every sale. You gain direct access to your book on Amazon, where you possibly can create a product detail page.
If you happen to’re trying to publish magazines, periodicals, or spiral-bound notebooks, you’ll need to make use of a unique print-on-demand service. That said, you possibly can repurpose your existing books into Amazon ebooks or paperbacks for extra visibility.
7. Barnes & Noble Press
- Production time: Printing takes five to 10 business days, depending on book type.
- Minimum order requirement: No.
- Book products available: Paperback, hardcover (with dust jacket).
Barnes & Noble Press offers a platform where you possibly can create, publish, and track sales of your book in various formats. Your book will likely be accessible to readers on BN.com and thru NOOK devices.
Whether you’re trying to produce short runs, individual books, or full runs of print-on-demand trade paperbacks, Barnes & Noble Press provides a versatile solution.
Other print-on-demand book services
8. Contrado
- Production time: Most products are printed and delivered in three to 5 business days.
- Minimum order requirement: No
- Book products available: Scrapbooks, portfolios, notebooks, guest books, photo albums.
Contrado is a custom printing Shopify app offering greater than 470 print-on-demand products, including various paper and stationery items.
While Contrado doesn’t offer print-on-demand services for traditional hardcover books, it means that you can upload your individual designs for notebooks, address books, and photo books, amongst other formats. You too can sell your art on Contrado.
Contrado ships internationally. Fees vary, but most orders arrive in three to 5 business days. There are also discounted rates for college students.
9. Gelato
- Production time: Three to 4 business days.
- Minimum order requirement: No.
- Book products available: Photo books, notebooks.
Gelato partners with greater than 50 manufacturers across greater than 70 global locations. It provides fast, flat-rate shipping of printed products with discounted rates for extra items in the identical order.
While it doesn’t offer traditional book printing, you possibly can order softcover and hardcover photo books, notebooks, and even calendars. Along with these, Gelato makes print-on-demand shirts, apparel, mugs, and other products, so you possibly can offer your readers branded merchandise.
10. Printify
- Production time: Most orders ship in two to seven business days.
- Minimum order requirement: No.
- Book products available: Notebooks, custom journals.
Printify is one other popular Shopify app that gives print-on-demand notebooks and journals, though not traditional books. Its large product catalog and established production and success services can support growing brands. All data syncs directly along with your Shopify store, so that you get continuous sales and order information.
Advantages of print on demand
The fantastic thing about print-on-demand corporations is the just-in-time approach to manufacturing. Many of the services above will only print a book when an order is placed. This eliminates the effort and financial burden of buying a lot of books upfront whenever you don’t understand how many will sell.
After printing your book, these services also handle order success—the means of receiving an order, packaging it, and organizing delivery to a customer or retailer. Success may be costly and time-consuming for small businesses and first-time entrepreneurs, so it’s helpful to depend on the expertise of a print-on-demand publisher.
For those aspiring to write down the following bestseller, some print-on-demand book services like Blurb and IngramSpark work directly with wholesalers and booksellers, making it easy for retailers to order larger quantities of your book for his or her inventory.
If you happen to’re trying to print a smaller quantity of books for private use, your area people, or a one-off purpose, print-on-demand can be a very good option. You’ll likely find competitive rates and quality control services equivalent to ordering proofs and (with some POD services) copyediting and proofreading.
Listed below are another general advantages of working with a print-on-demand service:
- Flexibility. Print-on-demand offers the liberty to mess around with designs. Switch up the quilt or change the page layout in response to reader feedback.
- Efficiency. Starting with a small inventory, you possibly can step by step increase your production volume as your reader base expands.
- Growth. If you’ve got a loyal reader base, you may consider branching out beyond books. From merchandise to related products, there are lots of possibilities to expand your small business using print on demand.
Print on demand vs. traditional publishing
Editors optional
With print-on-demand, there’s no publishing house gatekeeping your work. This implies you’ve got the liberty to write down as you please and ensure all of your words make it to print. Nevertheless, this also means your work won’t be scrutinized by a team of experienced editors.
To beat this, you possibly can hire a contract editor to review your book before sending it to the printer. Some print-on-demand book publishers, like BookBaby, even offer editing services.
Set your individual prices
Unlike traditional publishing, self-publishing gives you the facility to set your individual prices. While some print-on-demand services may charge a commission on each order, just about all help you select a retail price and determine your profit margin.
If you happen to sell your books yourself in a web-based store, you’ll need to make your mind up how much to charge customers. If you happen to’re selling your books to retailers, you’ll also have to set a wholesale discount to incentivize them to stock your book. Most publishers offer a 40% to 60% wholesale discount, allowing booksellers to make their usual markup on each book they sell.
Sales channel flexibility
With print-on-demand, you’ve got the pliability to decide on your distribution channels. As an alternative of a publishing house controlling where and when your book is sold, you possibly can sell on to your readers through your online store, or partner with retailers and wholesalers. Some print-on-demand services even have distribution networks, making your book available to a wider audience.
select the very best print-on-demand service
If you happen to can’t determine between print-on-demand book publishers, try comparing them by these features:
Production times
Consider how quickly a service can print and deliver your books. Faster production times can result in happier customers—and more positive reviews.
Order success services
Evaluate how long it takes the printer to pack and ship orders. Have they got partnerships with carriers to lower shipping costs? Can they distribute your books internationally?
Binding and canopy options
Have a look at the variability of binding and canopy options the service offers. If you’ve got a selected sales channel in mind (e.g., retail bookstore), make sure that your printer can create your books to the obligatory specifications.
Production costs and costs
Some services haven’t any upfront costs but charge a commission on each order. Others have initial fees but may help you keep all your profits.
Distribution rights
Check when you are free to distribute your book via other channels, or if the service has an exclusivity clause.
Sales data
Select a service that comes with analytics to watch your book’s performance in real time.
Ebooks and audiobooks
Consider in case your print-on-demand service offers digital formats like ebooks and audiobooks. These can allow you to reach a wider audience and increase your revenue from each title that you simply write.
Retailer networks
A big network of connected wholesalers and booksellers can mean a better path to the shelves of your favorite bookstore.
Proof quality
High-quality, affordable proofs help make sure the final product meets your expectations.
Integrations
Check if the service integrates with ecommerce platforms like Shopify and design tools like InDesign. These integrations can streamline your workflow.
User reviews
Read user reviews to get a way of the service’s repute and the experiences of other authors.
Share your words with the world
You don’t need to search out a heavyweight publisher to share your writing with readers. A print-on-demand book is a well-liked and potentially profitable method to get your message on the market, whatever it could be. If you launch a private writer website or bookstore with Shopify, you get access to hundreds of apps to allow you to make sales and grow your readership.
Print-on-demand books FAQ
What’s the very best print-on-demand site for books?
The very best print-on-demand site for books is Shopify. You’ll be able to connect any compatible print-on-demand app to your Shopify store to print and sell your books.
Does Amazon print books on-demand?
How much does it cost to print books on demand?
Typically, there are few upfront costs to print books on demand. The printing and success costs are often deducted out of your sales whenever you receive an order. Those can vary based on the service provider and the retail price you set in your books.
Is print on demand still profitable?
Print on demand means that you can start your small business with minimal upfront costs and scale up as demand grows. Nevertheless, profitability is determined by aspects like your pricing strategy, marketing efforts, and the standard of your products.
Can I sell print-on-demand books worldwide?
Most print-on-demand services offer worldwide shipping and distribution. You’ll be able to sell print-on-demand books on to readers across the globe through a web-based store. Or, you possibly can work with a print-on-demand service that connects to a worldwide network of wholesalers and booksellers.
