Print-on-Demand: Breaking Down the Costs for Authors

The most successful content entrepreneurs are business people first and creators second. That doesn’t mean you need to be motivated by making money—doing what you love should remain the primary reason to start your own content business.

But you’ll struggle to earn and grow without a solid business plan and a detailed budget. Understanding printing costs is essential for budgeting and pricing your book appropriately. 

Print-on-demand services have revolutionized the publishing industry and helped enable the rise of the creator economy. Independent authors can print books as needed, significantly reducing upfront costs and inventory risk. 

Today, we’ll look at the cost of using Lulu and help you understand what you’ll actually pay when a customer orders one of your books.

Navigating the World of Printing Costs

The most basic element of your printing cost will be… the cost to print your book, which will naturally vary based on the specs for your book. A 100-page, black & white paperback will cost less than a 200-page, full-color hardcover. High-quality paper may enhance the appearance of your book but will also increase the price. Color printing is significantly more expensive than black and white, and choosing between standard and premium ink types can significantly impact your budget. 

Understanding these variables is key to making informed decisions about your book’s design and production.

This is true for all self-publishing platforms.

However, several other factors impact the cost of fulfilling an order. Shipping, fees, taxes, and a retailer markup can all increase the base cost of a book, potentially cutting into your earning potential. 

As you prepare to publish your book, you must fully understand what fulfilling orders will cost to budget and meet your business needs. One thing that may not seem obvious at first; the literal print cost you see doesn’t always indicate what you’ll pay for a printed book.

Breaking Down Printing Costs: What Authors Need to Know

When looking at the production costs for your books, you’ll need to factor in ALL of the costs. Otherwise, you won’t be able to accurately determine your income and how much you make with each book sale. 

Here are the key costs to consider when shopping around for printing services:

• Printing cost based on your book specifications
• Shipping costs to various locations
• Fees or processing costs
• Subscription or service costs
• Revenue sharing

While all print-on-demand companies offer similar services (printing as needed, shipping for you, etc.), the pricing structure tends to vary wildly. To help you understand which print-on-demand service is best for your small business, let’s compare the three most popular self-publishing platforms: Lulu, IngramSpark, and KDP.

Comparing Print-on-Demand Options

Before we get to the comparison charts, let’s cover some of the things each printer has in common, and things that differ. First, all three are digital printing services, including fulfillment (packing and shipping).

Beyond that, they’re all pretty different. For example, IngramSpark utilizes a massive network of printers, meaning the quality can vary (though is generally pretty good); Amazon KDP uses the fastest and simplest printers, meaning quality is usually low; and Lulu uses a small number of printers to ensure quality and consistency. 

There are several factors you’ll consider (and I’m listing some as an example, there are more:

• Do you need hardcover and paperback printing?
• What is your page count?
• What paper types and print quality do you need?
• What trim size will you need?
• Are your customers primarily in the United States, Europe, Asia, or elsewhere?

Comparing Printing Costs

The price you pay to print impacts the minimum list price you can offer—that may seem obvious, but it’s important to note that the price you charge your readers is directly related to your print cost. Higher costs for you mean potentially higher costs for your reader (or lower revenue for you).

Here’s a comparison of the print costs for Lulu, KDP, and IngramSpark. The books all use the least expensive paper, black & white ink, and each book is 100 pages long. 

Of course, please note that I took the pricing information from publicly available sources, which are always subject to change. I’ll provide links to the calculators below:

• Lulu Pricing Calculator
• KDP Printing Costs and Royalty Calculator
• IngramSpark Print and Ship Calculator

The obvious thing to note here is that Lulu’s print price is higher. Those low print costs and the built-in retail aspect of KDP and Ingram appeal to many authors. But most don’t realize they’re losing as much or more than they’re saving.

Hidden costs like revision fees, profit shares, and subscriptions are also part of the selling cost. Even if you don’t see that reflected in the price, you directly pay for printing.

Here’s a comparison of Lulu, KDP, and IngramSparks fees:

All three self-publishing options have differing fees, making it a little tougher to understand what you’ll pay and earn, as well as what your customer will pay, for each book.

I did a quick sample for a 6×9 paperback to highlight how some of these extra costs might impact you. Note that the ‘customer cost’ is what your reader might pay for the list price plus shipping. I’ve excluded tax from all these estimates.

These are rough estimates. I want to note two critical caveats to my estimates here:

1. Shipping for books in distribution (for Lulu with Distribution, KDP, and IngramSpark) will vary depending on the site purchased from and where it is shipping.
2. The fee structure can be complex—the IngramSpark numbers are almost certainly off because we can’t know the exact discount or fees you’ll see from retailers.

But as you can see, even though Lulu’s print costs are higher than KDP and IngramSpark, you earn less with these two distributors. The amount your customer pays is very similar (allowing for the fact that customers need Amazon Prime to enjoy free shipping from KDP).

Strategies for Managing Printing Costs

I’ve said this (as have my fellow Lulu employees) for years: successful authors are smart business people. If writing is a hobby, that’s great. But if you create content and want to use that content to create a business, you’re writing needs to do work.

Budgeting for self-publishing is crucial and too often overlooked. As you can see from the tables above, the costs you’ll incur for printing and fulfilling orders are not always clear or easy to understand. And these are just production costs—you’ll also have software costs like web hosting or marketing tools you use for your content business.

That means you must be very thoughtful when selecting your self-publishing service. If your paper selection doesn’t matter to you and the number of pages in your book is low, KDP might be fine. But if you’re a photographer, the cost to print in full color with high-quality paper is simply the price of doing business. No one will want your book if the ink is bleeding and the pages are wavy!

Here are a few tips to help you prepare for and manage your printing costs:

1. Plan your book’s specifications—including variations like paperback, hardcover, and ebook—to estimate printing costs better.
2. Thoroughly investigate all print-on-demand providers you’re considering.
3. If you can afford it, do a test print with multiple platforms to compare print quality.

Other Production Costs: PDF Files, Website, & Marketing

Okay, I know this is a bit overwhelming, but it’s so important to know what you’re getting into before starting your content business. Just using a pricing calculator to estimate printing costs is not enough to fully understand how much you’ll spend and how much you’ll earn from every book sale. 

At the risk of one too many lists, here are a few things that you need to create your book, build your business, and grow your audience:

1. Print-ready files – While you can format yourself in Microsoft Word or even Google Docs, most page layout software comes at a price. Determine what kind of layout you’ll need and purchase a design tool you can use to create PDF files for all of your books. 
2. Creator website – Your own website is crucial to growing your brand. Without it, you end up at the mercy of platforms, any of which could change abruptly (X/Twitter is a great example). 
3. Marketing – Creators tend to struggle the most with marketing. Much of this stems from not using the right tools to manage their marketing efforts. There are many potential expenses to consider—marketing materials, tracking and posting software, and your time. 

Complete Book Marketing Plan

Jump into promoting and selling with Lulu’s book marketing plan and guide! This guide includes tools and strategies to sell your books.

The Lulu Blog | Take control of your creative journey with advice from the team at Lulu.Paul H

It is impossible to overstate the importance of budget planning. Without a clear sense of what you need and what those needs cost, you’ll struggle to set goals for your book sales. Plan ahead.

Making Smart Printing Choices

Circling back to the main topic, planning for the costs associated with each book sale is the best way to maximize book profitability. Careful research and some math will help you make smart publishing choices to propel your content business forward.

Case in point: Lulu’s print costs appear higher, but that’s only because we don’t impose the fees, subscriptions, and revision costs other print-on-demand services subtly apply. But a cursory look at only a price comparison of print costs doesn’t tell that story.

By equipping yourself with knowledge and using all the resources available, navigating the printing process can become a manageable part of your creator business.