Top 10 Print-on-Demand Book Services for Self-Publishing

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Why choose print-on-demand book publishing?

Print on demand is a great selection for both recent and seasoned writers, due to its ease of use. Armed with a manuscript and some basic design software skills, you can produce professional-standard paperbacks or attractive hardcover limited editions.

The main advantage of print on demand is it removes the require for a large upfront inventory resource, a ordinary issue with self-publishing. Instead of buying boxes of books hoping they’ll sell, books are printed as orders arrive in and sent directly to the customer.

If you already have an spectators, you can use print on demand to sell books online, directly to your followers on Instagram or your email list.

discover more: What Is Print on Demand and How To commence a Business

Best print-on-demand book websites for self-publishing 

Explore the following print-on-demand publishing services to discover the best alternative for creating your own books, magazines, or pamphlets.

This list was curated with insights from content writer Braveen Kumar. After careful consideration, he chose Lulu Direct to self-publish his book.

1. Lulu Direct
2. Blurb
3. Acutrack
4. IngramSpark
5. BookBaby
6. Kindle Direct Publishing
7. Barnes & Noble Press
8. Contrado
9. Gelato
10. Printify

1. Lulu Direct

• Production period: Three to five days.
• Minimum order requirement: No.
• Book products available: Hardcovers, paperbacks, comic books, magazines, ebooks.

Lulu Direct specializes in print-on-demand self-publishing. With this service, you can print and sell your books in your own store, retaining all the turnover.

There’s a variety of book formats and options, including hardcover and paperback, black-and-white and color, along with a selection of document types. Bindings include perfect bound, coil, saddle stitch, hardcover case wrap, and hardcover linen with dust jacket bindings.

Content writer Braveen Kumar used Lulu Direct to print his poetry book due to the available boost margins. His book expense $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 with his long-term objective of building a brand and selling other products. By connecting his store to Instagram, he could tag his book in posts and provide customers the alternative to buy directly while browsing social media.

2. Blurb

• Production period: Printing and binding takes four to five business days.
• Minimum order requirement: No.
• Book products available: Trade books, magazines, notebooks, photo books, ebooks.

Blurb is a book printing business that offers a dedicated print-on-demand service. It provides a wide selection of document types and its own design software to assist you in laying out your product to meet the standards of booksellers.

If you’re planning sell your book to the mass economy, you might discover Blurb’s integrated bookstore and network of thousands of retailers beneficial. Retailers can choose to order and stake your books directly through Blurb.

Blurb integrates with Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, and InDesign, simplifying the procedure of formatting and submitting your designs. While there’s no dedicated Shopify app, you can direct customers from your Shopify store to Blurb to place an order.

3. Acutrack

• Production period: Book are pre-produced and warehoused. Most orders ship within one business day.
• Minimum order requirement: Yes.
• Book products available: Paperback, hardcover, spiral bound, journals, coloring books.

Acutrack is a book printing and fulfillment service that prints and stores your books, ensuring immediate fulfillment upon order placement. It offers a variety 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 more than 100 ecommerce platforms, Acutrack provides real-period shipping and tracking information for all your orders. Online reviews commend the business for its responsive customer back and speedy fulfillment times.

4. IngramSpark

• Production period: Custom quote required.
• Minimum order requirement: No.
• Book products available: Paperback, hardcover (with dust jacket), ebooks.

IngramSpark is a print-on-demand service offering lots of options for self-publishing a book. You can specific book size, document type, complete (matte versus glossy), document color, document weight, and cover. It even offers a special textured hardcover cloth.

IngramSpark’s standout characteristic is its distribution network. It connects with more 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 point out that the costs can be higher compared to other services.

5. BookBaby

• Production period: Three to five days for most orders of less than 500 books.
• Minimum order requirement: 25 books.
• Book products available: Perfect bound, paperback, hardback, ebooks, audiobooks.

BookBaby’s print-on-demand service provides black-and-white and packed-color printing for both paperback and hardcover books, along 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 can list your print-on-demand book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and a variety of wholesale distributors. The platform also provides editing services, including line editing, proofreading, and synopsis writing.

6. Kindle Direct Publishing

• Production period: One to three days.
• Minimum order requirement: No.
• Book products available: Paperback, hardcover, ebook, ebook series.

If you’re planning to sell primarily through Amazon, you can use their service to print and ship your titles. Kindle Direct provides digital and print publishing and facilitates straightforward access to Amazon’s Kindle store.

Listing your products is free, though a fee is charged on every sale. You boost direct access to your book on Amazon, where you can make a product specific page.

If you’re looking to publish magazines, periodicals, or spiral-bound notebooks, you’ll require to use a different print-on-demand service. That said, you can repurpose your existing books into Amazon ebooks or paperbacks for extra visibility.

7. Barnes & Noble Press

• Production period: 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 can make, publish, and track sales of your book in various formats. Your book will be accessible to readers on BN.com and through NOOK devices.

Whether you’re looking to produce short runs, person books, or packed runs of print-on-demand trade paperbacks, Barnes & Noble Press provides a flexible answer.

Other print-on-demand book services

8. Contrado

• Production period: Most products are printed and delivered in three to five business days.
• Minimum order requirement: No
• Book products available: Scrapbooks, portfolios, notebooks, guest books, photo albums.

Contrado is a custom printing Shopify app offering more than 470 print-on-demand products, including various document and stationery items.

While Contrado doesn’t propose print-on-demand services for traditional hardcover books, it allows you to upload your own designs for notebooks, address books, and photo books, among other formats. You can also sell your art on Contrado.

Contrado ships internationally. Fees vary, but most orders arrive in three to five business days. There are also discounted rates for students.

9. Gelato

• Production period: Three to four business days.
• Minimum order requirement: No.
• Book products available: Photo books, notebooks.

Gelato partners with more than 50 manufacturers across more than 70 global locations. It provides quick, flat-rate shipping of printed products with discounted rates for additional items in the same order.

While it doesn’t propose traditional book printing, you can order softcover and hardcover photo books, notebooks, and even calendars. In addition to these, Gelato makes print-on-demand shirts, apparel, mugs, and other products, so you can propose your readers branded merchandise.

10. Printify

• Production period: Most orders ship in two to seven business days.
• Minimum order requirement: No.
• Book products available: Notebooks, custom journals.

Printify is another popular Shopify app that offers print-on-demand notebooks and journals, though not traditional books. Its large product catalog and established production and fulfillment services can back growing brands. All data syncs directly with your Shopify store, so you get continuous sales and order information.

Benefits of print on demand 

The beauty of print-on-demand companies is the just-in-period way to manufacturing. Most of the services above will only print a book when an order is placed. This eliminates the hassle and financial burden of purchasing a large number of books upfront when you don’t recognize how many will sell.

After printing your book, these services also handle order fulfillment—the procedure of receiving an order, packaging it, and organizing delivery to a customer or retailer. Fulfillment can be costly and period-consuming for tiny businesses and first-period entrepreneurs, so it’s beneficial to depend on the expertise of a print-on-demand publisher.

For those aspiring to write the next bestseller, some print-on-demand book services like Blurb and IngramSpark work directly with wholesalers and booksellers, making it straightforward for retailers to order larger quantities of your book for their inventory.

If you’re looking to print a smaller amount of books for personal use, your local throng, or a one-off purpose, print-on-demand is also a excellent alternative. You’ll likely discover competitive rates and standard control services such as ordering proofs and (with some POD services) copyediting and proofreading.

Here are some other general benefits of working with a print-on-demand service:

• Flexibility. Print-on-demand offers the liberty to play around with designs. Switch up the cover or transformation the page layout in response to reader feedback.

• Efficiency. Starting with a tiny inventory, you can gradually boost your production volume as your reader base expands.

• Growth. If you have a faithful reader base, you could consider branching out beyond books. From merchandise to related products, there are many possibilities to expand your business using print on demand.

Print on demand vs. traditional publishing

Editors discretionary

With print-on-demand, there’s no publishing house gatekeeping your work. This means you have the liberty to write as you please and ensure all your words make it to print. However, this also means your work won’t be scrutinized by a throng of experienced editors.

To overcome this, you can hire a freelance editor to review your book before sending it to the printer. Some print-on-demand book publishers, like BookBaby, even propose editing services.

Set your own prices

Unlike traditional publishing, self-publishing gives you the power to set your own prices. While some print-on-demand services may fee a fee on each order, almost all allow you to choose a retail worth and determine your boost spread.

If you sell your books yourself in an online store, you’ll require to decide how much to fee customers. If you’re selling your books to retailers, you’ll also require to set a wholesale discount to incentivize them to stake your book. Most publishers propose a 40% to 60% wholesale discount, allowing booksellers to make their usual earnings spread on each book they sell.

Sales channel flexibility

With print-on-demand, you have the flexibility to choose your distribution channels. Instead of a publishing house controlling where and when your book is sold, you can sell directly to your readers through your online store, or associate with retailers and wholesalers. Some print-on-demand services even have distribution networks, making your book available to a wider spectators.

How to choose the best print-on-demand service

If you can’t decide 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 navigator to happier customers—and more positive reviews.

Order fulfillment services

assess how long it takes the printer to pack and ship orders. Do they have partnerships with carriers to lower shipping costs? Can they distribute your books internationally?

Binding and cover options

Look at the variety of binding and cover options the service offers. If you have a specific sales channel in mind (e.g., retail bookstore), make sure your printer can make your books to the essential specifications.

Production costs and fees

Some services have no upfront costs but fee a fee on each order. Others have initial fees but may allow you to keep all of your profits.

Distribution rights

Check if you are free to distribute your book via other channels, or if the service has an exclusivity clause.

Sales data

Choose a service that comes with analytics to monitor your book’s act in real period.

Ebooks and audiobooks

Consider if your print-on-demand service offers digital formats like ebooks and audiobooks. These can assist you reach a wider spectators and boost your turnover from each title that you write.

Retailer networks

A large network of connected wholesalers and booksellers can cruel an easier route to the shelves of your favorite bookstore.

Proof standard

High-standard, reasonably priced proofs assist ensure 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 sense of the service’s reputation and the experiences of other authors.

distribute your words with the globe

You don’t require to discover a heavyweight publisher to distribute your writing with readers. A print-on-demand book is a popular and potentially profitable way to get your communication out there, whatever it may be. When you launch a personal author website or bookstore with Shopify, you get access to thousands of apps to assist you make sales and develop your readership.