Print on Demand

Print on demand (POD) has achieved, quite simply, a revolution in the book printing industry. Before POD became available, printing a book was an extremely costly affair and could only be contemplated by traditional printers and publishers who were fairly certain of a manuscript’s chance of commercial success, or wealthy individuals who, no matter what the cost, wanted to have their work in print. Now, with the introduction of digital printing, it is possible to literally have just one copy of a book printed at a very reasonable cost. There are no printing plates involved, no conventional printing presses and no need for minimum runs of thousands of copies, just computers and digital printers.

This innovation has obviously had a huge impact on the book printing processes and opened up the availability of having one’s work printed in either a hardback or paperback format to almost anyone who has a creative writing flair. Another major benefit of print on demand is that there is now no need to warehouse large numbers of printed books to supply possible future demand, as the turnaround time from order to print and delivery is just a matter of days. This also means that a book need never go ‘out of print’ because the manuscript is kept as a digital file, so storage is no longer an issue.

All of these modern innovations mean that the economics of printing just one copy of your book is now incredibly affordable.

For further information about POD and a comparison to traditional offset printing click here

Print on Demand Book Printing Costs

Black & white interior: Inkjet-printed on creme or white 74 gsm paper

Our pricing structure for a standard sized, black and white interior paperback book is simple: £1.92 for the cover plus 1.2p per page. Therefore, if your book is a paperback 5″ x 8″ and has 350 pages, the cost to print one book is £6.12 (plus P&P to deliver to you).

Should you wish to print a standard sized, black and white interior hardback book, simply calculate £5.77 for a case laminate cover or £7.08 for a cloth cover with dust jacket.

Colour interior: Inkjet-printed on white 104 gsm paper

As above, the pricing for a colour interior book is straightforward.  Do note that if there is any colour required INSIDE the book, the whole book will be printed as a colour publication, using the heavier weight paper.

*pricing from 18th March 2023

Premium colour printing: for specialist books requiring digital printing in premium colour (coffee-table style photography books, art books, etc.) prices are available on request.

Click here to download our Prices, Sizes and Formats list.