Self-publishing
Print-on-demand
A paperback that does not exist until somebody orders it — and a margin you can live with.
Print-on-demand means no garage full of cartons and no printer's invoice the size of a car. A copy is manufactured when it is bought, in the territory where it is bought. The unit margin is thinner than a proper offset run, but you are not betting the rent on a print quantity. For most self-publishing writers, this is how a physical book exists at all.
- Typical pay
- Author share is typically the list price minus print cost minus the store's cut — often a few pounds a copy, not a few pence, if you price it like a grown-up.
- Ceiling
- Solid ceiling
- Speed
- First money in weeks
- Effort
- A real extra job
- Needs
- No book required
How it works
- 01
You upload print-ready interior and cover files to a POD platform (KDP Print, IngramSpark, and others).
- 02
Retailers and libraries can order the book through distribution lists. A copy is printed and shipped per order.
- 03
You can also order author copies at print cost for events, which is where POD quietly becomes a shop till.
How to start
- 01
Hire someone who has typeset a book before. Word-to-PDF is how amateur books announce themselves.
- 02
Get the ISBN situation right for your territory. A platform's free ISBN often lists them as the publisher.
- 03
Order a proof. Then order another proof. The spine width will surprise you.
Watch out
- 01
Wide distribution via Ingram is how bookshops can order you. It is not how they will display you.
- 02
Colour interiors are expensive. Children's illustrators learn this the expensive way.
- 03
A badly made paperback in a reader's hand does more damage than no paperback at all.
I used to have to guess a print run. Guess low, and you are reprinting in a panic; guess high, and you are living with a wall of unsold copies. POD is the first invention in my working life that made that particular ulcer go away. Use it. Just do not use it as an excuse for a shoddy object.