Print on Demand Books: How POD Works on KDP and IngramSpark (2026)

Print on demand means your book is printed only when someone orders it. One order, one copy. There's no print run to pay for, no boxes in the spare room and no warehouse bill. Amazon KDP prints your paperback when a reader buys it on Amazon, and IngramSpark does the same for the bookshops, libraries and online retailers that order through Ingram. You don't pay to print anything up front, because the print cost comes out of each sale. This guide explains how print on demand books work on both platforms in 2026, with the real UK print costs and royalty sums worked through, so you can price your book properly and choose the right set-up.

Key takeaways#

• With print on demand, each copy is printed after it's ordered, so there's no upfront print bill. The printing cost is taken out of every sale instead.
• On KDP, a 300-page black-and-white paperback sold on Amazon.co.uk costs £3.85 to print. At a £9.99 list price, that leaves you about £2.14 a copy.
• IngramSpark is free to set up and puts your book in front of bookshops and libraries, but the wholesale discount means you earn far less per copy than on Amazon.
• A common set-up is KDP for Amazon and IngramSpark for everyone else, using your own ISBN, with KDP's Expanded Distribution switched off for that edition.
• Always order a printed proof before you go live. It's the cheapest mistake you'll ever catch.

What is print on demand?#

Print on demand (POD) is a way of publishing printed books where each copy is produced individually after a customer orders it, instead of in a batch beforehand. The platform prints the book, sends it to the reader and pays you a royalty: a share of the list price, minus the cost of printing that copy. You never hold or pay for stock.

The old alternative is offset printing, where you pay a printer for hundreds or thousands of copies at once. Each copy costs less that way, but you carry all the risk. If the book doesn't sell, the copies sit in your garage and the money is gone. Print on demand flips that trade. Each copy costs more to make, but nothing is printed until a reader has paid for it.

For most self-published authors, especially with a first book, that's the right trade. You can publish a paperback without spending anything on printing, and you can fix a typo next month without pulping a print run.

How print on demand works, step by step#

The process is much the same on KDP and IngramSpark:

1. 1You upload two print-ready files. One is the interior PDF. The other is the cover PDF, laid out as a full wrap with back cover, spine and front cover in one file. The spine width depends on your page count and paper.
2. 2The platform checks your files. Both platforms flag problems such as text too close to the edge, missing bleed or a cover that's the wrong size. Our guide to fixing KDP file errors covers the usual culprits.
3. 3You set your list price. The platform shows your printing cost and the royalty you'll earn at that price, marketplace by marketplace.
4. 4A reader orders. The book is printed, bound, trimmed and shipped to them.
5. 5You're paid. Your royalty arrives in your account on the platform's normal payment schedule.

If you're preparing files for both platforms, our guide on how to format a book for IngramSpark shows how to build one interior that works on KDP too, and book cover size for Amazon KDP gives the exact cover dimensions.

Print on demand on Amazon KDP#

KDP is Amazon's own publishing platform. It's free to use, it prints paperbacks and hardcovers on demand, and it sells them on Amazon's stores.

What it costs to print a copy on KDP

KDP works out your printing cost with a simple formula: a fixed cost per book, plus a cost for each page. The figures depend on the marketplace where the reader buys the book. For a black-ink paperback in a regular trim size sold on Amazon.co.uk in 2026:

• 24 to 110 pages: a flat £1.93 per book.
• Over 110 pages: £0.85 per book plus £0.010 per page.

So a 300-page novel costs £0.85 + (300 × £0.010) = £3.85 to print.

A few things change the number. Large trim sizes (wider than 6.12 inches or taller than 9 inches) cost £0.012 per page instead of £0.010. Colour costs much more: a 300-page book in standard colour costs £6.85, and in premium colour £13.90. Bleed and a matte or glossy cover finish make no difference to the cost.

How KDP paperback royalties work

Your paperback royalty is a percentage of your list price, minus the printing cost. On Amazon.co.uk, the rate is 60% for list prices of £7.99 or more, and 50% for £7.98 or less. For the same 300-page paperback:

• At £9.99: 60% of £9.99 is £5.99. Take off £3.85 and you earn about £2.14 a copy.
• At £7.98: 50% of £7.98 is £3.99. Take off £3.85 and you earn about £0.14 a copy.

That one-penny line is worth knowing before you set a price. KDP also sets a minimum list price so you never lose money on a sale. It's your printing cost divided by your royalty rate, which for this book works out at £7.70.

You can model your own book in KDP's calculator or in our free print cost calculator (UK), which shows the print cost, royalty and minimum viable price side by side.

KDP Expanded Distribution

KDP's Expanded Distribution is a free tick box that makes your paperback available to distributors in the US and UK, so bookshops, libraries and other online retailers can order it. There are catches:

• The royalty is 40% of the list price minus the printing cost. On our £9.99, 300-page example, that's about £0.15 a copy.
• Acceptance isn't guaranteed. Distributors decide whether to list your book, and booksellers decide whether to order it.
• Hardcovers aren't eligible, and only some trim, ink and paper combinations qualify.
• Your ISBN must not have been submitted for distribution through another service, such as IngramSpark.

Proofs and author copies

You can order up to five printed proofs at a time, even before your book is live, and up to 999 author copies once it's published. You pay the printing cost for each copy plus delivery and any tax, and proof and author copies don't qualify for free or Prime delivery. Author copies are handy for launches, signings and review copies.

Print on demand on IngramSpark#

IngramSpark is the self-publishing arm of Ingram, one of the world's biggest book wholesalers. Its strength is reach: it lists your book in a network of over 45,000 retailers, libraries, universities and educators. That's the catalogue many bookshops order from.

What IngramSpark charges in 2026

According to IngramSpark's rate card, effective 1 February 2026:

• Setting up a title is free, for print, ebook or both.
• File revisions are now free. The old charge for changes made more than 60 days after publication has gone.
• A global distribution fee of 1.875% of the list price is taken on each sale through its network.

Print costs follow a similar formula to KDP. In pounds, for a small paperback (under 6.15 inches wide) in black ink on standard cream or white paper, the rate card lists £1.37 per book plus £0.0116 per page. A 300-page book therefore costs about £4.85 to print. Use IngramSpark's own calculator for the exact figure on your book.

How IngramSpark pays you

IngramSpark pays you the list price, minus the wholesale discount you choose, minus the printing cost. The distribution fee comes off too.

The wholesale discount is the share retailers and wholesalers keep. IngramSpark lets you set it between 40% and 55%, and it says most publishers offer bookshops 55%. Here's what that means for our 300-page paperback:

• £9.99 at a 55% discount: the wholesale price is about £4.50, which doesn't even cover the £4.85 print cost. You'd lose money on every copy.
• £9.99 at a 40% discount: £5.99 minus £4.85 print and about £0.19 in fees leaves roughly £0.96.
• £12.99 at a 55% discount: £5.85 minus £4.85 print and about £0.24 in fees leaves roughly £0.75.

That's why IngramSpark books are often priced a little higher than Amazon-only ones.

Bookshops usually also expect a book to be returnable. IngramSpark lets you choose, but if a shop returns copies, you're charged the wholesale price plus shipping and handling. Read our guide to getting your self-published book into bookshops before you tick that box.

One more rule: a free KDP ISBN can only be used on KDP, so IngramSpark needs an ISBN you control. Our guide to buying an ISBN in the UK compares the options.

KDP vs IngramSpark: which should you use?#

Most authors don't have to choose. A common set-up is to publish the same edition on both, with your own ISBN. KDP handles Amazon, where its royalty is better. IngramSpark handles everyone else. If you do this, leave KDP's Expanded Distribution switched off for that edition, because the ISBN is already being distributed through IngramSpark.

If you only want to sell on Amazon, KDP on its own is the simplest route. For a deeper look at the royalty maths, see our KDP vs IngramSpark royalties comparison. Lulu is another option, covered in our Lulu print on demand guide.

Print on demand in the UK: what's different#

Most print on demand advice online is written for American authors. A few things work differently here:

• Prices are set in pounds. KDP lets you set a separate list price for Amazon.co.uk, and the 60% royalty line there is £7.99, not the $9.99 used on Amazon.com.
• UK trim sizes are available. KDP offers 5.06 × 7.81 inches (12.85 × 19.84 cm), close to the B-format paperback size UK readers know. If you want cream paper and Expanded Distribution, though, that size isn't eligible, while 5 × 8 and 5.25 × 8 inches are.
• ISBNs come from Nielsen or a reseller. In the UK, you buy ISBNs from Nielsen or a reseller. HMD sells single ISBNs for £27.99 ($34.99) plus VAT for UK customers. Each format needs its own.
• Legal deposit applies. Publishing a print book in the UK means sending a copy to the British Library within a month of publication. Our guide to legal deposit for self-published books explains the rules.

For the full route from finished manuscript to on sale, follow our step-by-step guide to how to self-publish a book in the UK.

Print on demand vs a short print run#

Print on demand is built for selling to readers you've never met. If you know you need a pile of books, say for a launch event, a school visit or a speaking tour, a short print run from a printer can make more sense.

IngramSpark's rate card shows the same logic. When you order copies of your own book directly, the print price drops by 2% from 100 copies and by up to 35% at 10,000 or more. Many authors use both: print on demand for online sales, and a batch of copies for events.

Five mistakes that cost POD authors money#

1. 1Pricing just under the 60% line. On Amazon.co.uk, £7.98 earns a lower royalty rate than £7.99. Check where your price sits.
2. 2Padding the page count. Every page adds to the print cost. On KDP UK, 50 extra pages add £0.50 to every copy you sell, forever. Tighter layout and sensible margins help. Our guide to choosing a trim size explains how size affects page count.
3. 3Using colour you don't need. A 300-page book in premium colour costs over three times as much to print as the same book in black ink. Keep colour for books that truly need it.
4. 4Choosing a 55% discount without doing the sum. At a low list price, a high discount can make your IngramSpark compensation negative.
5. 5Skipping the printed proof. A screen can't show you how the paper feels, whether your text creeps into the binding or how your cover colours really come out in ink. A proof in your hands can.

Deciding between formats too? Our hardcover vs paperback guide compares print costs and royalties for each.

How HMD can help#

Print on demand only works if your files pass first time. HMD's book formatting delivers a print-ready PDF and an EPUB prepared for KDP and IngramSpark, typeset by a person in Adobe InDesign. If KDP or IngramSpark flags a formatting issue caused by our file, we fix it free, outside your revision rounds. Content, metadata, rights and platform-policy issues aren't covered by that promise. You can ask for a free formatted sample of your first chapter before you book.

If you'd rather not set up the platforms yourself, our publishing and distribution packages do it for you. Amazon Launcher, £297 ($377), sets up your book on KDP with ISBN assignment, metadata and categories. Wide Distribution, £497 ($627), adds IngramSpark so bookshops and libraries can order it.

Need a full-wrap cover that fits your exact spine? Our Print Ready cover design package, £297 ($377), includes the spine, back cover and ISBN barcode placement. HMD has published 10,000+ books since 2015. Our free cover size calculator (UK) works out your spine width if you're designing it yourself.