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Ready to take your book to the next level? Our premium features help your book stand out from the competition and make a lasting impression on your readers.
Getting a price for printing your book shouldn't be complicated. When you contact us, you'll always speak to a real book printing expert. Our excellent customer service is why we've been in business for over 40 years.
When used efficiently, short-run book printing can provide authors with one of the largest profit margins of any book printing method. Print on demand (POD), which has become popular through Amazon's KDP publishing, often takes high margins and fees out of the book sale cost. Alternatively, offset book printing, which is effective when printing 5000 or more books, can be cumbersome and unsustainable for non-established authors and publishers.
Setting up the machines for a print run is often much of the production cost. However, this setup cost is the same whether you print 100 book or 1000 books. Therefore, the more books that you can print in one run, the cheaper your per book cost will be. The tables below show ballpark prices for printing a 6x9 book in different binding styles and quantities. As you can see, if you can accurately predict your sale figures, printing more books at a time will significantly lower your per book cost.
6x9 • Black & White Interior pages
50 pages
100 books: $4.30
250 books: $3.72
500 books: $3.36
150 pages
100 books: $6.92
250 books: $6.26
500 books: $5.74
300 pages
100 books: $10.69
250 books: $9.90
500 books: $9.23
6x9 • Black & White Interior pages
50 pages
100 books: $25.07
250 books: $21.58
500 books: $19.88
150 pages
100 books: $27.80
250 books: $24.28
500 books: $22.10
300 pages
100 books: $32.53
250 books: $28.36
500 books: $25.81
6x9 • Black & White Interior pages
50 pages
100 books: $5.64
250 books: $4.98
500 books: $4.65
150 pages
100 books: $8.61
250 books: $7.97
500 books: $7.39
300 pages
100 books: $13.46
250 books: $12.69
500 books: $11.29
An eBook is a digital version (epub and mobi files) of a book designed to be read on eReader devices. Unlike a PDF, a true eBook file will scale to fit any device and allow custom readibility options, such as reflowable text, font size, and navigation links. Creating an eBook is a highly cost-effective publishing method. Unlike traditional printed books, which have production costs for every print run, eBooks are a "one-and-done" expenditure; once produced, an ebook can be distributed an unlimited number of times. Additionally, eBooks require no physical storage, minimizing warehousing fees.
The digital format also enables direct distribution through online platforms, bypassing intermediaries like bookstores and reducing retail markup. Authors and businesses benefit from higher profit margins, as digital sales often come with lower overhead costs and higher royalty percentages.
Gorham Printing offers both standalone and packaged ebook conversion services. When you combine an ebook conversion with a print order, we will you 25% OFF your conversion price. To see how much it costs to turn your book into an eBook, use the price tool at the top of this page or use our standalone conversion tool.
We get asked this question a lot by authors. We wish the answer was simple. In reality, the price at which you sell your book depends on a lot of factors, including your book's genre and length, as well as the time investment you put into writing it. Pricing your book for sale requires a strategic balance between market expectations, production costs, and perceived value. Knowing your audience and picking the right number of books to print will set you up for success.
Average USA Book Prices*
Paperback
Hardcover
Fiction
$10.58 per book
$17.54 per book
Nonfiction
$22.62 per book
$35.07 per book
*SLJ’s Follett and Baker & Taylor Average Price Per Book 2020 Chart
A great place to start is researching similar books in your genre. Consider factors like length, format (eBook, paperback, hardcover), and author name recognition. If you're self-publishing, you'll have to account for printing and distribution costs. Ultimately, your price should reflect the quality of your work while remaining accessible to your target audience.
Our Online Pricing Tool lets you customize your binding style, paper stock, trim size, and more, allowing you to arrive at the perfect medium of quality and affordability.
Softcover, also known as paperback, is the most popuplar binding style and for good reason. This versatile option is suitable for any genre and is more cost effective than its counterparts (hardcover or spiral). Additionally, softcover bindings provide excellent portability; their lighter weight and flexibility make them easy to carry and store. Softcover binding strikes a balance between durability, affordability, and practicality, making it a preferred option for both publishers and readers alike.
With short run book printing, for every additional book that you print, your per book cost will go down. This means that you will get the best profit return if you can accurately match your print run size with your sale figures. Printing way too many books will leave you with a lot of unsold copies. Printing too few books means that you will have to return to your printer for additional print runs.
Put yourself in the buyer's shoes. If priced between $10 and $18, a paperback book would not be a major purchase. For our example, we will set the price of our softcover book at $14. As you can see, if we are able to successfully sell all our books, the best profit potential occurs when we print a larger quantity of books.
Hardcover books offer a premium reading experience, combining durability, aesthetic appeal, and longevity. Their sturdy construction makes them resistant to wear and tear, ensuring they can withstand frequent use over time without damage. Their rigid covers also protect pages from bending or creasing, preserving the integrity of the book’s content. This durability is particularly advantageous for reference books, collectibles, and special editions, which are intended to last for years or even generations. While they may be heavier and more expensive than softcover versions, hardcover books remain a preferred option for readers who value quality and endurance.
Effectively pricing a book usually requires a larger print run with short run book printing. The production cost of printing a hardcover book is significantly higher. Printing more books at a time will help lower the per book cost, which will give you a better profit margin. However, you'll have to position your sale expectations and have a solid marketing strategy to sell your larger stockpile of books.
Hardcover books naturally command a higher price point than their softcover counterpoints due to their increased credibility and longevity. With professional design, most hardcover books will fetch anywhere between $30 to $45, potentially higher for textbooks and premium genres. In our example, we will use $35 as our sale price.
Spiral-bound books offer exceptional functionality and convenience, making them ideal for notebooks, manuals, and workbooks. One of their biggest advantages is their ability to lie completely flat when opened, which enhances usability for writing, sketching, or referencing materials hands-free. They can also accommodate a variety of paper sizes and thicknesses, making them highly customizable for different needs. Whether used for academic study, professional documentation, or artistic work, spiral binding offers a practical and user-friendly design that supports seamless access to content.
Spiral books are sort of a middle child when it comes to printing costs: more expensive than softcovers but not as expensive as their hardcover older brothers. They often have specialized content, meaning that the price point of the book will be determined by its content. For example, cookbooks and academic books, which usually require a larger time investment from the author, usually sell at a higher price point despite their medium to low page counts.
Because spiral books have specialized content, the author or publisher must usually focus their marketing efforts on one specific audience. Knowing your readers and their budget will help you set an effective price point. Spiral books tend to have a larger price range, ranging anywhere from $10-$30. In our example, we'll look at the potential profits of a book priced at $15
Short-run book printing provides a cost-effective solution for authors, businesses, and publishers looking to produce between 25 and 5000 copies of a book. One of the greatest advantages of short run book printing is its flexibility; Reprints are easy, and revisions or updates can be made with each print run. Short-run printing allows authors to produce high-quality books while maintaining creative control over design and content. With advancements in digital printing technology, short-run books can achieve professional-grade quality with crisp text and vibrant images, ensuring an appealing final product.
Unlike Amazon KDP and other print on demand companies, which have rigid templates when printing, Gorham Printing offers a full range of customization options. Using our Online Pricing Tool, you can individually customize every component of your book, including trim size, binding style, paper stock, and more. We also offer a wide array of premium custom options, such as 3D spot UV and foil stamping, to help take your book to the next level.
If you are looking for a specific custom option that you don't see our our website, give our team a call. You'll always be connected with a real person, never a machine. We specialize in sourcing custom print options that will set your book apart from the competition. So whether you're looking to publish a novel, memoir, cookbook, or childrens book, we'll help you find the perfect custom options to match your unique aesthetic.
For a LIMITED TIME ONLY, we are offering large discounts on printed book orders. The discount only applies to production costs. Design, proofing, shipping, and non-production items will not receive the discount. This promotion cannot be combined with other promotions including free book promotions, shipping promotions, or discount credits. Orders must be placed by July 4 and apply to a single title only.
Here are the tiered discounts for softcover and spiral bound books ONLY:
Hardcover books receive a 10% discount on orders of 250 books or more.
An eBook is a digital version of a book designed to be read on eReader devices such as the Amazon Kindle, regardless of screen size. eBooks are reflowable, meaning there are no page numbers, can be resized to any size device, and the reader has control of the font size and style.
What IS included:
What is NOT included:
eBook Conversion is NOT recommended for:
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