Top 10 Hardcover Book Printing Services [2024 Update]

• Apr 04, 2024
• 6 min read

• Tags: Fiction, Formatting, Nonfiction, Self-Publishing

Not all books are created equal: Your book, for instance, is meant to be beautifully printed in the hardcover format. But of the many hardcover book printing services out there, which one’s the best for you? Which one has the largest range of trim sizes and which one allows you to have a gilded edge for your book?

The questions are endless, but our list of the best hardcover book printing companies has all the answers. While ranking the companies on this list, we’ve considered cover formats, type of paper, quality of service, and printing cost. So let’s find out who offers the best custom hardcover book printing services!

Here are the ten best hardcover book printing services of 2024:

#1 Amazon KDP

Amazon has recently started offering hardcover book printing services to their authors. They currently print only case laminate hardcover books, though, so your book won’t have a dust jacket. They offer five trim sizes and require your page count to be at least 75 and under 550.

As with most other publishing-related steps, Amazon has specialized tools that help you resize your book cover. Using these, you can reshape an existing book cover design, create a cover template to guide your designer or create your own cover. KDP has a formula for calculating your hardcover book printing cost:

Fixed cost + (page count x per page cost) = printing cost

You can find a detailed chart of various printing rates here, using which you can calculate the exact printing cost for your book. On average, printing a regular trim size hardcover of 200 pages, in black and white, will cost you about $8.

Cost per copy: None

Royalty rate: 60%

#2 Barnes & Noble Press

Barnes & Noble Press is well-known for creating high-quality books through their custom hardcover book printing services. They use premium paper and offer a great print quality in both, color and black-and-white. You can print hardcover copies with dust jackets and printed cases.

Placing an order with B&N is fairly simple, and you can figure out your estimated printing cost by using their handy tool. Once you finalize and place your order, it’ll be delivered in ten days. However, a drawback of working with Barnes & Noble Press is that any changes to your print specifications take a long time. It costs about $11 to print a 200-page black-and-white hardcover book with a full dust jacket.

Cost per copy: $11

Royalty rate: 55%

#3 IngramSpark

One of the leading self-publishing companies out there, IngramSpark offers four hardcover options: case laminate, blue cloth cover, gray cloth cover, and jacketed case laminate. Blue and gray cloth cover options can be chosen with or without dust jackets. However, the last three options are available for a limited number of trim sizes. If you’re publishing an 8×10 cookbook, for instance, you’ll have to stick with the case laminate option.

It costs about $10 to print a 200-page black-and-white hardcover book with a case laminate jacket, but this is just the base price. You’ll have to pay the tax and shipping costs as well, making the actual printing cost around $14. This may get even more expensive for international authors.

If you’re looking for hardcover photo book printing services, IngramSpark is a solid option. Combined with its superior color quality and wide reach, it more than makes up for the printing cost. However, their shipping tends to be a bit slow, so make sure you’re accounting for some delays!

Cost per copy: $14

Royalty rate: 70%

#4 Lulu

Lulu has an intuitive interface that makes printing hardcover books fairly simple and easy. They offer two hardcover options: case wrap and linen wrap with a dust jacket. The second option is available for selective trim sizes. The platform is quite adaptive, supporting everything from hardcover children’s book printing to textbook printing.

The pricing for printing a black-and-white hardcover book with Lulu is $14, which is similar to IngramSpark. The platform offers various book design templates and is well-integrated with CreateSpace and KDP. However, interior color print with Lulu can be more expensive than other options.

Like most other print-on-demand companies on this list, Lulu doesn’t have any minimum order value. So if you’re looking for single hardcover book printing, they’re a great option!

Cost per copy: $14

Royalty rate: 80% of gross profit (gross profit = total revenue – print cost & distribution fees)

#5 BookBaby

BookBaby offers stellar quality print with premium color and three paper options. Plus, their hardcover book printing service is super fast and can get you your copies within five days! They offer two hardcover options: adhesive case wrap and adhesive case wrap with a dust jacket. With eight book sizes available, they cover the needs of a wide variety of writers.

The cost of printing a hardcover book with BookBaby is around $19, but they don’t offer flexibility with the number of copies. You can either opt for single hardcover book printing or get 25 copies, which brings down the individual cost to $17. Slightly on the pricier end of things, this hardcover book printing company is for those with big orders and tight deadlines!

Cost per copy: $19

Royalty rate: 50% royalty through their Bookshop

#6 PaperTrue

A trusted self-publishing company, PaperTrue offers hardcover bound book printing with no minimum orders. You can print 1 copy or 100, and they’ll be ready to be shipped worldwide in 2–3 days. That’s even faster than BookBaby! Since they offer end-to-end self-publishing services, you’ll probably get a discount if you have their expert edit and design your book as well.

PaperTrue offers two hardcover options: case-bound and jacketed case laminate. The case-bound option is great if you’re publishing children’s books or self-help books, but novels are probably better off with the jacketed case laminate. PaperTrue’s online hardcover book printing costs about $25 for a 200-page book with a black-and-white interior and jacketed case lamination. If you order more than ten copies, they waive the shipping cost!

Cost per copy: $25

Royalty rate: None (they’re not a retailer)

#7 PrintNinja

PrintNinja excels at printing a large number of copies. In fact, they don’t offer single hardcover book printing and take only bulk orders with a minimum of 250 copies. They’ve partnered with several companies in China to accomplish this task. They offer four hardcover options: coated paper, uncoated textured paper, cloth cover, and faux leather cover. There are 12 color options for a cloth cover and 6 for a faux leather cover.

Additionally, you can also get effects like embossing, debossing, and metallic foil stamping on your cover to add some pizzaz. You can even customize the edge of your book and get a gilded or print finish on it. We haven’t seen this option on any other hardcover book printing service on this list!

PrintNinja charges $3,900.76 for 250 copies of a 200-page standard hardcover book with a black-and-white interior. This means you get one copy at $15.6, which is fairly standard.

Cost per copy: $15

Royalty rate: None (they’re not a retailer)

#8 Blurb

A renowned hardcover photo book printing service, Blurb can help you publish an art book, cookbook, or any other nonfiction book. It’s also a good option for hardcover children’s book printing. However, be careful while using Lightroom with Blurb, since the color profile doesn’t render as well.

Blurb offers two major options for its hardcover photo books: hardcover image wrap and hardcover dust jacket. Their hardcover book printing price for a 200-page black-and-white book with a dust jacket is about $19. This is more expensive than other services on this list, and Blurb’s text print isn’t worth the cost.

Their cost for publishing a 100-page hardcover photo book with premium luster paper is around $82.

Cost per copy: $19

Royalty rate: 100% through Blurb Store

#9 Mixam

Mixam specializes in hardcover children’s book printing services and also prints other graphic-heavy books. They offer 17 trim sizes and 5 types of paper along with two binding options: adhesive casebound and Smyth sewn. You can get the cover with a matte or gloss lamination, and the same options are available for the dust jacket as well.

Mixam’s cost of printing a hardcover book is $51, for a 200-page without a dust jacket. With a dust jacket, the price goes up to $142! This is quite expensive, so the platform is best suited for shorter photo books. One downside of working with Mixam is that their printing process tends to be slower. Make sure to go through their policies carefully before you place an order!

Cost per copy: $51

Royalty rate: None (they’re not a retailer)

#10 Pixartprinting

A European printing company, Pixartprinting offers five trim sizes and three types of paper to choose from. There are no cover options other than basic case laminate and you don’t get a dust jacket. This makes it a good option for hardcover children’s book printing, but not the best for fiction. You can add a special finish to your cover with a 3D varnish, gold foil, or silver foil.

If you print a single hardcover book with Pixartprinting, it’ll cost you €68.78, which is roughly $74.65. However, the per-copy cost goes down dramatically if you order in bulk. If you order 25 copies, each copy will cost you €10.01, which is about $11. So while this company order doesn’t strictly have a minimum order policy, they’re perhaps best suited for bulk orders!

Cost per copy: $11 (€10.01 when ordering 25 copies)

Royalty rate: None (they’re not a retailer)

So those are the best hardcover book printing services of this year. We hope this list helps you find the perfect book printing partner. You can compare the pros, cons, and hardcover book printing prices for all these services. But if you’re just starting out, our self-publishing services might just put you on the path to success!

If you’d like to keep reading about self-publishing a book, here are some resources that could help:

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Prasanna

Prasanna is on a little break from academia and spends his time compiling fiction writing tips. He enjoys poetry, mythology, and drawing lotuses on any surface he can find.