Publishing in print

You don't need a print run or a garage full of boxes. Print-on-demand (POD) services print and ship each copy as a reader buys it — no inventory, no upfront cost. You upload two files, set a price, and your book appears for sale as a real paperback (or hardcover).

The two files you upload

This is the part that trips up first-time authors. A print book is two separate files, not one:

1. The interior — a PDF of the book's pages, with no cover. Just front matter and chapters, sized to your trim.
2. The cover — a single wrap-around image: back + spine + front, with bleed. Made from your print service's cover template. See Covers and images.

If you upload your with-covers PDF as the interior, your cover art prints as interior pages — wrong. So print gets its own cover-less cut of the book.

Make the interior

Add a document-print.yml beside your other configs — the same trade book, front matter and all, but with the covers block left out:

# document-print.yml
format: pdf
paths: { pages: . }
book:
  trim: trade-6x9
  structure: { titlePage: true, copyrightPage: true, toc: true, frontMatterNumbering: roman }
  # no covers: — the wrap-around cover is uploaded separately
content: [ ... ]

Build it:

unipress compile . --variant print --format pdf --out interior.pdf

interior.pdf is your print interior. It's already what POD services want: pages at the exact trim size, with fonts embedded. Confirm your inside margin is generous enough for your page count (Size and layout), and if any interior image runs to the page edge, read the bleed note in Size and layout.

Choosing a print service

The two that matter for English-language books:

Many authors use both: KDP for Amazon's reach, IngramSpark for everywhere else. The same interior and cover files (adjusted to each service's exact template) feed both. Read each service's file-prep guide before uploading — KDP's, IngramSpark's.

Order a proof copy

Always order a physical proof and read it before you press publish. A screen can't show you ink density, paper feel, a cover that's a few millimeters off, or a gutter that swallows text on a thick book. Both services offer proof copies (KDP also has a free digital previewer, but order the real thing at least once). Read it cover to cover with a pencil. This single step catches the errors that are expensive to fix after readers have bought the book.

Pricing

Your list price has to cover the printing cost (POD charges you per copy, based on page count, trim, color vs. black-and-white, and paper) plus the retailer's cut, and leave you a royalty. Each service shows your per-copy print cost and computes your royalty as you set the price. Price too low and you earn nothing per sale; too high and readers balk — look at comparable books in your category, and remember color interiors cost noticeably more to print than black-and-white.

ISBN

Print books effectively need an ISBN to sell through retail. KDP and IngramSpark can assign one free (tied to that service), or you can buy your own so it's portable across services. This is a real decision — see ISBNs and metadata.

Next

• Sort out your ISBN and metadata.
• Also publishing digitally? See Publishing an ebook.