Book Printing Options for Self-Publishers: Print Nation, Amazon KDP, IngramSpark & Book Vault

Well, future author, do you feel like the only thing standing in the way of your best selling author status is getting the whole how do I get my book printed situation sorted out? I know book printing is more confusing than deciding whether to write your dedication to your mom or your cat or your barista at your favorite coffee shop who has fueled your writing journey. If that's how you feel. Well, I have great news for you. This video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the book Broad, founder of Book Launchers, four time author and 20 time award winner. And I joke, but it's not really a joke that I started book launchers in 2017 after I'd self published two books because I never wanted to deal with book layout, book upload and book printing again. And it's been great because I have fabulous people on my team like Alyssa that take care of all my book needs. But if you don't have Alyssa or my production team at your beck and call, let me break down four of the biggest printing options for you. Print Nation, Amazon, kdp, ingramspark and Book Vault. So you, your cat and your mom understand the difference on why you would use one to print your book over another in different scenarios. You know that old saying, don't judge a book by its cover? Well, we're going to ignore that because, well, we all judge a book by its cover and the paper and the price. And as authors, we really judge them by all the details, including how it feels, how fast we can print them and what it costs to print them. So today we're putting four heavyweights, Print Nation, Amazon, kdp, ingramspark and even Book Vault to a point into the ring to find out who is the champion of book printing. Will it be the eco friendly hero, the budget friendly giant, or the premium print master? Well, let's find out. First into the ring, my Las Vegas local hero, Print Nation. These guys are the artisan bakers of book printing. If you've got a vision for your book, they've got the dough to make it happen. Bad analogy. Well, it was for me because now I want to eat a donut or a cookie. That's what I get for filming without eating lunch. Anyway, back to Print Nation. They are your go to printer. And if you're speaking speaking at a conference in Las Vegas and need books that look great delivered right to you, they're a great option. Now if you want to mix color and black and white pages, there aren't a lot of printers who can do that. What do I mean by that? Well, check out Patrick Chauvinot's book, Cleared for takeoff. Most of his book black and white. He had these color pages in the middle so that you could see the flight charts. Print Nation can do that. Patrick didn't use Print Nation to print, but he could have. Print Nation is also your choice if you have a specific custom size you want for the trim. They have tons of trim sizes and they can do custom sizes as well. So you can really stand out. Or if you have a lot of images or you want color like Susan Hensley's book, great option. Really great quality of paper for color images. If you have a lot of images and you want coated paper for those glossy photos, you got it. And to really do an apples to apples comparison, we printed Self Promote and Succeed at Print Nation, ingramspark and kdp. We also printed it at Book Vault but we didn't get it in time, so that's a problem. But here's where it gets interesting. Print Nation's print cost for a standard paperback book like Self Promote and succeed is $5.43. If you print the bare minimum of books, which is 50 copies, that is a bit higher than your print on demand options. But if you buy from them in larger quantities, it starts to get mighty appealing. Especially when you feel the difference between this quality of book printed at Print Nation versus this one printed by kdp. When you get over a thousand copies, it goes down to $4.78. And their binding options, they have everything from perfect binding to spiral bound and even wire o binding. If you want that classroom workbook feel, they've got an option for you. But pricing and quotes are kind of like ordering off a secret menu. You have to chat with them first, but once you do, it's all smooth sailing with hands on customer service. And they have eco friendly printing methods and delivery wherever you are, but also special delivery to places like conference centers in Vegas. I love my Las Vegas local option. Plus if you if there's a problem, well I could drive right on over and knock on their door and raise some trouble till they fix it. But I don't think I'll ever need to do that. Alright, so next up, Amazon kdp. This one right here. Kind of like the fast food drive through of book printing. They're quick, cheap and convenient. And you get what you get just like that mystery food you get at your favorite fast food place. It's what it is. And the menu is simple. You can't mix color and black and white pages and it's all or nothing. It's all color or it's all black and white. You get the idea. It works for the typical nonfiction book, but not for those with creative visions. And also just like a fast food joint, the quality is not as high as your sit down restaurant, but it gets the job done in a fast and budget friendly manner. And sometimes that is the most important thing. Now where KDP shines is flexibility. You can print just one copy? That's right. There's no minimum order and the standard cost to print a standard black and white paperback, well for this is $4.60. So super budget friendly. But don't get too excited. There are no bulk discounts, so Whether you order one or a thousand, it's still $4.60. They've got a wide range of trim sizes. So whether your book is a tall novel or a pocket sized guide, KDP does have you covered. But there's no coated paper options and their binding is perfect bound encased laminate, so there's no fancy extras like spiral binding. Plus shipping can take up to 10 days with no expedited options. With Print Nation, it's four or five days till they produce it and then they're shipping it right away. Whenever we need a single book asap, we don't order from our KDP dashboard. We actually just go right onto Amazon and order it from Amazon prime. Because it's going to be shipped and delivered the next day versus your author copies, they're going to take up to two weeks. Now quality is not KDP's number one. Sometimes the title comes printed sideways on the spine. Sometimes there's blank pages inside of the book or the ink is just not clear enough. Most of the time it's totally fine, but when it's not, well, it's hard to get it resolved with ease. And if you were on a deadline, well, it really stinks if you have a box full of books that didn't print. Right? Okay, let's talk about IngramSpark, the option for print on demand services that gets you the best physical distribution. Oh, and by the way, if you're not subscribed to this channel, I highly recommend you do that right now because in a future video I'm going to reveal the scam service companies are selling using Ingram Distribution Network. I nearly choked on my drink when someone sent us their contract and that they were paying them $1,000 for this. So make sure you catch that. Plus, you know all the cool kids are subscribed and they comment on the day a video is released. Like Stella Golf, Kevin hall, Bria Lexer, MD, Jones and Emily Romero. Thank you for your likes, comments and shares. You guys. All right, the print cost for a Standard Paperback through IngramSpark is $5.51 per book, so a little pricier than the other options. If you order in bulk, depending on how many, you can get a discount from 3% to 15%. That also changes if you're in their pro tier. They also have hardcover options with dust jackets that make your book look pretty darn good. Ingram is good most of the time, but sometimes we've had weird things like the wrong book inside of one of our author's covers. Their quality control, well, it needs a bit of work. And just like kdp, if you end up with a box of books that has issues, you have to get in touch with their support to get a new box. And if it's an issue like just a slightly off printed cover, well, they usually won't rectify it. Now the wrong book inside, well, they will rectify that. But they do have trim sizes that are plentiful. No custom sizes here. And just like kdp, there's no coated paper. On the upside though, they have multiple printing speeds. If you need a book in one business day, well, Ingram's got your back. Plus they offer a wide range of shipping speed needs including next day delivery. So if you're short on time and you need a good quality book fast, IngramSpark is the printer to go to. Now finally, let's talk about Book Vault, also known as the eco friendly warriors of the book printing world. If you want to feel good about your carbon footprint while still getting great quality, Book Vault could be your printer. They're our go to for hooking up a book to a shopify store and selling the books direct to readers one by one from your website or without becoming the shipping center. They've got the same mix of color and black and white pages that Print Nation offers and they'll even plant a tree with every order. Cost wise, Book Vault comes in at $5.06 for a standard paperback right in the middle of the pack. Like Ingram, they also have bulk discounts so the more you print, the more you save. And for trim sizes, they do have plenty of options including custom sizes so you can get creative. And if you need a binding that stands out well, they offer everything from spiral to wire O to case bound cloth. Now where they are not as good as any other option speed. They are a UK company and only added US printing operations in the last 18 months and some of their UK options still aren't available in the US and well, they're slow. Standard printing takes seven business days and while their shipping is affordable, it it's also pretty slow, like two to eight days for business media mail. You can pay extra for UPS ground which takes one to five days. But if you've got time on your side and you want to plant a tree, Book Vault is a solid choice. And like I said, they're what we use for our print on demand from our website sales. All right, so which printer is the champion? Well, from a quality perspective, Dave says.

This feels better quality. Oh wow. The colors are great.

Nice.

This one just feels kind of not as well made. You can see, you can see the printing on the other side. So yeah, this one's the best.

Printed by Print Nation.

Ah, Print Nation. There you go.

I think this one is the best. This is the first book that's printed by Print Nation. Printed by Print Nation.

So you picked the same one that I did.

This particular book wins which was the Print Nation book. By far they were the best quality. But there are different reasons to use different printers. And here's the part that might get you excited or discouraged. I use them all. It depends on what it's for. Print Nation is my local go to for printing the best looking books for events. It's what we recommend for the highly custom options whether for special editions or special special dreams. KDP is what I hook up to so my books get sold on Amazon. And IngramSpark is what we use for fast and good quality author copies and setting up distribution to all the stores online. And Book Vault is my go to for direct sales because they'll print one book and ship it to whoever orders it. From my website. Go ahead and test out Book vault@selfpublishand succeed.com. they are the ones fulfilling the orders there. If you're short on cash and doing black and white and Amazon KDP is your go to for budget friendly printing. Want that premium experience with the fastest options? Well, IngramSpark is your company and if you want versatile, high quality with personal service and you're in the United States, well, Print Nation is absolutely your best bet. Remember how we talked about judging a book by its cover? Well, with all of these printer options, you'll not only have a stunning cover, but the right trim, paper and price that fits your vision. So choose wisely and let your book shine like the best seller it's destined to be. Alright, this video right here is all about Print Nation. If you want more details on all the cool kind of books they can print. And this video right here is KDP versus ingramspark and why we use both. Click on over and enjoy the show.