# What is print-on-demand?

Print-on-demand means each copy of a book is printed only after someone orders it, so the author buys no stock and stores nothing. At KDP, the printing cost comes out of the royalty on each sale. KDP's words: you “don't have to pay any costs upfront or carry any inventory.”

Last reviewed 30 October 2026. Web page: https://chapbook.ink/glossary/print-on-demand/

## What it means in practice

Because each copy is made to order, the price has a floor. KDP's royalty is the royalty rate times the list price, minus the printing cost, so a long book in color can leave little at a low price. Do that sum before you set a price.

A book's page count, trim, ink and paper all go into the printing cost, while bleed and cover finish don't. Order a printed proof before you publish: a file that passes every check can still look different on paper.

## How Chapbook uses it

A nonfiction book, workbook or guide has a [paperback interior](/manual/launch-and-export/#make-a-paperback-interior) and a [full-wrap cover](/manual/launch-and-export/#make-the-paperback-cover), both sized for KDP's print-on-demand paperbacks, with a preflight report for each. They are KDP-sized, not KDP-approved, and other printers have their own specifications.

The sample on this page is a workbook, made to be written in, which makes it a natural candidate for paper. Under 24 pages, Chapbook marks a paperback file as a draft, because KDP prints paperbacks from 24 pages.

## Made with Chapbook: Find Your First 100 Readers

Find Your First 100 Readers: A 30-day workbook, by Maya Chen. Workbook, 5,850 words, 24 pages. A sample generated from one brief and exported unedited; it is not a customer's book. Read every page: https://chapbook.ink/examples/workbook/

The brief:

> A 30-day plan to find the first hundred readers for a nonfiction book without paid advertising. Promise: By day 30 you will have a named reader, a one-sentence promise, a short list of places that reader already gathers, and either your first hundred readers or a routine that keeps adding them. Reader: Someone who wrote the book on evenings and weekends, dislikes self-promotion, and has fewer than two hundred followers anywhere. Voice: Second person, a coach at the kitchen table; a short lesson, then a fill-in exercise; checklists at the end of each week; no invented statistics.

The outline the planner proposed:

1. How to Use This Workbook (466 words)
2. Week 1: Your Reader (1,142 words)
3. Week 2: Your Promise and Your Page (1,168 words)
4. Week 3: Where Your Readers Already Gather (1,294 words)
5. Week 4: Ask, Deliver, Repeat (1,200 words)
6. Day 30: The Review and the Routine (545 words)

## Questions

### What does print-on-demand cost at KDP?

Nothing up front. KDP works out a printing cost from trim size, page count, ink and paper, and subtracts it from your royalty on each sale. Its Paperback Printing Cost page gives the current rates.

### Does Chapbook print books?

No. Chapbook makes the print files. KDP, or whichever printer you choose, does the printing, and Chapbook sells nothing for you and handles no orders.

## Sources

- [Amazon KDP, “Paperback Printing Cost”](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834340)
- [Amazon KDP, “Paperback Royalty”](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834330)