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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.”

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 and a full-wrap 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.

In a real book

Cover of Find Your First 100 Readers by Maya Chen: layered paper-cut shapes in coral, sage and peach on cream, subtitle “A 30-day workbook”.
Title page. Page 1 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Copyright. Page 2 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Contents. Page 3 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
How to Use This Workbook. Page 4 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
How to Use This Workbook. Page 5 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 1: Your Reader. Page 6 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 1: Your Reader. Page 7 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 1: Your Reader. Page 8 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 1: Your Reader. Page 9 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 2: Your Promise and Your Page. Page 10 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 2: Your Promise and Your Page. Page 11 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 2: Your Promise and Your Page. Page 12 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 2: Your Promise and Your Page. Page 13 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 3: Where Your Readers Already Gather. Page 14 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 3: Where Your Readers Already Gather. Page 15 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 3: Where Your Readers Already Gather. Page 16 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 3: Where Your Readers Already Gather. Page 17 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 4: Ask, Deliver, Repeat. Page 18 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 4: Ask, Deliver, Repeat. Page 19 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 4: Ask, Deliver, Repeat. Page 20 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Week 4: Ask, Deliver, Repeat. Page 21 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Day 30: The Review and the Routine. Page 22 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Day 30: The Review and the Routine. Page 23 of Find Your First 100 Readers.
Back cover of Find Your First 100 Readers: the description over the cover's artwork.
How to Use This Workbook 5 / 25
Find Your First 100 Readers, a 30-day workbook: a workbook of 5,850 words and 24 pages on US Letter, 8.5 × 11 in, generated from one brief and exported unedited. It is a sample, not a customer's book. Download the PDF (282 KB) or the EPUB (125 KB).

Sources

Last reviewed 30 October 2026

  1. Amazon KDP, “Paperback Printing Cost”
  2. Amazon KDP, “Paperback Royalty”
  1. What is Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)? Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon's free self-publishing service for eBooks, paperbacks and hardcovers. What it asks for, and what Chapbook prepares for it.
  2. What is trim size? Trim size is a printed book's final width and height, after the pages are cut. The sizes KDP offers, what they change, and the ones Chapbook's paperback uses.
  3. What is a book spine? The spine is the bound edge of a book, the part you see on a shelf. How KDP's paper and page count set its width, and when it can carry text.
  1. Workbook creator: lessons and exercises from one paragraph Turn one paragraph into a typeset workbook: short lessons, exercises with room to write, checklists, a PDF readers can type into, and a KDP-sized paperback interior.

Questions people ask

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.

Read a chapter of your own book before you pay for it.

The outline, one sample chapter up to 2,500 words and a watermarked cover are free: 60 Book Credits on sign-up, no card.

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