What print on demand services offer hardback books for authors?

Self-publishing a book via print on demand companies used to be limited with regards to your choice of book, paperbacks and eBooks were the main choice and only a few of the companies offered hardbacks (and even then, in limited sizes and options).

But now more and more services are offering hardbacks to their customers, KDP publishing being one of the latest to offer this service to its authors, and it seems to have been taken up quickly too.

So, if you want to publish your book as a hardback (case wrap or dustjacket), what are your options?

KDP Publishing

Well, as mentioned a moment ago, KDP Publishing have started to offer hardback designs to their authors, these are as case wrap/laminate books and not dustjackets at present. The interior of your book will be the same for the hardback as it is for the paperback, which does save having to create two separate versions of your interior, unless of course you are publishing the hardback and paperback as two different sizes and uploading a PDF of the interior.

Currently KDP offer five trim sizes for hardbacks, these are:

5.5 x 8.5in - 6 x 9in – 6.14 x 9.21in – 7 x 10in – 8.25 x 11in
With a page count range of 75 – 550 pages
 
Hardcovers with KDP are currently available for the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, so they are not available for expanded distribution at the moment. The costs for a hardback with KDP are worked out with Fixed Costs + (page count x per page cost) = printing costs, you can use their royalty calculator to work out how much you would get in royalties for specific book.
 

IngramSpark

Ingram have been publishing hardbacks for self-publishing authors for years now and offer the option of dust jackets as well as case wrap/laminate books too, they also have a better selection of sizes in comparison to KDP.
They currently offer the following sizes:
 
5 x 8" (203 x 127 mm) Case Laminate & Dust Jacket
5.5 x 8.5" (216 x 140mm) Case Laminate & Dust Jacket
5.83 x 8.27" (210 x 148 mm) Case Laminate
6 x 9" (229 x 152mm) Case Laminate & Dust Jacket
6.14 x 9.21" (234 x 156mm) Case Laminate & Dust Jacket
6.69 x 9.61" (244 x 170 mm) Case Laminate
7 x 10" (254 x 178 mm) Case Laminate
7.5 x 9.25" (235 x 191) Case Laminate
8 x 8" (203 x 203) Case Laminate
8 x 10" (254 x 203mm) Case Laminate
8 x 10.88" (276 x 203) Case Laminate
8.25 x 10.75" (273 x 210) Case Laminate
8.5 x 8.5" (216 x 216) Case Laminate
8.5 x 11" (280 X 216mm) Case Laminate
 
The print costs of the hardback will depend on the set up you choose for your book, however, they also have an easy to use calculator to help you work this cost our for your specific book.
With regards to royalties, they do take into account the set up of your book, the list price and wholesale discount offered. So, a 6x9 case laminate book on crème paper, gloss finish with 300 pages with a list price of $24.99 and wholesale discount of 30% gives a royalty of $7.73 (with a print cost of $9.76), you can use the author compensation calculator to work out the payments for your book.

Lulu

Lulu offer a great selection of trim sizes for both their paperbacks and hardbacks, their hardbacks offer the option of case wrap and cloth bound with a dust jacket. The dust jacket’s cloth bound cover offers foil stamped text for the spines.

They offer the most popular trim sizes and also offer printing options for the likes of photo books, comics, magazines, yearbooks and even calendars too.

Revenue/royalties are worked out as 50% of gross revenue going to the distributor (the gross revenue is the revenue remaining after the print costs and distribution fees), with the remaining gross profit Lulu take 20% and you’re left with the remaining 80% of the gross profit You can use their calculator to find the exact printing cost for your own book.

Bookbaby

Bookbaby offer both case wrap and dust jacket options for self-publishing authors with a great selection of trim sizes too.

Printing as:

5.5 x 8.5in – 6 x 9in – 8 x 10in – 9 x 7in – 8.5 x 11in – 8.5 x 8.5in – 10 x 10in – 11 x 8.5in

As with other POD services, the cost of the book depends upon how it’s set up, you can order in large quantities, and they also offer options to publish via them and use their distribution into all of the main channels for book retail.

If you are using them to print copies of your book which you will distribute yourself, you’ll find it more cost effective to order more than one book at a time, use their print calculator to find a price for your own book.

 
Barnes & Nobel

B&N have come a long way with their website for authors and the options they offer to those self-publishing, you can get paperbacks along with hardbacks in case wrap and dust jacket formats.

The sizes they offer are:

5 x 8 – 5.5 x 8.5 – 5.83 x 8.27 – 6 x 9 – 6.14 x 9.21 – 7 x 10
7.5 x 9.25 – 8 x 8 – 8 x 10 – 8.5 x 8.5 – 8.5 x 11 – 11 x 8.5
 
Royalties on hardbacks are worked out on the list price less the printing costs and the retail and distribution costs, so a hardback dust jacket of 250 pages with a list price of $24.99 would have a print cost of $9.55 and a distribution cost of $11.25 would have a royalty of $4.19 per book.