I recently spoke with an author who wanted to include full-color images in his black-and-white interior. He felt strongly that reproductions of a handful of famous paintings would help reinforce some of his points. Could we help him self-publish this book with his vision intact?
Unfortunately, this is a common conundrum for independent authors. POD, or print-on-demand, is the most cost-effective way to bring most books to market. But it’s not ideal for all books, and that’s what this author was bumping up against. Or was he?
As I explained to this author, he had a few different options: Print via POD in either black-and-white or color (but not both), or consider a more traditional offset or digital print run.
Each option has pros and cons, and the right choice depends on the author’s budget, creative intentions, and goals for the reader experience.
POD vs. Offset: Key Differences
With offset printing-the industry standard for large runs-a book is produced using physical plates. This makes it efficient and cost-effective for bulk runs.
Because of this physical set-up, authors can combine different types of paper or mix color and black-and-white pages-but this flexibility usually comes with a minimum print run of hundreds of books and requires warehousing.
By contrast, a print-on-demand book doesn’t physically exist until someone orders it. Your book is stored as digital, print-ready files-not in a warehouse, not in your closet or trunk-and it is printed, bound, and shipped only when someone orders it.
This means no setup cost, no physical inventory to manage, and no minimum print run. Even better, the cost to print, package, and often ship your book is built right into the purchase price. None of these costs comes out of your pocket; instead, they’re taken out of your royalties.
When Color POD Books Make Sense
Here’s the challenge for authors like the one I spoke to: A POD book is either all black-and-white or all color. This means if you want even a single color image to appear in an otherwise text-based book, the entire book must be set up as color.
On paper (no pun intended), that challenge seems surmountable: Just set the book as color, even if it means using “color interior” prices to print your book. Sure, the higher printing cost per book cuts into your royalties, but at least your vision is intact. Right?
Not exactly. In addition to costing more to print, full-color interiors use glossier paper than the textured pages readers typically expect in a print book.
Those pages work well for vibrant, full-color artwork, but they can feel out of place in an otherwise text-based book and create a less-than-ideal reader experience.
Bottom line: While full-color POD books make sense for highly visual books like children’s books, cookbooks, and art books, they’re just not the best choice for text-based books with just a handful of images. The juice, as they say, just isn’t worth the squeeze.
A Quick Cost Comparison
Leaving aside the matter of page type, let’s look at the print cost and royalties for both types of color profiles with the two POD distribution platforms my company recommends most frequently to our clients: KDP and IngramSpark.
KDP (Amazon’s Self-Publishing Division)
With KDP, printing your book in color rather than grayscale means nearly a 50% drop in your take-home pay:
| Black-and-White Interior | Full-Color Interior (50–61lb white paper*) |
|
|---|---|---|
| Print Cost | $3.40 | $6.10 |
| Estimated Royalty | $6.19 | $3.49 |
Example based on a 200-page, 5”x8” paperback priced at $15.99. Source: KDP’s royalty calculator. Royalties are “estimated” because currency rates, refunds, and Kindle Unlimited numbers need to settle before the payout math is official.
To keep the same royalty as you’d receive with a black-and-white book, you’ll need to increase your list price-and there’s only so much price increase the market can bear.
*Page weight based on printer location.
IngramSpark (The More Traditional Distribution Network)
When we look at IngramSpark’s Publisher Compensation Calculator, we find slightly different numbers:
| Black-and-White Interior | Full-Color Interior (50lb white paper) |
|
|---|---|---|
| Print Cost | $4.17 | $6.38 |
| Estimated Royalty | $5.18 | $2.97** |
With IngramSpark, overall print costs for this book are a bit higher than with KDP, and royalties are lower. However, the main takeaway is the same: Producing the same book in color will cost you in terms of royalties, minimum list price, or both.
**Calculated with IngramSpark’s minimum wholesale discount of 40%.
When Grayscale Is the Better Choice
For many authors, there are very good reasons to convert color images into grayscale:
- You include images without compromising layout or readability.
- You can price your book affordably without eating into your royalties.
- You can produce a book with pages that look and feel professional for your readers.
Of course, this isn’t a perfect solution. Not all projects are created equal, and some images simply have greater impact in color.
The author who contacted me about including famous paintings wasn’t thrilled to hear that his POD options didn’t match his vision. (Luckily, the paintings he had in mind are in the public domain, so he didn’t have to worry about permissions!)
But for charts, diagrams, or photos that get their meaning across through contrast alone, grayscale is a smart solution to this common POD issue.
Tip: If you decide you can live with grayscale images, don’t try to convert your color images on your own or use an automatic export setting. Instead, send your full-color images to your designer and ask them to optimize the contrast and sharpness for print.
When to Consider Offset or Digital Printing Instead
If it is essential that your published book contains a full-color interior, offset printing can help you stay true to your vision. There’s a higher upfront investment, but offset gives you options POD just can’t provide:
- Add color pages to an otherwise black-and-white interior
- Choose from a wider range of paper types, finishes, and other options
- Potentially lower your per-unit cost
Offset printing can make sense for art books, heavily illustrated nonfiction, or books where color is an essential part of the reading experience.
Note: Short-run digital printers such as Bookmobile offer hybrid solutions that fall between offset and print-on-demand. These can be useful for authors who want more customization and are open to small bulk print runs.
However, this comes with an additional cost, and for most independent authors, POD remains the best path to publication.
How to Decide Between POD and Offset
For most projects, the choice is obvious. But for this author, the choice wasn’t so simple. To help him decide, I advised him to ask himself these questions:
- Is color really necessary for your reader to understand or appreciate your book?
- Are the images themselves necessary to include, or can you make your points without them?
- How many images do you want to include?
- What’s your target retail price, and what royalty do you want per book?
- Are you planning to sell primarily online (where POD works best) or through events, bookstores, and direct sales (where an offset bulk run might make sense)?
At the end of the day, black-and-white is and will probably remain the most cost-effective option for POD. If full-color images are an essential part of your vision for your otherwise text-based book, consider offset.
You might even decide a full-color POD book is worth pursuing, despite the higher print cost and shinier pages—just be sure to order a print proof so you can see what you’re getting into.
If you decide to move forward, understanding the costs and limitations of POD right from the start will help you make the best decisions for your book, your readers, and your bottom line.
