• They know they’ll sell thousands of copies and want to maxi- mize revenue If you want your book to be perceived as higher quality in the eyes of readers, or to be able to charge people more for it, it makes sense to produce a hardcover. TL;DR: You probably don’t need a hardcover (but some authors do). HARDCOVER DISTRIBUTION FACTORS As with paperbacks, your print options for hardcovers are either POD or offset printing. However, KDP does not offer a POD option for hardcovers. Your only option for POD hardcovers is to use IngramSpark, which comes with an occasional problem: some hardcovers can show up as “out of stock” for weeks on Amazon when set up through IngramSpark. At more than $10 per copy, POD hardcovers are also expensive. Offset printing can be much cheaper per copy, once again assuming you know you’ll order thousands of copies. Here’s a rough breakdown for offset printing for hardcovers between 150-350 pages: • 1,000 copies: ~$5.00 • 2,000 copies: ~$3.50 • 5,000 copies: ~$2.50 • 10,000 copies: ~$2.00 Most authors that we work with do offset printed hardcovers. But if you want hardcovers and don’t need a bunch, IngramSpark is the best bet. EvEryThiNg yOU NEED TO kNOW ABOUT SElf-PUBliShiNg BOOk DiSTriBUTiON · 347