Book Printing Cost in India: Why Your Word Page Count Is Not the Number That Matters

Most first calls we get at WNP start the same way. The book is finished, it runs to so many pages, and the author wants to know what happens next and what printing will cost.

Our first question usually surprises them. What size is the book?

Word gives you A4. A book is not A4.

Almost every manuscript we receive is written in Microsoft Word, and in India, Word usually opens on an A4 page. A4 is 210 x 297 mm, the office sheet defined in the international paper size standard, ISO 216. Very few books are printed at that size.

A5, a common book size, is 148 x 210 mm in the same standard, exactly half an A4 sheet. The sizes on our own print cost calculator are 5.5 x 8.5 inches, 6 x 9 inches and 8 x 11 inches.

Because an A5 page has half the area of an A4 page, the same text at the same type size runs to roughly twice as many pages once it is moved to a book size. The exact figure depends on the typeface, the type size, the line spacing and the margins. That is why we never price a book from its A4 count.

So the page count on your screen is not the page count of your printed book. Set the page size to the size you want the finished book to be, and that number changes with it.

Two things that get missed at the same stage

A copyright page. Your book needs a page for the copyright notice and the publisher’s details, and the ISBN goes there once it is allotted. It is a page like any other, so it counts.

Book margins. Word’s default margins are set for a document, not a book. A bound book needs a wider inside margin, so the text does not disappear into the binding, and margins that leave room for the pages to be trimmed.

One more detail. On our calculator, the number of interior pages has to be divisible by 4, so the final count gets rounded up to the next multiple of 4.

Six things decide the cost of printing

Even with the right size, a page count on its own cannot be priced. These six decide it.

1. The size of the book. Every other number depends on this one.
2. The number of pages at that size. Not the A4 count. The count after the file is set at book size.
3. The quality of the paper. Our calculator prices one interior paper, 75 GSM maplitho.
4. One colour, two colour or four colour. Each is priced per page at its own rate. A book with colour photographs on a few pages is still a colour job if those pages are printed in colour.
5. The quantity being printed. The per-copy cost falls as the run grows. On our calculator today, the one colour per-page rate for a 5.5 x 8.5 inch book at 301 copies or more is about a third lower than at 1 to 10 copies. The calculator gives indicative prices; the final figure is confirmed when we quote.
6. The binding, paperback or hardback. The cover board and the lamination, gloss or matt, sit with this choice.

Until all six are settled, any printing cost you are quoted is a guess.

Publishing and printing are two separate numbers

At WNP, printing is not part of any publishing package. Our services page states it plainly: printing and author copies are charged separately. So when you compare publishers, ask for two figures, the package price and the printing cost per copy, and check what each one covers.

Before your first call

You do not need a finished print file to get a useful answer. You need four things in hand:

1. The size you want the book to be.
2. Your manuscript set at that size, with a copyright page added, so the page count is real.
3. A decision on colour and binding.
4. A rough idea of how many copies you want in the first run.

With those, our calculator gives you an indicative figure in a minute, and a conversation with us can start from the book you actually have.

Authors, how many of the six can you answer for your book today?

Sources

• ISO 216:2007, Trimmed sizes, A and B series
• WNP print cost calculator
• WNP services and packages

Related reading

• How to Get a Free ISBN in India, and What You Are Actually Paying For
• Amazon KDP Royalties in India: Why 70 Percent Is Not 70 Percent