What a workbook costs to print

Per-copy cost at 60, 100 and 150 pages

One workbook, priced on each service: 8.5 x 11 inches, standard black-and-white interior on white paper, matte cover, US market. We found no published figure for how long workbooks usually run, so the table shows three lengths; use your own page count in the formulas below.

KDP: Paperback Printing Cost, Amazon.com large-trim rates. IngramSpark: Publisher Compensation Calculator (White 50, matte, no duplex, United States). Lulu: Pricing Calculator (US Letter, Standard B&W, 60# white uncoated, matte). All checked October 21, 2026.

Two patterns are worth knowing. KDP's short-book flat fee means a 60-page and a 100-page workbook cost the same to print there. And on Lulu, coil binding cost exactly $4.79 more than the glued paperback at every length and ink we priced, so the spiral is a fixed cost per copy rather than a per-page one.

For a standard 6 x 9 book, the print cost comparison of KDP, IngramSpark and Lulu has the same three services side by side, with their setup and revision fees.

Spiral and coil binding

A coil-bound book lies flat and folds back on itself, which is why people ask for it in a workbook, a journal or a manual. Of the three big print-on-demand services, only Lulu offers it:

• Lulu lists "Coil Bound: 2-470 pages" (Lulu) and markets coil binding for "textbooks, workbooks, and manuals" (Lulu products). Its calculator accepted coil binding at 470 pages and refused it at 480.
• Amazon KDP says it "does not allow the creation of magazines, periodicals, calendars, or spiral bound books" (KDP). A KDP paperback is "bound together with glue and a cover made from flexible cardboard" (KDP).
• IngramSpark's calculator offered only "Perfect Bound" for a paperback at 6 x 9 and at 8.5 x 11 when we checked.

The trade-off is distribution. Lulu's distribution rules say "Coil binding is not an option for any size" (Lulu), and its calculator showed "This configuration doesn't currently support retail distribution" for our coil-bound workbook. A coil workbook sells through Lulu's own bookstore, through your own website, or as copies you buy and hand out. It will not be on Amazon.

Two practical notes from Lulu's formatting help: "the coils bite about 0.312 in (8 mm) on the spine edge, so we suggest a gutter of 0.375 in (9 mm)" (Lulu). Set that margin before you lay out the pages, not after. And Lulu's pricing page says "Get volume discounts on bulk orders. Contact us," so if you need a few hundred copies for a program, ask.

A local print shop can also coil bind, and often in small numbers. Its price depends on the job, so there is no published per-copy figure to compare. Get a written quote for the exact specification: trim, page count, paper weight, single- or double-sided, color or black, binding, cover stock, quantity and delivery. Then set it next to the Lulu figure above.

KDP workbooks: the formula and the rules

KDP charges a fixed cost per book plus a cost per page. An 8.5 x 11 workbook is a large trim, which KDP defines as "more than 6.12 inches (155.5 mm) in width or more than 9 inches (228.6 mm) in height," and large trims cost more (KDP Print Options). For Amazon.com:

Source: KDP Paperback Printing Cost, checked October 21, 2026. Premium color of 24 to 40 pages is $4.20 flat in a large trim.

The same 100 pages at a 6 x 9 regular trim cost $2.30 in black ink, 54 cents less than 8.5 x 11. Smaller pages mean more of them for the same content, though, so price the page count you would really get. The printing costs guide has the regular-trim rates, author copy shipping and when an offset run pays off.

KDP has a category that matters for workbooks. It defines a low-content book as one with "minimal or no content on the interior pages," that is "generally repetitive, and designed to be filled in by the user," and lists notebooks, planners, journals, prompt journals and log books as examples (KDP Low-Content Books). Three things follow if your workbook counts as one:

• "Low-content books are not eligible for the free KDP ISBN." You can use your own or publish without one.
• "Expanded Distribution is not supported for low-content books," so it sells on Amazon only.
• Separately, KDP's distributors do not accept "Paperbacks containing frequent lined or blank pages, such as journals, notebooks, planners" into Expanded Distribution (KDP Expanded Distribution).

A workbook built around teaching, with explanation and exercises on most pages, is closer to a regular nonfiction book than to a blank journal. If it is mostly ruled lines, plan for Amazon-only sales.

IngramSpark

IngramSpark prints the workbook as a perfect-bound paperback and offers 8.5 x 11 in its calculator, with a page range of 18 to 1,200. Its black-and-white prices were close to KDP's: 18 cents lower at 60 pages, 67 cents higher at 100 and $1.02 higher at 150. Setup is free since February 1, 2026, with a 1.875% market access fee on distributed books (see what IngramSpark costs).

Its content rules affect workbooks directly. IngramSpark lists, among content that "may not be accepted": "Low-original content books such as summaries or workbooks without permission from the original author the book is based on" and "Content containing a material amount of blank pages like notepads, scratchpads, journals, or similar type of content" (IngramSpark). A companion to your own book is written by the original author. A workbook that is mostly blank pages may still be turned down.

Color or black ink

Color raises the price everywhere, and by very different amounts:

Same calculators and date as above. n/a: not priced.

Premium color is a different order of cost: $9.00 for 100 pages on KDP and $27.03 coil bound on Lulu. If your exercises work as gray boxes and lines, black ink keeps the printing cost of the 100-page KDP workbook at $2.84 instead of $5.02, on every copy for the life of the book.

What a workbook earns

The print cost comes out of every sale. Three worked examples at 100 pages, black and white:

• KDP on Amazon.com at $14.99: 60% of list minus printing is $8.99 - $2.84 = $6.15 a copy (KDP Paperback Royalty).
• KDP Expanded Distribution at $14.99, if accepted: 40% of list minus printing, $6.00 - $2.84 = $3.16.
• Lulu coil bound on Lulu's bookstore at $24.99: Lulu pays "80% on every sale, after printing costs" (Lulu), so 80% of ($24.99 - $10.80) = $11.35.

Our arithmetic, before tax and shipping. The list prices are examples, not recommendations.

If the workbook is for a workshop or a client program, you will buy copies yourself. Fifty 100-page workbooks cost $142 from KDP and $540 coil bound from Lulu, before shipping. That gap, $398 on fifty copies, is the price of the lie-flat binding.

When a workbook is worth adding

None of the printing services publish data on whether a companion workbook sells, so this part comes from their rules and from the costs above:

• When it has its own buyer. A workbook is a separate book with its own listing and, for wide distribution, its own ISBN: $125 for one from Bowker or $295 for ten (see ISBN costs). It earns its keep when someone needs to fill it in: workshop attendees, a team going through your program, clients.
• When your book is already used in a program. Greg Hiebert's Scribe Media success story reports his book at "3rd year" "As required reading in his leadership program" (his story). That is one author's result, not a typical one, but a program that has adopted a book is where a companion workbook has a ready buyer.
• When it has real content. Workbooks that are mostly blank pages run into KDP's low-content limits and IngramSpark's blank-page rule. Explanation, examples and exercises keep every channel open.
• When you know where it will be sold. Coil means Lulu's bookstore, your own site and copies in hand. Glue binding means Amazon and, with IngramSpark or KDP Expanded Distribution, stores and libraries.

A workbook also has a production cost before the first copy prints: layout, editing and a cover. The formatting guide covers per-page layout rates. To price the whole thing, open the calculator with a 100-page large-trim book and 50 author copies, then set your own word count; it uses KDP's rates, so add $7.96 a copy ($10.80 against $2.84) if you choose Lulu's coil binding.