How Much Does a Custom Book Cost, and What's Included?

Print isn't ordered instead of the digital book — it's ordered on top of it. First the book is created, you read it through and fine-tune it, and only then do you send the finished version to print. That's why the prices add up rather than being an either/or choice.

These are the things people ask about most, because they're used to seeing them as add-ons.

Shipping is added to the print order and charged per package, not per copy — a second copy in the same package doesn't double it. The audiobook is an add-on: you can include it with your order or add it later from your account, at the same price.

You only pay for an illustration redo once you've used up the ones included — after that it's $0.39 each, and you can buy anywhere from one to twenty at a time in the editor. In practice, most books are finished without paying anything extra: questionable illustrations are checked and redone automatically before you ever see the book.

What you never pay extra for: storing the book, downloading the PDF again, rewriting text or editing the dedication.

Real examples are the easiest way to see which items add up and which never show up at all. None of this is a bundle — every item can be ordered on its own.

The digital book has one price, however elaborate your ideas are. More heroes don't make it more expensive — siblings, parents and the family dog in one book cost the same as a single child. Neither does the language you pick or the illustration style, even though some styles take more work than others.

The length of the dedication, how many times you edit the text and how often you download the book don't matter either. That's intentional: while you're setting up the book, you shouldn't have any reason to hold back on the things that make it truly your child's book.

Only two things actually change the price: a physical shipment (printing and shipping) and illustration redos beyond the ones included.

With a regular bookstore book, the cost of the writing and illustrations is spread across the whole print run — ten thousand copies share one illustrator's work. With a custom book, nothing gets spread out: the story is written for one child, and every illustration is created once, for one book, and never used again.

The second difference is printing. A custom book is printed as a single copy on demand, not in a print run — there's no warehouse and no risk of half a pallet going unsold, but there's no volume discount either.

That's why you can't compare offers by the number on the price tag alone. Compare what's included: whether the text and illustrations are created after you order, how many edits are free, and whether printing and shipping are included or charged separately. How to tell a name printed into a stock book from true personalization is covered in our introduction to custom books.

None of these are tricks — they're real options at checkout that people often just don't know about.

You can pay by card or mobile wallet through a secure payment gateway — your card details never reach us.

If you pay by bank transfer where it's offered, keep one thing in mind: the book only starts generating once the money arrives, and a regular transfer can take until the next business day. How much buffer to leave when the book is meant for a birthday is covered in our article on timing.

Discount codes, gift vouchers and partner codes all go into the same field at checkout and are deducted before you pay. You can use one code per order, but a voucher can be spent gradually across several items and its remaining balance carries over.