Effects of Colored Images to the Cost of a Book

[Tolkien]

Does anyone have experience with how much a full page colored image would add the the final cost of a book?

 

[ThinkerX]

When prepping my works with Draft2Digital, I previewed how the book would look on various devices.

In Kindle, my multicolored maps came out in shades of gray. Same for the print books. Still usable, just annoying.

Tablets and smartphones though, the maps retained full color.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Are we talking ebook or paperback?

Assuming Amazon
Ebook:
If you go for 35% royalty rate, then there is no impact at all, since you don't pay a delivery fee.

If you go for 70% royalty rate, then you pay per MB, which means it depends on the number of images and the size of the file you upload. From their help section, here's the list of delivery fees.

Delivery Costs are equal to the number of megabytes we determine your Digital Book file contains, multiplied by the Delivery Cost rate listed below.

• Amazon.com: US $0.15/MB
• Amazon.ca: CAD $0.15/MB
• Amazon.com.br: R$0.30/MB
• Amazon.co.uk: UK £0.10/MB
• Amazon.de: €0,12/MB
• Amazon.fr: €0,12/MB
• Amazon.es: €0,12/MB
• Amazon.in: INR ₹7/MB
• Amazon.it: €0,12/MB
• Amazon.nl: €0,12/MB
• Amazon.co.jp: ¥1/MB
• Amazon.com.mx: MXN $1/MB
• Amazon.com.au: AUD $0.15/MB

We will round file sizes up to the nearest kilobyte. The minimum Delivery Cost for a Digital Book will be US$0.01 for sales in US Dollars, INR₹1 for sales in Indian Rupees, CAD$0.01 for sales in CAD Dollars, £0.01 for sales in GB Pounds, ¥1 in JPY, R$0.01 for sales in Brazilian Reals, MXN$1 for sales in Mexican Pesos, AUD$0.01 for sales in Australian Dollars, and €0.01 for sales in Euros, regardless of file size. For sales in JPY, we will not deduct any Delivery Cost for books 10 MB or greater.

Paperback:
Check Paperback Printing Cost and Printing Cost & Royalty Calculator.

The problem with print on demand via Amazon (as far as I can tell), is that it's all or nothing in terms of paper and color. As in, one color page means your entire novel is printed as if it's in color. Which gets ridiculously expensive. It's 3 to 7 times more expensive than black and white. A 300 page color paperback has a minimum list price of $19.42.

Ingram might be cheaper, but I doubt it (or at least I doubt they'll be a lot cheaper...). For color, the best option is probably to do a print run at a local printer for a few hundred copies. I think 500 is the minimum amount for most ofset printers. Which means you're looking at a special edition which you're handselling more or less.

 

[Tolkien]

Are we talking ebook or paperback?

Assuming Amazon
Ebook:
If you go for 35% royalty rate, then there is no impact at all, since you don't pay a delivery fee.

If you go for 70% royalty rate, then you pay per MB, which means it depends on the number of images and the size of the file you upload. From their help section, here's the list of delivery fees.



Paperback:
Check Paperback Printing Cost and Printing Cost & Royalty Calculator.

The problem with print on demand via Amazon (as far as I can tell), is that it's all or nothing in terms of paper and color. As in, one color page means your entire novel is printed as if it's in color. Which gets ridiculously expensive. It's 3 to 7 times more expensive than black and white. A 300 page color paperback has a minimum list price of $19.42.

Ingram might be cheaper, but I doubt it (or at least I doubt they'll be a lot cheaper...). For color, the best option is probably to do a print run at a local printer for a few hundred copies. I think 500 is the minimum amount for most ofset printers. Which means you're looking at a special edition which you're handselling more or less.

Great info, ty so much.

 

[Mad Swede]

Given that you're self-publishing you're probably better off using Amazon. Offset printing does give much better colour fidelity, but each colour image (like the covers my publisher puts on my books) needs at least four plates, one each for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. I'm told that for less than 2000 copies it's cheaper to use some form of digital printing.

 

[Tolkien]

KDP does seem the way to go.

 

[carolynparrudb]

Are we talking ebook or paperback?

Assuming Amazon
Ebook:
If you go for 35% royalty rate, then there is no impact at all, since you don't pay a delivery fee.

If you go for 70% royalty rate, then you pay per MB, which means it depends on the number of images and the size of the file you upload. From their help section, here's the list of delivery fees.



Paperback:
Check Paperback Printing Cost and Printing Cost & Royalty Calculator.

The problem with print on demand via Amazon (as far as I can tell), is that it's all or nothing in terms of paper and color. As in, one color page means your entire novel is printed as if it's in color. Which gets ridiculously expensive. It's 3 to 7 times more expensive than black and white. A 300 page color paperback has a minimum list price of $19.42.

Ingram might be cheaper, but I doubt it (or at least I doubt they'll be a lot cheaper...). For color, the best option is probably to do a print run at a local printer for a few hundred copies. I think 500 is the minimum amount for most ofset printers. Which means you're looking at a special edition which you're handselling more or less.

You are absolutely right.

 

[ThinkerX]

Not on KDP, but when I dropped the first book of my series to 99 cents for promotional purposes, the maps were in color. (On Kindle previewer they were in shades of gray - except, strangely, for cell phones and tablets. Go figure.)