KDP vs IngramSpark vs BookBaby vs Lulu: The UK Author's 2026 Guide

If you are a UK author choosing where to print and distribute your paperback, four names come up again and again: Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, BookBaby and Lulu. They are not the same kind of thing — one is a retailer’s own press, one is a trade distributor, one is a full-service publishing package, and one is a print-on-demand shop with its own storefront. Picking the wrong one costs you either money on every copy or reach you needed.

This guide compares all four on the numbers that actually decide it — setup cost, per-unit print cost in pounds, royalty share, and how far into the UK book trade each one reaches — then runs the same £9.99 paperback through each so you can see what you would actually keep. Every figure here was checked against the platforms’ own pages in 2026; where a cost genuinely varies by book, I say so rather than invent a number.

Table of Contents

• The Four Platforms at a Glance
• What You Need to Know Before Choosing
• The Decision Table: KDP vs IngramSpark vs BookBaby vs Lulu
• Worked Example: The Same £9.99 Paperback on Each Platform
• Distribution Reach: Who Gets You Into UK Bookshops and Libraries
• UK-Specific Considerations
• Choose X If… (Clear Verdicts)
• Other Options Worth Knowing
• Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
• Real-World UK Case Studies
• Expert Tips from 25 Years in the Industry
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Four Platforms at a Glance

Before the numbers, understand what each platform is, because they are not interchangeable:

• Amazon KDP is Amazon’s own print-on-demand and Kindle press. Free to use, prints in the UK and EU, and puts you directly on Amazon.co.uk — the single biggest self-publishing sales channel. Its reach beyond Amazon is weak.
• IngramSpark is the self-publishing arm of Ingram, the largest book distributor in the world. It is how an independent author gets into the trade — bookshops, libraries and wholesalers — on the same catalogue the big publishers use. Print and ebook.
• BookBaby is a US full-service publishing company. You buy a package (formatting, cover, distribution) rather than run the platform yourself. Convenient, premium-priced, and dollar-denominated.
• Lulu is an independent print-on-demand service with its own storefront and unusually wide format options (hardback, coil-bound, square, large-format). Strongest for direct sales and specialist formats; weakest for UK bookshop reach.

The short version most UK indies land on: KDP for Amazon, IngramSpark for everywhere else, and Lulu or BookBaby only for the specific jobs they do better. The rest of this guide shows why.

What You Need to Know Before Choosing

A few terms and rules decide most of the maths below.

• Print-on-Demand (POD): books are printed one at a time as they sell, so there is no print run to fund upfront. KDP, IngramSpark and Lulu are all true POD. BookBaby is different — it is an offset-and-POD printer that asks for a minimum order of 25 copies, so it behaves more like a print run.
• Royalty vs margin: every platform pays you a percentage of the list price minus the print cost — not a percentage of your profit. Get the order of operations right: it is (rate × full list price) − print cost, not the rate applied to what is left after printing.
• Wholesale discount: on IngramSpark you set the discount a retailer keeps (typically 40% or 55%). The bookshop trade effectively requires 55% and the right to return unsold stock; set it lower and shops simply will not order.
• ISBN: in the UK, ISBNs come from Nielsen — currently £93 for one, or £174 for a block of ten (£17.40 each). KDP and Lulu both offer a free ISBN, but it lists them as publisher, which limits distribution and looks unprofessional to the trade. Buy your own if you are serious. Check ISBN UK requirements for the full picture.
• Trim size: the finished page size. The common UK trade format is B-format, 129 × 198mm; 6" × 9" (152 × 229mm) is standard for non-fiction. All four platforms support these.

The Decision Table: KDP vs IngramSpark vs BookBaby vs Lulu

Everything that decides the choice, side by side. Print costs are for a black-ink paperback and are approximate — always run each platform’s own calculator for your exact page count.

Two figures in that table matter more than the rest, so hold onto them: KDP’s £0.85 + £0.010/page print formula, and IngramSpark’s 1.875% market-access fee (which rose from 1.5% on 1 February 2026). They drive the worked example next.

Worked Example: The Same £9.99 Paperback on Each Platform

Let’s take one book — a 300-page, 6" × 9", black-ink paperback, priced £9.99 — and run it through all four. This is the comparison that actually earns or loses you money.

The anchor figure: at KDP’s current UK rate, this book costs £0.85 + (300 × £0.010) = £3.85 to print. IngramSpark and Lulu are within a few pence of that; BookBaby is materially higher because it prints in the US.

Amazon KDP (sold on Amazon.co.uk)

• Royalty: 60% × £9.99 = £5.99
• Minus print: £5.99 − £3.85 = £2.14 per copy

That is the number to beat. But note what happens on KDP’s Expanded Distribution (its attempt at reaching beyond Amazon): the rate drops to 40%. 40% × £9.99 = £4.00, minus the same £3.85 print = £0.15 per copy — effectively nothing. This is the single most important insight in the whole comparison: KDP does not give you real trade reach. If bookshops matter, you need IngramSpark.

IngramSpark (wide trade distribution)

Here you set the wholesale discount. To be stockable by UK bookshops and libraries you set 55%, and you allow returns:

• Retailer keeps 55%, so you receive 45% × £9.99 = £4.50
• Minus 1.875% market-access fee (£0.19) and print (£3.70) = **£0.61 per copy**

Thinner than KDP — but you are now on the same catalogue as Penguin, orderable by any UK shop, listed on Bookshop.org through Ingram, and available to libraries via Gardners and Bertrams. That reach is the product.

Set the discount to 40% (online-only, no bookshops) and the maths flips: 60% × £9.99 = £5.99, − £0.19 − £3.70 = ~£2.10 per copy — level with KDP, but with wider online listing. The catch: at 40% the trade will not order, so this is for reach on other websites, not physical shops.

Lulu (direct on your own storefront)

Lulu’s edge is direct sales. Sell that same £9.99 copy through a Lulu-powered store (it plugs into Shopify and WooCommerce) and, after ~£4.50 print, you keep the lion’s share of the ~£5.49 that is left — Lulu cites roughly 80% of post-print revenue on its own bookstore. That beats every Amazon route on margin. The catch is obvious: no Amazon shopper ever sees it. You have to bring the traffic. Sell the same book through Lulu’s global distribution into Amazon and the retailer cut drags the per-copy figure back down into IngramSpark territory.

BookBaby (package model)

BookBaby does not fit the per-copy royalty share the same way. You pay ~$399 (≈£300) upfront, order a minimum of 25 copies, set your own retail price and then keep 100% of the net: ~50% on BookBaby’s own BookShop page, and most titles 10–30% through outside retailers once print and distribution charges come out. For a single £9.99 title sold on Amazon, the per-copy net lands at or below KDP’s — and you have paid ~£300 before selling a copy. It only makes sense if you are explicitly buying the done-for-you service, in dollars, and shipping from the US.

The takeaway

The honest conclusion is not “one platform wins”. It is that KDP wins Amazon, IngramSpark wins the trade, Lulu wins direct sales, and BookBaby buys you convenience — and most successful indies run two of them together rather than pick one.

Distribution Reach: Who Gets You Into UK Bookshops and Libraries

Print margin is only half the decision. The other half is who can actually buy your book.

• Amazon KDP puts you on Amazon.co.uk within a day or two — and that is roughly where it stops. Its Expanded Distribution technically offers wider reach, but as the worked example showed, the 40% royalty makes it barely worth switching on, and UK bookshops rarely order through it.
• IngramSpark is the one that opens the trade. Because it feeds the Ingram catalogue, your book becomes orderable by Waterstones and independent shops, by UK libraries via Gardners and Bertrams, and it appears on Bookshop.org automatically (Bookshop.org pulls from the Ingram catalogue). To make this real you must set a 55% wholesale discount and mark the book returnable — the trade will not stock a title it cannot return. Then a sell sheet to your local branch does the rest.
• BookBaby distributes to Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble and others, but it is US-centric; UK trade penetration is not its strength.
• Lulu offers global distribution through Amazon and the Ingram network too, but for UK bookshops specifically it is the weakest of the four. Its real reach is your own store and specialist channels.

If your honest goal is “I want to walk into a Waterstones and see my book, and I want libraries to be able to order it”, the answer is IngramSpark, layered on top of KDP for the Amazon sales.

UK-Specific Considerations

Most comparison guides are written for US authors. These points are where UK realities change the answer.

ISBNs and publishing rights

UK ISBNs come only from Nielsen: £93 for a single, £174 for ten. KDP and Lulu will give you a free one, but it names them as publisher — which the trade notices and which can limit distribution. If you plan more than one title, the block of ten is the sensible buy. See ISBN UK requirements and get your copyright page right while you are at it.

VAT

Printed books and ebooks are zero-rated for VAT in the UK (ebooks since 1 May 2020). Audiobooks still attract 20% VAT. Amazon handles VAT on Amazon.co.uk sales automatically; BookBaby’s US pricing can mean currency conversion and, on services, VAT you did not budget for.

US withholding tax

IngramSpark and BookBaby are US companies. Complete a W-8BEN form (the UK has a tax treaty with the US) or they must withhold 30% of your royalties. This is a five-minute job that authors routinely forget.

Printing and delivery

KDP and IngramSpark both print in the UK, so author copies and delivery are fast and cheap. Lulu prints in the US and some of the EU — author copies can be slower and pricier to the UK. BookBaby ships from the US: factor in international shipping and time on every order.

Choose X If… (Clear Verdicts)

• Choose KDP if your sales will be overwhelmingly on Amazon (as they are for most indies — Amazon is the dominant self-publishing channel), you want it free, fast and printed in the UK, and you don’t need bookshops. Nearly everyone should be on KDP; the only question is what you add to it.
• Choose IngramSpark if you want your book in physical bookshops and libraries, orderable across the trade, listed on Bookshop.org, and you accept a thinner per-copy margin in exchange for that reach. Run it alongside KDP: KDP for Amazon, IngramSpark for everywhere else, ISBNs split cleanly between them.
• Choose Lulu if your money is in direct sales — selling from your own website or at events — or you need a format the others don’t print (hardback with dust jacket, coil-bound workbook, square children’s book, large-format). Its direct-sale margin is the best of the four; its bookshop reach is the worst.
• Choose BookBaby if you genuinely want it done for you, are comfortable paying ~£300+ upfront in dollars, and value convenience over control and margin. For most cost-conscious UK authors, the KDP + IngramSpark combination delivers the same reach for a fraction of the price — but the package model suits authors who never want to touch a dashboard.

Other Options Worth Knowing

The big four are not the whole map. A few names that come up when you outgrow them:

• Draft2Digital (D2D): a free ebook aggregator that pushes to Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble Press and libraries via OverDrive — useful for wide ebook reach if you are not Kindle-exclusive. It charges a $20 one-off activation and a small $12/year fee (only if the account earns under $100/year). See Draft2Digital vs KDP.
• Doxzoo: a UK-based POD printer (not a publisher). Minimum order of one, turnaround as fast as ~3 days, instant online quotes in GBP, worldwide delivery — but it does not register ISBNs or distribute to Amazon or the trade. It prints a book you already own; perfect for stock you sell yourself, useless for retail reach.
• Local offset printers (e.g. TJ International in Padstow): some authors keep a title on IngramSpark for POD but bulk-print locally for better margins when they need a run to supply shops directly.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

• Relying on KDP Expanded Distribution for “wide” reach. At 40% royalty minus print, it pays almost nothing (£0.15 on our example), and shops still don’t order it. If you want the trade, use IngramSpark.
• Setting the wrong IngramSpark wholesale discount. 40% keeps more per copy but locks you out of bookshops; 55% + returnable is the price of trade reach. Decide which you actually want before you publish.
• Forgetting the W-8BEN. 30% of your US-platform royalties vanish until you file it.
• Taking a free ISBN when you want the trade. A KDP- or Lulu-issued ISBN names them as publisher and can hold you back with shops and libraries.
• Underestimating BookBaby’s total cost. The ~$399 package is the start, not the end — add the 25-copy minimum, US shipping, and any premium tier, and a single title can run well over £1,000.
• Skipping the proof copy. Every platform prints slightly differently. Order a physical proof before you go live; colour and paper vary, and a proof catches it.
• Uploading a badly formatted file. All four reject or mangle files with wrong margins, missing bleed (3mm) or the wrong PDF standard (IngramSpark wants PDF/X-1a). This is the single most common cause of rejection and delay.

Real-World UK Case Studies

Sarah — crime fiction, wanted bookshops

Sarah published her debut on KDP for the Amazon sales, then added IngramSpark with her own Nielsen ISBNs, a 55% wholesale discount and returns switched on. Within two months her paperback was stocked by 15 independent UK bookshops and orderable by libraries through Gardners. Her per-copy margin on those trade sales was thin (~£0.60), but the shelf presence drove her Amazon sales — where she kept the full £2.14 — and built her local profile. Lesson: the two platforms are partners, not rivals.

James — non-fiction business author

James went KDP-only at first for speed, and was live on Amazon UK and US within 48 hours for almost nothing upfront. When he wanted libraries in the UK and Ireland, he added IngramSpark and let Gardners handle the trade. He deliberately skipped BookBaby: the US package pricing and shipping made no sense for a UK-focused business book. Lesson: start on KDP, add reach only when you have a concrete channel in mind.

Emma — illustrated children’s book

Emma needed premium colour, a square trim and a hardback with a dust jacket — formats KDP and IngramSpark handle awkwardly or not at all. She used Lulu for the specialist print quality and sold directly from her own site through Lulu Direct, keeping most of the margin. She learned the hard way to order a proof: her first run had a colour mismatch a physical copy would have caught. Lesson: for specialist formats and direct sales, Lulu earns its place.

Expert Tips from 25 Years in the Industry

When I formatted my own best-seller, Google. Panic. Repeat., the writing wasn’t the nightmare — the formatting and the platform maze were. After hiring a £130 formatter who botched it, I built publishing.co.uk to take that pain off other UK authors. A few things I would tell anyone weighing these four platforms:

• Don’t pick one — pick a stack. KDP for Amazon plus IngramSpark for the trade is the backbone for the vast majority of UK indies. Add Lulu or BookBaby only for a job they do better.
• Own your ISBNs. Buy the block of ten from Nielsen and split them cleanly: one ISBN per format per platform. It keeps your metadata clean and your rights yours.
• Run the real calculator before you set your price. Every platform publishes one. A £9.99 book that makes sense on KDP can lose money on IngramSpark at 55% if you priced it too low — check before you commit.
• File the W-8BEN on day one. It is trivial and it saves 30%.
• Get the file right once. A print-ready PDF that passes first time on KDP will usually pass on IngramSpark and Lulu too. It is the highest-leverage thing you can fix. If you’d rather not fight it, we format your book to KDP spec and return print-ready files in 24 hours.
• Order the proof. Always. On every platform. Before you announce anything.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper for print-on-demand in the UK, KDP or IngramSpark?

Per unit they are close — KDP is £0.85 + £0.010/page for a black-ink book, IngramSpark is within a few pence. The real difference is the model: KDP takes no cut beyond print and pays 60% on Amazon; IngramSpark lets you reach the trade but you hand a 40–55% wholesale discount to retailers. For pure Amazon sales KDP nets you more; for bookshop reach IngramSpark is the only real option.

Do I need all four platforms?

No. Most UK authors need two: KDP for Amazon and IngramSpark for the wider trade. Lulu and BookBaby are for specific jobs — direct sales and specialist formats (Lulu) or done-for-you convenience (BookBaby). Adding platforms you don’t need just multiplies the admin.

Does IngramSpark still charge a setup fee?

No. IngramSpark dropped its per-title setup fee (previously around $49) in 2023, and setup is now free for both print and ebook. It does still charge $25 per file revision and a 1.875% market-access fee on books sold through its global distribution — so get your files right before you upload.

What does BookBaby actually cost a UK author?

Expect roughly $399 (≈£300) for the print-distribution package, plus a minimum 25-copy order, plus US shipping, plus more for premium tiers ($549–$1,099) or ebook conversion (~$299). You then keep 100% of the net — 50% on BookBaby’s BookShop, 10–30% through other retailers. It is convenient but the priciest way in for a cost-conscious UK indie.

How much does KDP pay UK authors per sale?

On Amazon.co.uk, KDP pays 60% of the list price minus the printing cost at £7.99 and above (50% below that). On our £9.99, 300-page example that is £5.99 − £3.85 = £2.14 per copy. Ebooks pay 70% in the £1.77–£12.99 band (the ceiling rose to £12.99 in July 2026), or 35% outside it.

Does Lulu distribute to UK bookshops?

Only weakly. Lulu can push to Amazon and the Ingram network, but for getting onto UK bookshop shelves specifically it is the weakest of the four — IngramSpark is the right tool for that. Lulu’s strength is direct sales through your own store and specialist formats KDP and IngramSpark don’t print.

Can I use KDP and IngramSpark together?

Yes — and most successful indies do. Use KDP for your Amazon paperback and ebook, and IngramSpark for the print edition everywhere else. Keep a separate ISBN for each so your metadata stays clean. One caveat: if you enrol your ebook in KDP Select (for Kindle Unlimited), that is a 90-day Amazon exclusive and blocks ebook distribution elsewhere; print has no such exclusivity.

Which platform is best for selling books directly to my own audience?

Lulu. Its direct-sale margin is the best of the four (roughly 80% of post-print revenue on its own store), and Lulu Direct plugs into Shopify and WooCommerce so you can fulfil from your own website. The trade-off is that no marketplace shopper discovers you there — you supply all the traffic.

Choosing a print platform is not about finding the one winner — it is about matching each platform to the job it does best. KDP owns Amazon. IngramSpark owns the trade. Lulu owns direct and specialist. BookBaby sells convenience. Get that mapping right, own your ISBNs, file your W-8BEN, and check the real calculator before you set your price, and you will keep more of every copy you sell.

Your book deserves to be on the right shelves at the right margin — not scattered across platforms that quietly eat your royalty.

About the Author

Robert Prime is a best-selling self-published author, veteran eCommerce strategist, and the founder of publishing.co.uk. With over 25 years of experience in digital business and 15 successful exits, he brings a battle-tested perspective to the publishing industry. After experiencing firsthand the archaic, headache-inducing process of formatting a KDP-compliant book for his own best-seller, Google. Panic. Repeat., Robert built publishing.co.uk to solve the problem for other authors. He is also a co-owner of the LoveReading.co.uk network (one of the UK’s best-known book review platforms), founder of the Amazon growth agency MrPrime.com, and a member of the Forbes Business Council.