Print on demand question

[MemoryTale]

This is possibly going to be the strangest question asked on this forum, but whatever. Is it possible to send a book to a print on demand site, and make sure it can't be bought by anyone?

The reason I'm asking is because in my foolishness, I decided to write a book for Mini-MT's birthday, and wanted something a bit more book-looking than a bunch of pages in a ring binder, but because it's a birthday present it's supposed to be a book only she has.

So is it possible, and what's a good site to use?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Here’s an idea - set up a new paperback but don’t release it. Instead order a proof copy and that’s it. Would that work? Lulu or KDP publishing should be able to do that?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I believe that people sometimes use Lulu for things like family histories, books that won't be offered to the public, and only the person who uploaded the book can buy copies of. Or at least, Lulu used to offer that kind of set-up, I think. You might check to see if they still do. You'll be sporadically getting emails from them for a long time urging you to do things to promote a book you have no intention of promoting, or selling either, but what happens to the book will be completely in your hands.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Is it possible to send a book to a print on demand site, and make sure it can't be bought by anyone?

set up a new paperback but don’t release it. Instead order a proof copy and that’s it.

Yep, that's what I'd recommend for Amazon KDP.

 

[MemoryTale]

Thanks, guys, some good ideas to look into there

 

[Venusian Broon]

I found this company a while ago, it might do what you want. It says it does runs of 1 - 1000+

Book Printing UK – Print Your Own Book Online Today

 

[tinkerdan]

The only thing with amazon is that a review copy has a banner across it like a watermark saying that it is not for sale.
I'm not sure if you can order an author copy without publishing it.
However, I do use the review copy for final editing phase and usually obtain three copies for three editors; myself and two others. Other than the watermarked cover, they are the same as the final.

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

If finding a print-on-demand option fails, you can always look for a print shop that will do small print runs. Though it will likely cost a lot more and I'm not sure if they'll do single book printing. The problem, as others have mentioned, with setting up a PoD and just printing a review copy is that most places will, either on the cover or one of the pages, print that it's a proof copy and not for sale.