What a personalised book costs and what's included

Print isn't ordered instead of the digital book but 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 book to print. That's why the prices add up rather than being an either/or choice.

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

Delivery is added to print and is charged per parcel, not per copy — a second copy in the same parcel doesn't double it. The audiobook is an add-on: you can add it straight to your order or at any time later in your account, at the same price.

An illustration regeneration only costs extra once you've used up the included ones — then it's A$0.49 each, and you buy them in the editor anywhere from one to twenty at a time. In practice, most books are finished without paying anything extra: questionable illustrations are checked and regenerated automatically before you even see the book.

What never costs extra: storing the book, downloading the PDF again, rewriting the text or changing the dedication.

Real examples show best which items add up and which never appear at all. None of this is a bundle — every item can be ordered on its own.

The digital book has one price, however ambitious your brief. More heroes don't make it dearer — siblings, parents and the dog in one book cost the same as a single child. Neither does the choice of language or illustration style, even though some styles take more work than others.

The length of the dedication, the number of text edits and how many times you download the book make no difference either. That's deliberate: while you're putting the book together, you should have no reason to skimp on the things that make it a book for your child.

The only two things that actually move the price are the physical parcel (print and delivery) and illustration regenerations beyond the included ones.

With an ordinary bookshop book, the cost of the text and illustrations is spread across the whole print run — ten thousand copies share one illustrator's work. With a personalised book nothing gets spread: 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 personalised book is printed as a single copy to order, not in a print run — there's no warehouse and no risk of half a pallet left over, but there's no volume discount either.

That's why offers can't be compared 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 print and delivery are in the price or on top of it. How to tell a printed-in name from real personalisation is explained in our introduction to personalised books.

None of these steps is a trick — they're options that really are there at checkout; people just often don't know about them.

You can pay by card or phone through a secure payment gateway — your card details never reach us — or by bank transfer, where after ordering you receive the payment details, including a QR code and a payment reference.

With a bank transfer, one thing is worth knowing: the book only starts generating once the money arrives. An instant payment lands within a few minutes, even in the evening and at weekends; a standard transfer usually arrives the next business day. How much leeway to allow 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 payment. You can use one code per order; a voucher, however, can be spread across several items and its remaining balance carries over.