DriveThruRPG Print-on-Demand Prices Increasing Again

Back in March 2025 we reported that print-on-demand costs at DriveThruRPG were increasing by as much as 50% in the US, with the price of a 300-page black-and-white hardcover rising from $13.08 to $19.04. The effect in the UK was much less pronounced, being only around 3-4%.

Now, less than a year later, DTRPG is increasing its PoD prices again. These new prices take effect on February 1st, 2026.

DTRPG uses Lightning Source as its printing partner and has print centres in the US, UK, and Australia. According to DTRPG's publisher newsletter, UK and Australia prices will increase by 3%, and US prices will increase by either 4% or 5%, depending on format--standard color will go up by +4%, while premium color and black & white will increase by +5%.

DriveThruRPG notes that the increase "is not driven by policy or positioning, but simply reflects the rising costs of paper and other materials, labor, and operations involved in producing physical books worldwide."

 

[SAVeira]

Shipping to Canada from the US is very expensive. We run into that problem when selling to Canadians who have their books shipped from our US warehouse.

One of the reasons I switched ordering from the Modiphius US site to the Modiphius UK site. Found the shipping to Canada has been cheaper, faster and without duties.

 

[SAVeira]

Sorry to say it doesn't matter one way or another to me, because their shipping costs to Canada are too high. I haven't ordered anything in print from drivethru in over a decade. It's a shame because many of Drivethru's PDFs supported for POD aren't in the distribution channels here. While getting a PDF printed and bound locally is definitely cost prohibitive.

At this point, I'd rather have the option to have Drivethru PODs be fulfilled by the UK site. A number of UK publishers have in the past few years started allowing Canadians to buy from their UK webstores and a few have found ways to lower the shipping. It seems my days of being a Drivethru customer are numbered. I guess in a way Drivethru is still a handy catalog for me, where I can easily find products and then browse over to the publishers webstore to see if I can buy it there.

I seem to recall at one point Drivethru or were going to have a POD within Canada for their Canadian customers. Maybe I am misremembering.

 

[Parmandur]

That's the economist in you speaking.

Fenris-77's bank account has entered the chat.

More of a historical observation.

 

[stormwriter]

I seem to recall at one point Drivethru or were going to have a POD within Canada for their Canadian customers. Maybe I am misremembering.

To be honest, DTRPG shipping to Canada is very affordable to me (it’s normally 10-20 cad depending on the amount of books). They even send through a local Canadian courier (Purolator) so there are no additional charges. Maybe it depends on where me and the other commenter are located in Canada?

 

[SAVeira]

To be honest, DTRPG shipping to Canada is very affordable to me (it’s normally 10-20 cad depending on the amount of books). They even send through a local Canadian courier (Purolator) so there are no additional charges. Maybe it depends on where me and the other commenter are located in Canada?

I am in Canada and looking back at the last couple of POD orders, it has ranged from $15 to $40 Canadian. Looking at there is two different pricing structure for shipping, one for books and other for things like cards/posters. For books, there is a "Canadian Shipping Module" and "USA Shipping Module", one test has the first at only $20 and the second at $240.00. Then for cards, when I tested there is only "USA Cards Shipping Module", which has three options, all high.

 

[doctorhook]

Canada has spent decades economically integrating with the USA, but the past few years have obviously caused Canada (and many other countries) to reevaluate a lot of industries from a strategic lens, even if it means higher costs. There’s value in stability. The old ways arent likely to return, now that the trust is broken.

With that in mind, I think there’s a lot of potential for Canadians to step up in the printing and publishing sphere. We really do produce a huge proportion of the world’s pulp and paper, I’d love it we built the infrastructure to be a player in the next step of that supply chain. It’s odd that we’re talking about sourcing on-demand publishing (an admittedly tiny niche) from the UK when we make so much paper here.

I admit this is wishful thinking. Ive also not addressed the new trade agreements that Canada is inking with China, China obviously being a huge player in the printing world (and manufacturing generally). Chinese printing is obviously low-cost but still carries its own strategic risks.

TL;DR: It really seems like Canada should be able to print its own books and I hope we get there.

 

[stormwriter]

I am in Canada and looking back at the last couple of POD orders, it has ranged from $15 to $40 Canadian. Looking at there is two different pricing structure for shipping, one for books and other for things like cards/posters. For books, there is a "Canadian Shipping Module" and "USA Shipping Module", one test has the first at only $20 and the second at $240.00. Then for cards, when I tested there is only "USA Cards Shipping Module", which has three options, all high.

Oh right. My comment was for books. Cards and posters are definitely way more expensive.

 

[Lalato]

I was able to a few Canadian POD shops. The trick to searching for them is to make sure you include "book/s" in your search terms. Otherwise you'll get a t-shirt and other non-book printing services.

No clue if it would be more cost-effective though.

 

[kronovan]

Shipping to Canada from the US is very expensive. We run into that problem when selling to Canadians who have their books shipped from our US warehouse.

And the sad thing about it... going forward it's likely only going to get worse. It remains to be seen how the the Can-USA free trade renegotiations pan out this year, but I already want to stop having to order UK books from USA distributors. I fondly remember my brother and I mail ordering hobby products from UK retailers in the 1970s - the days before Can-USA free trade. We could get them at affordable prices with reasonable shipping rates, and while the delivery was lengthy (typically 3-6 weeks), it was reliable.

Colour me idealistic, but I want a return to that for UK published books. And equally important, I want USA distributors to stop profitting from the status quo, which isn't working out well for Canadian customers.

 

[Cergorach]

Canada has spent decades economically integrating with the USA, but the past few years have obviously caused Canada (and many other countries) to reevaluate a lot of industries from a strategic lens, even if it means higher costs. There’s value in stability. The old ways arent likely to return, now that the trust is broken.

With that in mind, I think there’s a lot of potential for Canadians to step up in the printing and publishing sphere. We really do produce a huge proportion of the world’s pulp and paper, I’d love it we built the infrastructure to be a player in the next step of that supply chain. It’s odd that we’re talking about sourcing on-demand publishing (an admittedly tiny niche) from the UK when we make so much paper here.

I admit this is wishful thinking. Ive also not addressed the new trade agreements that Canada is inking with China, China obviously being a huge player in the printing world (and manufacturing generally). Chinese printing is obviously low-cost but still carries its own strategic risks.

TL;DR: It really seems like Canada should be able to print its own books and I hope we get there.

Mind you, I'm not Canadian, but I've heard Canadian publishers trying to sell stuff in the US and folks in Canada trying to get stuff from the US complaining for decades! So it's not just something from the last two 'clown' years, the situation has become worse, but it wasn't great before either (or so I have been told).