CoolLibri

What CoolLibri is

CoolLibri is a French online printer for self-published books. An author creates an account, uploads a Word or PDF file, gets an instant quote and orders printed copies, starting from a single one. The home page sums up the proposition in three lines: "CoolLibri vous accompagne et imprime votre livre. Sans intermédiaire, vous restez maître de la diffusion et de la vente." CoolLibri supports you and prints your book; with no intermediary, you stay in control of distribution and sales.

That last point defines the service. CoolLibri is a printer with self-publishing tools around it, not a publisher that takes over the book. The author decides how many copies to print, and where to sell them, and CoolLibri adds an online library where the book can be listed for sale if the author wants it. The whole site is in French and aimed at French-speaking authors, from first-time novelists to families printing a genealogy.

What an author gets

The product range is wider than novels. The print menu covers:

• novels (romans) and pocket-format books (livre de poche);
• magazines and brochures;
• comics (bandes dessinées) and manga;
• spiral-bound books and theses;
• photo books, including holiday albums;
• biographies;
• bookmarks;
• e-books, ordered separately.

A second menu lists themed projects the company has written guides for: cookbooks, genealogy books, training booklets, order-of-service booklets for baptisms and weddings, museum booklets, school project magazines and manga.

The home page lists the advantages under three headings.

Controlled spending. Printing from one copy ("Impression dès 1 exemplaire"), no stock, and an immediate online quote, so there is no surprise at checkout.

Files analyzed for free. An author can upload a Word or PDF file. The site analyzes it online straight away and explains what needs changing in the file if anything does, with technical support on hand. In a reply to a customer on the blog, a CoolLibri staff member describes the print module as letting the author check several times that the format, the layout and the characters are correct before the book is printed.

Online cover creation. A free cover designer lets the author customize images, text and color, and the site describes it as simple and quick to use ("Simple et rapide d'utilisation"), with cover ideas "par centaines", by the hundred.

The service menu goes further than printing. Under the creation of the book it lists typing and layout (saisie et mise en page) and corrections. Under manufacturing it has guides to the formats, bindings and papers on offer. Under distribution it covers ISBN numbers and France's legal deposit (dépôt légal). A professional access, Accès PRO, and a made-to-measure option, Sur Mesure, sit at the top of every page for projects that do not fit the standard configurator.

Selling through the CoolLibri library

Printing is only half of self-publishing, and CoolLibri offers a way to sell. The home page says the company has a library (bibliothèque) that an author can use as a shop window to be seen online and to offer the book for sale, and where readers can discover other authors in other genres. The communication menu adds an author page, communication materials, a free advertising option and a press section. The library has an adults-only category behind an age check.

The company also runs its own literary prize; a banner on the home page announces that "Le prix CoolLibri est lancé !" and invites authors to take part.

The quantity discount and the environmental case

CoolLibri presents one of its pricing mechanics as an environmental measure, and it is worth understanding because it changes what an order costs. A pop-up on the home page explains that the company has organized production around quantity steps chosen to optimize paper and consumables. When a book is printed it is placed several times on one large sheet. If an author orders 3 copies when 4 fit on the sheet, paper is wasted. So CoolLibri gives a discount on quantities that limit paper consumption, which it lists as 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 copies, and says the savings from this organization are passed on in the price.

The same notice states that "Notre société est certifiée ISO 14001 (environnement) et Imprim'Vert", the company holds ISO 14001 environmental certification and the French Imprim'Vert label, and that respect for the environment is at the heart of its strategy.

Shipping

CoolLibri ships abroad as well as within France. A "Livraison à l'étranger" notice says the site shows the costs and delivery times it offers internationally, and that the exact amount appears once the author has validated an address in the order process. The pages do not print those rates or times.

Support and reputation

The site gives a French phone number, 05 31 61 60 42, and email support, with hours given as Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 18h, and suggests contacting the team at quieter times or by email when call volume is high. Help also comes as an FAQ, online help pages and a help video. The contact address given in a blog reply is contact@coollibri.com.

The header shows a customer rating of 4.4 out of 5 from 27,179 verified reviews. The blog comments are open, including a critical one: a customer who found the printed characters too small to read and could no longer log in. The company answered publicly the next day, pointing to the checks in its print module and inviting the customer to write in.

The blog

CoolLibri runs a writing and self-publishing blog, "Écrire un livre et autoédition, le blog", with regular new posts. Recent posts deal with figures of speech in fiction and with writing a novel with the help of AI. An older post written for small publishing houses argues the case for print-on-demand: a book is printed only when ordered and paid for, there are no storage costs, no pulping of unsold stock, and the time saved can go into finding and supporting authors. It also notes a limit of the method, saying print-on-demand is not automatically the right choice for high-end illustrated books, where expert graphic support is indispensable.

Pricing

Prices come from the instant online quote rather than a published list. The structure is clear enough: an author pays per order, from 1 copy, with the stepped quantities above priced lower, and an account is required before ordering.

Who it suits

CoolLibri suits a French-speaking author who wants to print their own book and keep full control of it: a novelist testing a first print run, a family printing a genealogy or a cookbook, a student printing a thesis, a club printing a magazine. The free file analysis and the free cover tool lower the barrier for someone without design software, and the single-copy minimum means a proof costs one book.

It suits an author less well if they want a publisher that handles distribution to bookshops. CoolLibri's own line is that the author stays in charge of distribution and sales, with the library as the in-house outlet. The site is in French, so an author who does not read French will have trouble with the configurator, the guides and support.