Publishing Your Book: Designing the Cover

In the two previous posts, I discussed how to format your manuscript to prepare it for print and to prepare it for ebook versions. We have dealt with the internal parts of the book; now we turn to the cover. While the content is the most important part of a work, you should not neglect the cover of your book. The saying is true: “you can’t judge a book by its cover”—but that does not stop potential readers from doing it anyway. If your cover and the outside text do not draw a reader in, it does not matter how well the book is written. We’ll look at three aspects: design, content, preparing for upload.
We now assume you have your internal content written, edited, proofed, and formatting properly for print and/or ebook. You are now ready to work on the cover. Here are the steps we will cover (we are on step 3):

1. Introduction
2. Formatting for print
3. Formatting for eBook
4. Cover design
5. Setup, review, and upload for CreateSpace
6. Preparing an ePub for Kindle and iBooks
7. Setup and upload to Kindle
8. Set up and upload to iBooks

Designing the Cover

You have three options for designing a book cover: design it yourself, use an online site of templates, hire a designer.

1. Do it yourself. We usually discourage our clients from designing their own covers. Book design is a field of its own, with do’s and don’ts and right ways and wrong ways. It requires skill and experience. However, if money or artistic control are factors for you, here are our suggestions. First, make sure you know how to use a graphic design program, understand some basics of design (color, space, typefaces, etc.). If you do not, educate yourself. Second, look at a lot of books recently published in your genre. Match the style, layout, fonts, and text. You do not want a romance novel to look like a history book, or a SF work to look like a children’s first reader. Third, look at what kind of text, blurbs, and graphics and/or pictures are used. Copy those styles, designed, and ideas—pick and choose what you like. By doing these things, you have a decent chance of having a cover that will not appear too unprofessional. A professional designer may still be able to pick it apart, but an average reader will (hopefully) notice nothing amiss. Having a chance for your book to stand out and catch a reader’s attention is less likely—at least for good reasons. Some of our client-authors have produced excellent covers; most are fine and present no problems; a few we have had to gently suggest they get some help in redesign.
2. Use an online book cover design site. There are a number of these, with varying quality. When our authors choose this option, we guide them to Amazon’s CreateSpace. Not only does this allow print-on-demand and Kindle books to be produced, but the book cover becomes part of the project rather than a separate part of the project to be added later. CreateSpace has an entire section of book cover designs of various styles, for both print and Kindle. Within each style you can choose colors, layouts, pictures, graphics, and other options. The advantage is that the basic layouts and the combination of elements has been created by professionals. The disadvantages is that the options, while limited, will allow an author to choose elements that do not work well together and scream “amateur!” If you do not have some background in design, we usually suggest just sticking with the default options, and having a number of poeple review your choices before going to print.
3. Hire a designer. This is the best choice, of course, if money is not a concern. Prices can vary, of course, and you are still dependent on the skill and experience of the designer. Always review their portfolio before committing. Amazon CreateSpace has a large field of these independent designers, and many more are available online. Feel free to contact us if you would like some advice—we use two freelancers of different skill, experience, and price.

Content

No matter which of the three above you pursue, you should be aware of this step and have some input or influence. How large will the title be compared to the author name? Usually, the author name is smaller unless the author is well-known to potential readers. Here are other items you need to decide upon:

1. What is your title—is it catchy and appropriate for the genre?
2. What kind of “feel” do you want the cover to evoke?
3. Do you want a photo, a painting, or a graphic design on the front and back?
4. What text will be on the back cover (usually a description or blurb, perhaps a recommendation quote)
5. Will the spine have only title and author name? A graphic/photo thumbnail? Publisher name?

If you are doing the design yourself, you will need to know how to design the size and a number of required elements:

1. Book size. Most graphic uploads required either a PDF or a jpg file of exact dimensions based on the size and style of your book. The thickness of the book determines the dimensions of the spine, of course (which is why you must complete the interior formatting first.)
2. ISBN and barcode. Whether you buy your own ISBN, pay for your own imprint, or use one from your publisher/content publishers, how do you place it on your book?
3. What resolution should you use for any graphics and photos? We always use PDF for layout, because it is vector-based. But pictures are a different problem, and require careful attention to both the input and output resolutions.

When we do design in-house, we use some of the typical programs: Adobe Illustrator is the primary application, but we have also recently begin using iDraw as a quick way of designing vector graphics with a lot of control.
The website BookOw has an excellent resource for downloading a PDF template for your book. Type in your book dimensions, number of pages, type of paper, and your ISBN, and it will output a layout template with those dimensions and the bar code/ISBN in place. You can load that template into your design program. The template will give you the proper layout, as well as margin guides. Check it out here.
Most books include a description on the back, as well as the publisher info, and perhaps author info and a quote from someone. Again, peruse a number of recent books in your genre, and imitate the style, layout, and sizing of the them. The front cover will often have only the title and author name, but you may have a subtitle, or even a short quite. Again, learning what the experts are doing with these elements, and following best practices, are your best bet for designing your own cover.

Preparing for Upload

Once you have your graphic file properly size, designed, and layed out, it is a good idea to let it sit for a while. Come back after a week or so and gauge your reaction. You might export it to other devices: how does it look on your phone and on a tablet? This is especially important if you will be printing to ebook versions.
Print out a high quality version, cut and fold it like a book, and lay it on a desk and put it on a bookshelf. How does it look? With some services (CreateSpace), you can order a proof print at a reduced price. We always recommend that you do this if you will be publishing a print copy.
Once you are happy with the way it looks, export the file as the service requires. In general, you should export with all layers flattened, with images at least 300 dpi.Here some of the basics for some series/distributors (as always, check the guidelines and FAQs of each):

1. CreateSpace. PDF with embedded fonts. Click here for the extensive PDF manual.
2. Kindle. JPG or TIFF, 1563 x 2500 pixels. See here.
3. Apple iBooks. JPG or PNG, 1400 x 1873 pixels or 1600 x 2400.
4. Smashwords. JPG or PNG, 1600 x 2400 pixels.

Conclusions

This article is a brief outline of what is involved in designing a cover for your print and/or eBook. There are many more variables, and, depending on your desires and needs. Sulis is available to help you with any of these stages—contact us from our home page or email here. As always, if you have comments or a brief questions, feel free to comment below.
Good writing!