MAKING YOUR OWN COVER?
Designing a book cover for your new publication is something that most authors and virtually all publishers will leave to the professionals to complete, and there are good reasons as to why, the time, knowledge, skills and expense all contribute as to why they choose a designer to do the work for them. But if you are set on making a DIY cover then here are a few things that you’ll want to take into account when embarking upon the project.
1) Have a clear idea as to who your book is aimed at and remember that your book cover will be ‘advertising’ your work to them.
2) Know what the concept and message of your book is and ensure you spend time developing this visually.
3) Get the images for your book cover design from legitimate sources, just because it’s on the internet will not make it legal to use within your books cover.
4) When using stock imagery make sure you obtain the correct license for use with your book cover design, some licenses will only cover a print run of up to 250,000 (and let’s face it, you want to sell as many copies of your book as possible!!).
5) The same goes for the fonts you intend to use within your design, the fonts which will come with software such as word and PowerPoint (for example) are licensed to be used with your computer alone, it won’t give you permission to use or embed them with the design for your cover.
6) Fonts can be sourced from many legitimate places online but as with images do check the license to ensure you can use them with your cover.
7) Choosing your colour model, if you’re creating a book cover for an eBook alone then you’ll be creating the cover using the RGB (Red, Green & Blue) colour model, this is the colour range (or gamut) which is used by screens on most devices. If it is for a printed book cover then you’ll be using the CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black) colour model, this is what most commercial printers will use and you can find that they will reject your cover design if not created in this model. Also be aware that free software products such as Gimp and Ink-scape do not support CMYK.
8) The eBook sizes will vary slightly, depending on whom you’re going to be using, but here are some of the most popular: Kindle min of 625 x 1000 but best at 2820 x 4500 pxls, Nook the longest side between 700 and 2000 pixels and ibooks 560 x 740 pxls. Most eBook covers are uploaded to the publisher as a JPEG.
9) The size of your book when it’s being printed will depend greatly upon the page count and then the dimensions of the width and height that you decide to publish in. Some publishers are really helpful when it comes to creating your books cover, Createspace even provide a very useful tool on their website (see link) where you can download a template which matches the exact dimensions (based upon the info given).
10) Bleeds, when a book cover is being printed the printers will do so at a slightly larger size than that which will actually fit the book. Around all four sides of the book cover design will be an added area called the ‘bleed’ (normally 0250” or 3.175mm), in this area the design and artwork will continue right up to the edge of the paper, this ensures that when the book is trimmed to size there are no unwanted white lines around the edges of the book.
11) A book cover design which is to be printed will need to be delivered to the publisher or printer as a PDF, you will also need to flatten and layers made within the design and ensure that the fonts you have use are embedded (products such as Adobe’s InDesign will do this for you).
Making your own book cover can be done, but you will need to ensure you take your time, get the right tools, knowledge and research thoroughly, or if it seems like too much hassle then why not get in touch with us?
1) Have a clear idea as to who your book is aimed at and remember that your book cover will be ‘advertising’ your work to them.
2) Know what the concept and message of your book is and ensure you spend time developing this visually.
3) Get the images for your book cover design from legitimate sources, just because it’s on the internet will not make it legal to use within your books cover.
4) When using stock imagery make sure you obtain the correct license for use with your book cover design, some licenses will only cover a print run of up to 250,000 (and let’s face it, you want to sell as many copies of your book as possible!!).
5) The same goes for the fonts you intend to use within your design, the fonts which will come with software such as word and PowerPoint (for example) are licensed to be used with your computer alone, it won’t give you permission to use or embed them with the design for your cover.
6) Fonts can be sourced from many legitimate places online but as with images do check the license to ensure you can use them with your cover.
7) Choosing your colour model, if you’re creating a book cover for an eBook alone then you’ll be creating the cover using the RGB (Red, Green & Blue) colour model, this is the colour range (or gamut) which is used by screens on most devices. If it is for a printed book cover then you’ll be using the CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black) colour model, this is what most commercial printers will use and you can find that they will reject your cover design if not created in this model. Also be aware that free software products such as Gimp and Ink-scape do not support CMYK.
8) The eBook sizes will vary slightly, depending on whom you’re going to be using, but here are some of the most popular: Kindle min of 625 x 1000 but best at 2820 x 4500 pxls, Nook the longest side between 700 and 2000 pixels and ibooks 560 x 740 pxls. Most eBook covers are uploaded to the publisher as a JPEG.
9) The size of your book when it’s being printed will depend greatly upon the page count and then the dimensions of the width and height that you decide to publish in. Some publishers are really helpful when it comes to creating your books cover, Createspace even provide a very useful tool on their website (see link) where you can download a template which matches the exact dimensions (based upon the info given).
10) Bleeds, when a book cover is being printed the printers will do so at a slightly larger size than that which will actually fit the book. Around all four sides of the book cover design will be an added area called the ‘bleed’ (normally 0250” or 3.175mm), in this area the design and artwork will continue right up to the edge of the paper, this ensures that when the book is trimmed to size there are no unwanted white lines around the edges of the book.
11) A book cover design which is to be printed will need to be delivered to the publisher or printer as a PDF, you will also need to flatten and layers made within the design and ensure that the fonts you have use are embedded (products such as Adobe’s InDesign will do this for you).
Making your own book cover can be done, but you will need to ensure you take your time, get the right tools, knowledge and research thoroughly, or if it seems like too much hassle then why not get in touch with us?