Steps in Designing Your Self-Published Book Cover
About 2 min read
Although it is often better to have your cover designed by a professional graphics or a book designer, you can still do the job yourself, especially if the design in simple.
You need to decide on a graphics program to use, make several cover files for the various uses and then convert the cover into a PDF for printing.
Questions you may have include:
- What software should I use?
- What is a process for making cover files?
- What is the final step?
This lesson will answer those questions. There is a mini-quiz near the end of the lesson.
Software to use
Since you probably are using Adobe InDesign to lay out the content of your book, using another Adobe graphics application, such as Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign, is advisable.
Problems with Fireworks
You can even use Fireworks to design the cover, although that program is really intended for web page applications. It is the easiest application to use, but there are also some problems with it. One major problem is that since the barcode graphic is usually an EPS file, which Fireworks cannot read well, you would have to convert the file to some other format. That may not be the best route to use.
InDesign
Since you probably are using InDesign to lay out your book, it might be a convenient choice for designing your book cover.
Requirements
You must use CMYK color, since that is required for color printing. The resolution of your cover and its illustrations or pictures much be a minimum of 300 dpi. Fonts must be embedded in the file.
Process
A good process for designing your cover is to start with three actual size cover files: front, spine and back cover. The front and back images will be the book size—say, 6X9 inches. You can approximate the width of the spine until you get the final page count.
You can then make reduced-size copies of the front cover for marketing purposes. You can also have two copies of the back cover—one with the barcode for hardcopy uses and one without the barcode for e-book purposes.
Make PDF
Once you have the exact spine width, you can stitch the three files together to make a full cover file. However, you must add 0.125 inch of bleed around the edges to make the file ready for printing. Since most digital printers want the cover sent to them as a PDF file, you should make the conversion to PDF.
Summary
You can design your book cover yourself, especially if the design in simple. Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign can be used to make the cover.
You need to decide on a graphics program to use, make several cover files for the various uses and then convert the cover into a PDF for printing.
See Side Menu for more Self-Publishing topics
Be creative in what you do
Resources
The following are some resources on this topic.
Websites
Mini-quiz to check your understanding
Self-check your understanding
What is the biggest problem with using Fireworks to design your cover?
Why should you make so many versions of the cover?
Why must a bleed area be added to the cover?
Pick an answer to see instant feedback. Re-read the lesson if you miss one.
If you got all three correct, you are on your way to becoming a Champion in Publishing. If you had problems, you had better look over the material again.
What do you think?
Do you have any questions, comments, or opinions on this subject? If so, send an email with your feedback. We will try to get back to you as soon as possible.
Also see Answers to Readers’ Questions.