What does your book designer need from you to design your book cover and then to prepare it for printing? The path to publishing can be confusing, and I hope this article will lay out for you everything you need to consider—or the information you need to gather—to hand over to your professional book designer. Preparing everything your book cover designer needs ahead of time will save you and your designer time, and perhaps save you money, too!
This front cover was designed by Usman Saleemi for Eline Allaart. I made final adjustments to the front cover and then designed the back cover and spine to match the front cover.
1. For the front cover
In order to design a relevant and impactful cover, I ask my clients to fill out a questionnaire that gives me all of the information I need. Some of the main information I ask for in the questionnaire is:
The finalized book title (and preferably the subtitle, too).
A description of your book’s target audience.
Names of other books that might be targeted to the same audience.
Examples of a few book covers that you like and/or don’t like.
Cover dimensions (width x height) - designing a cover before this information is available is problematic.
I also like to have a one-page book summary that I can read to learn the main themes of your book.
If you have a particular image or graphic that you want to include on the front cover, provide this in the highest quality/resolution possible.
2. For the back cover
The back cover of your book will only be designed after the front cover design is finalized. Which of the following elements do you want to include, and do you have them ready? Don’t forget to see what other authors in your genre include on their back covers and decide how similar you want your back cover content to be.
Title, subtitle (sometimes included on a back cover, sometimes not)
Book summary text and possible subheading(s)
Any other photos, graphics or symbols (or the designer will suggest what visuals would be best for the back cover)
Author bio and / or author photo
Endorsements
Advertising copy (such as “More than 10,000 copies sold!” or “Now in its third edition!”)
Credit (sometimes a cover design, cover image or translation credit is included on the back cover)
Publisher or company logo(s)
Website or contact information
3. For the barcode / ISBN area
Barcode file: The file I need to place your barcode on the back of your book is preferably an eps (vector) file of the barcode. However, pdf or jpeg format may work as well. If you are working with a publisher, the ISBN and barcode file will likely be provided for you. If you are self-publishing, you will need to buy and access the ISBN and barcode files yourself. (If you are creating your book through a print-on-demand printer like Amazon KDP, they may include a free ISBN and barcode and may even offer to place the barcode onto the cover after it arrives at the printer. If this is the case, I don’t need the barcode file but I do need to know where the barcode will be positioned and its size. The printer should be able to provide a template showing this.)
Price: If you want the price included on the back cover and and it is not already embedded in the ISBN graphic, please provide the price (or prices, if it will be sold in different countries/currencies).
4. For the spine
To build the spine of your book, I need to know two things:
What content should be included? For the spine, the standard is to include the title and author name. If you want to include a publishing house logo or anything “extra” you should send the logo along in eps format or in the highest quality/resolution possible.
How wide is the spine? Spine width depends on the number of sheets of paper in your book and what kind of paper is used (every brand or type of paper has a different thickness). Your printer can only give you the spine size once you know exactly how many pages are in your book. If you are using a print-on-demand printer like Amazon KDP or IngramSpark, you can calculate the spine size yourself on their websites. If you are using a traditional printer, you will likely need to contact your sales representative and ask him or her. Either way, your book’s spine cannot be created until you send this information to the designer.
Ready to get started on your book cover project? Learn more about my book design service and start thinking through what you need to provide to make the design process run smoothly!