Book Cover Design

CREATING A GREAT BOOK COVER

Own Cover Artwork

If you plan to design and create your own book cover, you can do it at a fraction of the cost that you’d pay to have it done for you. It takes a bit of hands on experience to realise the potential, but it’s thoroughly worth it if you have the time to invest.

The most suitable program to use is what is known as a vector program.

There are a range of these types of programs out there but the one I recommend taking advantage of is Inkscape. It’s free to use and offers some amazing design capabilities. It boasts an impressive range of special effects and an awesome set of special feature editing tools. The Inkscape program can be used to create both your cover artwork and your individual book pages.

Once you’ve familiarised yourself with the user-friendly tools and features on a basic level, you’ll be able to design your own eye-catching artwork with ease. You can do everything completely within the vector program if you desire. Alternatively, you can import images or other elements into your book cover layout.

There is no outlay except your time and effort.

So get in there and have a go and you won’t regret it!

Bindings

The page count of your book will decide the type of binding available to you.

Your binding selection determines exactly how your cover artwork is supplied to your printer. The two most common bindings used are:

Saddle Stitched
Perfect Bound

See guidelines below.

PLEASE NOTE: guidelines featured below refer only to printed books ordered through Busy Fingers Publishing. Locate your desired printing company and check their website for guidelines on the supply of cover artwork files.

Saddle Stitched for 8-80 pages
Perfect Bound for 48-300 pages or more

Hardcase or Hard Cover books are also an option but are not as popular. For further information submit an enquiry via the Contact Us page.

Cover Layout Requirements

There will be specific requirements and parameters for your cover layout, according to your binding type.

Saddle Stitched publications are fairly straight forward and will only require a front and rear cover. These cover pages are both treated as separate pages. You can use the internal page template as a guide.

See example below

COVERlayoutbindingSS

Perfect Bound publications have a front and rear cover plus a spine. They are all incorporated on one layout.
See example below COVERlayoutbindingPB

For the guidelines and DIY instructions on how to design your own cover go to:

HAVE YOUR COVER CUSTOM DESIGNED

If designing your own cover feels a bit too overwhelming, or illustrations and graphics aren’t your thing, you may just want to concentrate on the text aspect of your book and have your cover artwork done for you.

For a custom designed book cover through Busy Fingers Publishing with a range of options: