Tips for Hiring a Designer
If you are going to hire someone to design your book covers, the following tips will help.
Ebook Covers-Specs and Tips
A few things to keep in mind when designing your ebook cover:
Technical specifications
Various ebook platforms (Kindle, Apple iBooks, Kobo and others) have slightly different specifications for ebook covers. Here is a good overview of specs that should keep you in good stead everywhere:
- 1:1.5 aspect ratio, meaning height should be 1.5 times the width of the cover
- recommended dimensions: 2500x3750px
- safe minimum dimensions: 666x1000px
- safe maximum file size: 2MB
- recommended file type: JPG
Think About Readability
Your book cover can be tiny when showcased in ebookstores. Make sure to design a cover with big, clear fonts that will catch your reader's attention.
Print / Print-on-Demand Cover Specifications
Print-on-demand covers are more complicated than ebook covers.
This is because:
- The cover must have a front, spine and back.
- Front, back and spine are all contained in a single PDF file.
- The size of your cover will change depending on:
- trim size: is your book a pocketbook, or trade paperback? 5.5 x 8in? 6x9in? Bigger? Smaller?
- page count: A book that has 1,000 pages needs a wider spine than one with 100 pages.
Your printer or print-on-demand supplier will be able to provide you with clear specifications for your cover, which can be sent to whomever is designing your POD cover.
NOTE: Because of the complexity of designing print covers, we recommend hiring a professional to design your print book cover if you are not going to use the Pressbooks cover generator. If you need a designer, Kate McDonnell is one we recommend. You can view her previous work and find her contact details on her website.
It is also possible for you to use free tools outside of Pressbooks, such as the free Cover Creator applications in the Kindle or CreateSpace bookstores or the free design tool Canva.
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