During the November 12, 2005, meeting of Northern California Publishers & Authors we discussed the importance of book covers and critiqued covers that attendees brought for review. At the meeting I talked about my experience with building covers and distributed handouts.
The color shift when I converted this image from RGB to CMYK got lost when I exported the file as a PDF. Notice the difference in the blues and the darker red of the CMYK swimming trunks.
Save your completed RGB file before converting to CMYK so you can go back and make changes. If you publish through Lulu.com, check their cover guidelines before converting to CMYK. As of September 2005, they requested RGB cover art.
Of course, you’re going to double-check that all your files meet the specs of your selected printer. The template handouts are a rough guide only; your printer may require other dimensions.
The Handouts
- Working with Color (934 KB)
- Bestselling Book Covers (2,171 KB)
- Sample Cover Flat (1,822 KB)
- Dust Jacket Template (150 KB)
- Perfectbound Cover Template (105 KB)
Pocket Pal: A Graphic Arts Production Handbook can be ordered from International Paper. It’s now available at Amazon.com, too.
The book cover doubles were featured at www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/. The bestsellers were displayed at Barnes & Noble.com. To see how the big publishers package their Advance Review Copies, search for “ARC” in the Books category at eBay.
