Basic cover design question for self-pub eBook

So, question for those of you who have self-pubbed on Amazon - the cover. How flexible are you allowed to be? As in is there a template into which you slot picture and text and you have limited control, or can you upload your complete cover picture - image and text - all in one and nothing gets changed?

Also, PoD, can you wrap the image around the spine, or is the spine limited to black plus white text, or white plus black text? (Based on a few PoD purchases I've made where the picture was in a strip in the middle of the cover, text was on white stripes top and bottom on the front cover and spine was white with black text.)

You can make your own cover. At the bottom of this page: Amazon.com Sign In follow the "Cover Guidelines" link.

ok that was wrong link... its the book details page. At the bottom.
.

I know I can make my own cover, it is the details of the limitations of the system that are bugging me. I don't want to spend a lot of time putting together an image and then find I'll have to re-do it.
I've looked at Amazon's guidelines - Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing: Get help with self-publishing your book to Amazon's Kindle Store - doesn't help.
Cover guidelines tell you image size, content, rights....but doesn't answer my question. I've tried searching with various terms, but all I get is results with people wanting you to buy their book on self-publishing, or use their publishing service.

What I don't want is a cover that looks like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1530592143/?tag=brite-21
With the text in a white band across the middle.

What I do want is to set up a cover that looks like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00RWMFT2S/?tag=brite-21

Text that is beautiful and integrated with the picture.

What I am trying to ask is:

Can I upload a cover image which includes the text?
Or do I have to upload a cover image without text and then add text separately, with less control over how it looks?

Pm Gary Compton and ask?

Montero said:

Can I upload a cover image which includes the text?
Or do I have to upload a cover image without text and then add text separately, with less control over how it looks?

Click to expand...

Your cover is basically the finished artwork with the cover text already applied to that image. You *do not* upload these separately.

So what you need to do is have your cover image/illustration done, then apply text with the appropriate fonts in order to have your finished cover image.

That's what you upload to Amazon.

So, disclaimer first: I haven't as yet actually self-published on Amazon but I did a fair bit of research a few months back and I have my self-pub bible open on my desk (Catherine Ryan Howard's Self-Printed - it's the single most useful book on the subject I found and blissfully bereft of unfamiliar jargon). If there are any errors here, hopefully the other kind folks will correct me...

Montero said:

the cover. How flexible are you allowed to be?

Click to expand...

If you're publishing via Amazon then there you have 2 different options - kindle e-book publishing, and paperback publishing via Createspace. You can publish the same novel through both, but bear in mind they are essentially different products as far as the publishing process is concerned (at least in terms of the cover).

For kindle, you upload a cover which would be equivalent to your front paperback cover. Amazon provide minimum dimensions, file specifications (JPEG/TIFF) and and file size limitations:
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing: Get help with self-publishing your book to Amazon's Kindle Store
Essentially you should keep the height/width of the image to a 1:6 ratio and follow the other suggestions for the highest quality image you can get within the file size limit. Within those specifications you have a fair degree of flexibility (you can lay out the cover design/picture how you like, place the author name & book title where you like). If your cover image meets Amazon's requirements you can upload it.

Those 2 cover images you linked to in your 2nd post? I'd say it's a design issue, one was a modern professional design and layout that probably cost a fair chunk of cash and the other looked like an old paperback cover from a classic (which I think was the intention). Cover design now is a whole cottage industry and if you want a complicated but arresting cover image you might be best advised to approach a cover designer (it also cuts out some of the frustration that comes with doing it yourself). People can and do create their own covers but there's a wide range of quality in them, and if you want something really good it's probably going to take a while to get right, at least if it's your first go.

Publishing with Createspace is different again: you upload the front cover, spine, and back cover as a single image so it's on whoever's designing it to get the layout right with the spine sitting in the right space (which will depend on how many pages your novel runs to - Createspace has a calculator for working it out). I seem to recall you upload it as a PDF but I could be massively wrong on that. The dimensions will also depend on what height/width you choose for your paperback (there are various options). It's pretty mind-boggling, right?

Montero said:

Can I upload a cover image which includes the text?

Click to expand...

Yes. The uploaded image for both kindle and paperback must have the text within it (Amazon don't add it for you) so once you've got the actual image you need to edit that image and overlay the text on top. There are free image editors and the like out there on the web that you can use - a friend uses something called Gimp, but I've never tried it myself.

There are a number of reputable companies out there that do pretty affordable covers (e-book and/or paperback) so in terms of time-saving that might be your best option. For low cost covers check out the list put out by Smashwords:
Smashwords – Mark’s List

As I haven't done much more than stick my toe in the pool you should probably take the above with a pinch of salt (and hopefully someone will correct any errors I've made). Best of luck whichever option you choose.

Thanks Brian, thanks Gonk - that was exactly what I needed to know. One image with text already on it. Basically I'm prodding at it in between other stuff. I have a reasonable design eye and am planning to take a pass at DIY and try it on one of the cover critting websites. Being able to know that I am not limited to a picture with a text band across it helps in looking at pictures online with an eye to buying one for a cover.
Will also go and take a look at your link thank you Gonk - because while I do have artistic yearnings and pretentions and rather fancy doing the cover, I may well find myself falling short. I too use Gimp btw - linux package.

Montero said:

Thanks Brian, thanks Gonk - that was exactly what I needed to know. One image with text already on it. Basically I'm prodding at it in between other stuff. I have a reasonable design eye and am planning to take a pass at DIY and try it on one of the cover critting websites. Being able to know that I am not limited to a picture with a text band across it helps in looking at pictures online with an eye to buying one for a cover.
Will also go and take a look at your link thank you Gonk - because while I do have artistic yearnings and pretentions and rather fancy doing the cover, I may well find myself falling short. I too use Gimp btw - linux package.

Click to expand...

I made a huge mistake with the cover of the first book I self published. At the time, I thought the most important things were for the cover to look good and to draw the eye at thumbnail size.

While those are important criteria, I've since discovered that the main function of the cover is to convey to the reader that, "Hey, this is the book you're looking for."

I just had that cover redone (a new book in the series is coming out this fall, so I'll be advertising the first one a lot) so that it more closely resembles other covers in the genre.

Man, I loved that cover, too. But it just didn't sell the book.

The "thumbnail issue" is extremely important, and shouldn't be underestimated. But of course the cover must also be striking in its own regard. It's a difficult balance to get right.

Thanks that is very helpful. More food for thought.

I would suggest that you learn all you can about cover design prior to creating a cover on your own. Even then, it's not an easy task. However, there are good places to go for help in understanding what works and what doesn't.

One of my favorite resources is the Joel Friedlander site -- The Book Designer -- especially the "e-Book Cover Design Awards" section. I hope this will help.

To add my two cents to this.

My experience is that the covers I have had to design have used a similar format to what we use at work when we make brochures.

There will be a finished size. This will vary because the number of pages for the paperback or even for a hardbound with a jacket- will change the necessary size of the spine. So it's best to have the book finished and formatted with the page size in stone,so to speak. Then in most cases there will be a template for the design area which includes a bleed area around the whole. Awareness of the bleed area is important because anything overlapping that area will be trimmed away. Once you have that template then you can modify and or stretch your graphic to fit and then insert the text over that and well away from the bleed area.

You want to be particularly careful about borders as in the one you do like; because they need to look like you centered them properly.

The Ebook cover is easier because you can check the standard sizes and then stretch or shrink your image to fit that.

The cover you don't like is not so bad and has it's place-I wouldn't want it for my work also.

I do full wraparound for my covers.