Cover Previews
Posted on July 18, 2007
Filed Under Self-Publishing with Lulu |
Lulu gives you two options for creating a book cover. The first option involves uploading the front cover or choosing from their gallery. Either click on the book cover template or click on the tabs.
If you’ve decided to upload your own book cover, you’ll need to format your file to measure 1838×2775 pixels and set at 300dpi. These measurements are a bit over the 6×9 format, which allows for bleeds (when images extend to the very edge or just over the document’s edge). Once your cover is formatted correctly, upload it.
Let’s say you want a very plain book cover, or your cover contains an image only. This screen will allow you to add a title and the author’s name in a variety of fonts and colors. You also have a variety of colors for a plain book cover.
One of the more advanced features of Lulu is uploading a one-piece cover. This feature allows you to design the spine and back covers so they will have the same font consistency. I didn’t have to worry about using this feature when publishing the anthology because I used the standard Lulu fonts. My upcoming novel is a different story. I’ll be testing this feature out then.
In the meantime, we’ll finish this exercise by formatting the spine and back cover. You can enter the text for your synopsis directly into the dialog box or paste it from a file. With the spine, you can opt to display the Lulu imprint or leave it out.
Once you finish choosing your colors and fonts, click “Save & Continue.”
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I was fiddling with this feature last night. At this stage, I’m still working on the “test” subject so I wasn’t all that concerned about the cover, but had a look at the various options for when I do the real thing.
I didn’t like the fact that you couldn’t say where the title or author’s name were to be situated on the page. And…when I downloaded one of their covers to play with, I couldn’t get the font large enough so I still wasn’t happy.
I ended up letting Lulu put the title in and I included my name where I wanted it on the manipulated version of their cover. However, when I do the real publication I want to have more control. Can you discuss software you use for manipulating the cover images please? I’m not happy with mine.