Recently I published my ebook on
CreateSpace. When you list a book on create space you can have them
create a cover for you, or you can submit your own. Since I had
already created an ebook cover for Shaper of Stone, I wanted to use
the same image on the print book.
The big difference between an ebook
cover and a print cover is that the ebook cover is just the front of
the book while the print cover is one big image that wraps around
from the back of the book to the front of the book. It is the back,
spine and front of the book all in one image.
To make the print cover you need to
know the size of your book. The trim size will tell you how big the
front and back covers should be, but to figure out the size of the
spine you need to know how many pages are in the book and
how thick each page is.
CreateSpace provides the numbers so you
can do the math. Do the math? Hah! My degree is in math and I didn’t
want to do the math. Fortunately you don’t have to. You can use the Artwork & Templates tool at
https://www.createspace.com/Help/Book/Artwork .do to do the work for
you. The page even has a great set of instructions right next to the
form.
When it is done you’ll have a zip
file that contains a pdf and a png for your cover. Open the png file
in any art program and simply cut and past your image into the areas
set aside for each piece.
Since I already had artwork from my ebook
that I was going to use, the entire process took less than an hour.
If you are going to use art from your
ebook be sure to verify that you have the print rights to it. I’ve
noticed that many cover artists have one price for ebook and a different
price for ebook and print.
Good Luck!
