First, I don’t use Amazon’s Cover Creator. It didn’t fit my needs.
Getting your paperback or hardcover book to look right requires extra finesse. My first efforts with Members of the Cast, pictured on the left, were OK at best. The photo is of an early hardcover edition, and it was a result of uploading my front cover and letting Amazon create the back cover. Notice how close the blurb is to the edge. It isn’t quite as bad on the paperback, but the font seems bulky and unprofessional.
I now provide full wraparound covers. My new book, on the right, is a result of uploading the pdf copy of the cover. PDFs are “what you see is what you get.” The images below are my current working uploads of the book coming out on March 3rd.
Unfortunately, the wraparound cover size differs for hardcover and paperback. This allows for the cover material to be wrapped and glued around the laminate. The differences in the two pictures below are subtle, the main difference being the thickness of the spine and fold. Make sure your front cover image goes at least to the white dotted line on three sides and is on the dotted line on the spine side.
This paperback pdf is 12.86 X 9.25 inches.
The Hardbound cover is 14.37 X 10.42 inches.
For those struggling with the layout of a full cover, I’m not skilled in drawing programs, so I place the elements of the picture in the LibreOffice draw program. (I’m sure MS Office has a like application.) This allows me to move the school background, the title, Whitney, or Freddy to fit the template. I especially like the treble clef sign in place of the ampersand.
Most importantly, I can use the font and size I want for the blurb. (I use Garamond.) This is a snapshot of the hardbound cover. I highlighted the blurb to show it can be moved. I use my own ISBN and let Amazon place it.
Footnote:
Amazon asks for a front cover for Kindle ebooks, and the image needs to be 1600 X 2400 pixels at 300 dots per inch. Uploading it is straightforward.
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