FAQs: Book Covers

You have the choice of choosing one of our stylish template covers or you can upload your own cover images, see below for details of how to upload your own images in minutes.

If you wish to use a template cover, first click on Home on the top menu above and begin publishing a book by clicking the ‘Begin’ button on the FeedARead.com homepage. This takes you to login or join the site. Then click on the Begin Publishing button and add your book details on the first page of the publishing process and upload your book manuscript as prompted. Once you have done this, email us at TemplateCovers@feedaread.com with your chosen template choice. We will add your cover choice to the cover creation publishing step for you, and, once you are on the cover creation step page, you can view your cover and the system will take you through the simple process to type your book title, author name and back cover synopsis on your cover.

Uploading your own cover images:
You can upload your own cover images during our simple cover creation publishing step, and our system will automatically size your images correctly for you in simple steps if you have any difficulty sizing your own images to the correct sizes below. Try the cover creation step now as outlined in the next paragraph, and see how your cover will appear in minutes. Or click to begin publishing your book and the system will take you through the simple steps to publish including to upload your cover images.

Try the simple cover creation system:
Auto-sizing The simplest and quickest way to check your cover images are correct is to begin publishing as outlined in the paragraphs above and go to the cover creation step and upload your images. This takes minutes to do, and our system automatically sizes your images to the correct book cover size and will display exactly how your cover will appear. Simply start publishing a new book as outlined in the paragraphs above, then just complete up to and including the step where you add your book title. Then click on My Books under your Author Account page on the left menu, and click the Edit button next to your book title on that page. This will take you to a page where you can edit your book’s details. Click View/Edit next to Cover Art to upload your own cover images. You can also add spine text and spine images if you wish, but you can only add spine text and images after you have uploaded and approved your manuscript for print, as the system can then add the correct spine width for your book’s page count on the cover creation page.

The simple upload system on the feedaread cover creation page works as above as sizing covers correctly is the area authors usually have most difficulty with, so the cover creation step sizes covers correctly for you in minutes if you choose to upload your own cover images.

Once you are on the cover creation step, or to return to the cover creation step before published, login and click the Edit button next to your book title, then click View/Change next to Cover Art to view your cover. You can upload cover images via the buttons on the left hand menu, and also add cover text as required including back cover text. Then, after your manuscript is uploaded and approved for print by you during the book upload process, send your cover for approval via the button on the cover creation page. 

Cover Editing Tools:
 

Login to the site, then click Edit next to your book title, then view/change next to Cover Art.
When adding text via the buttons on the cover creation page left hand menu you can edit as follows:

Back Cover Text: Click on Back Cover Text on the left hand menu of the Cover Creation page, then add text in the box that appears, and click refresh and wait a few moments and it will display on your cover image. You can change the font and colour size too and then click refresh for this to update.

Text positioning: You will see three little boxes below the font size, the first one is the highest position for text, the second the middle, and the third the lowest position for text. Click one and then click the ‘Refresh’ button and text will move on your cover accordingly after a moment.

Font Size: To change font size for cover text, select preferred font size from the font size drop down menu and click the Refresh button and the font size will change on your cover after a moment.

Background Colour: Click on the black box in background colour on left hand menu and select your colour of choice and then click the refresh button. Note that this changes the background colour on the parts of the cover (front, back or spine) where you have not added your own cover image.

Colour of text: To change colour for text, click the small white rectangular box next to the font size. You will see a range of colours, move your cursor across them and stop when you see the colour you like in the formerly white box. Then click the the Refresh button and the colour of text will change on your cover after a moment.

The specific sizes for covers are below, but our system will automatically resize your images to the correct size when you upload them in our simple cover creation step during the book upload process. 


Front Cover and Back Cover Images:

5 x 8 books If you choose to publish at 5 inches wide x 8 inches high then your front cover and back cover image should each be 5.125 inch wide x 8.25 inch high and at a high resolution, ideally 300 dpi.

6 x 9 books If you choose to publish at 6 inches wide x 9 inches high then your front cover and back cover image should each be 6.125 inch wide x 9.25 inch high and at a high resolution, ideally 300 dpi.

Auto-Sizing Our cover creation system will size your images correctly for you if you have difficulty sizing. Try our cover creation system in minutes as outlined in the top question of the Book Covers FAQs.

Spine Image: You don’t have to add a spine image as this can be quite specialized, but can just add text on your spine by using our simple cover creation programme as outlined in the top question of the Book Covers FAQs.

If you choose to upload a spine image, click here to view the spine width calculator for the number of pages in your book. The spine calculator will give the correct spine width for both 5 inch wide x 8 inch high books and 6 inch wide x 9 inch high books, as both sizes have the same width for individual pages in a book. If you have difficulty sizing a spine image to the correct size, just try our simple cover creation system as outlined above. Our system will correctly size your spine image in seconds in the cover creation program after you have uploaded your final manuscript in the publishing steps.

Cover text: Please ensure any cover text is a minimum of 13mm or .5 (half) inch from the outer sides of your cover. Our cover creation system shows you on the screen if you have done this correctly if you are uploading your own images on the cover creation step.

Bleed Area: .125 inch of the very outer sides of your cover is the ‘bleed area’ - the printers safety margin for trimming and printing a book - and will not appear on the final cover. Your cover image should extend right across your cover however including the bleed area. Our system displays this bleed area automatically to you when you upload a cover image so you can see where it is on your cover, and automatically sizes your images correctly as above if you have difficulty sizing your images. Try our cover system as above.

Cover Size and Resolution: Cover Size: Our system will adjust your image(s) to the correct size if you are not able to. Cover Resolution: We recommend that your image(s) be 300 dpi in resolution for the best print resolution quality. If you are uploading an image of below this resolution or of low clarity then this is the author responsibility.

CMYK Values: The overall combined percentage of CMYK values of artwork for our printer's presses should be less than 240%. For example, the 'rich black' they recommend would be 60% Cyan 40% Magenta 40% Yellow 100% Black (60+40+40+100=240%). All other colors in the artwork should remain less than 240% CMYK overall color density as well. You can upload your cover and if there are any issues re the above, which there usually aren’t, we will inform you when the printers process your book.

Back Cover Bar Code: Our printers will add a barcode and ISBN on the back cover for you after your cover is submitted for publishing. The cover creation page display clearly shows the space for the barcode and ISBN to you so be sure not to add text over it. Please don’t add a price to your cover at this stage, as this restricts the flexibility of altering your price in the future in line with changes to average retail prices and commercial demand. The printers recommend not adding a book price to the cover as most sales are online and this avoids you incurring cover revision fees in the future if average book prices change over a number of years.

You should send your cover designer the following information so that they can size your book cover correctly in order that your cover may be published. We advise checking with any cover designer that you are thinking of hiring that they have experience of book cover design as they needs to be absolutely exact in size and layout in order for your book to be published.

Important Note: If your book designer is designing a full front, back and spine image cover then  should give your cover designer the final page count of your manuscript in the book size you have chosen to publish in - book sizes are either 5 inches wide x 8 inches high or 6 inches wide x 9 inches high -so that your designer may size your spine width correctly as outlined below. Finalise your manuscript first accordingly. Click on Book Manuscripts in the frequently asked questions for manuscript requirements and also correctly sized manuscript templates to paste your book into as required so that you may edit and prepare your completed manuscript for upload to the site.

You can choose to give the cover designer access to the cover creation step for your book to upload your cover to our system for you. To access the cover creation page after you have started to create a book, click Go next to your book title and view/change next to Cover Art.  If a cover designer designs and uploads a cover for you, you should be sure to check the cover on the cover creation step of publishing so that you can see that it meets the design requirements you gave your cover designer before you approve it for publishing in the publishing steps. Login and click Edit next to your book title and view/change next to Cover Art to view your cover once uploaded, then send for site approval via the button on the cover creation page when ready. Note that you must have uploaded and approved your book manuscript in the book upload process before the spine image can be uploaded on the cover creation page. This is because the system then knows the correct spine width for your final page count.

The designer should size exactly to the correct sizes, specifications and ideal resolution of 300 dpi for cover images as outlined below. You or the cover designer can also email an all-in-one cover to us as a high resolution 300 dpi jpeg to covers@feedaread.com - but it must be the correct size as outlined below and in jpeg format without any crop or other marks on the cover or blank space outside of the cover and cover bleed area. If the cover received is an incorrect size for your book we will inform you and refer you back to this page. We cannot give any further information on cover design beyond this information, as how to size a book cover is outlined on this page and correct sizing is the role of the cover designer that you have chosen to design your cover.

Front Cover and Back Cover Images - information for Cover Designers:

5 x 8 books If you choose to publish at 5 inches wide x 8 inches high then the front cover and back cover image should each be 5.125 inch wide x 8.25 inch high and at a high resolution, ideally 300 dpi.

6 x 9 books If you choose to publish at 6 inches wide x 9 inches high then the front cover and back cover image should each be 6.125 inch wide x 9.25 inch high and at a high resolution, ideally 300 dpi.

Spine Image - information for Cover Designers: 

Click here to view the spine width calculator for the final number of pages in the author's book which the author should have prepared in a 5 inches wide x 8 inches high manuscript or 6 inches wide x 9 inches high manuscript document depending on their chosen publishing size. The spine calculator will give the correct spine width for both 5 inch wide x 8 inch high books and 6 inch wide x 9 inch high books, as both sizes have the same width for individual pages in a book.

Cover text: Please ensure any cover text is a minimum of 13mm or .5 (half) inch from the outer sides of your cover. If you are uploading a cover as front, back and spine images on our cover creation page then the system shows you on the screen if you have done this correctly when uploading images during the cover creation process. To upload jpeg cover images, the author clicks to Login and clicks Edit next to their book title and then the view/change button next to Cover Art. There are simple buttons on the left hand menu of the cover creation page to upload front, back and spine images. The reason the cover creation page works by uploading individual images is that it ensures images are the correct size for publishing as this is the part that authors find most difficult.

Bleed Area: .125 inch of the very outer sides of the cover is the ‘bleed area’ - the printers safety margin for trimming and printing a book - and will not appear on the final cover. Our system displays this bleed area automatically to you when you upload a cover image on the cover creation step so you can see where it is on your cover, and automatically sizes your images correctly as above if you have difficulty sizing your images - as long as the manuscript uploaded by the author is their final manuscript and page count. The cover image should extend across the whole cover including the bleed area.

Cover Size and Resolution:  Image(s) should be 300 dpi in resolution for the best print resolution quality.

CMYK Values: The overall combined percentage of CMYK values of artwork for our printer's presses should be less than 240%. For example, the 'rich black' they recommend would be 60% Cyan 40% Magenta 40% Yellow 100% Black (60+40+40+100=240%). All other colors in the artwork should remain less than 240% CMYK overall color density as well. You can upload your cover and if there are any issues re the above, which there usually aren’t, we will inform you when the printers process the book.

Back Cover Bar Code: Our printers will add a barcode and ISBN on the back cover for you after your cover is submitted for publishing. The cover creation page display clearly shows the space for the barcode and ISBN to you so be sure not to add text over it. Please don’t add a price to your cover at this stage, as this restricts the flexibility of altering your price in the future in line with changes to average retail prices and commercial demand. The printers recommend not adding a book price to the cover as most sales are online and this avoids you incurring cover revision fees in the future if average book prices change over a number of years.

Once you've uploaded and approved your book manuscript during the book upload process you can then add spine text or upload a spine image as the system then knows the correct spine width for your page count. To add spine text or upload a spine image, login to FeedARead and click Edit next to your book title, and then view/change next to Cover Art. Then submit your cover to the site for processing via the button to submit your cover on the cover creation page.