Designing my cover

Once your mansuscript has successfully converted, You can use our MyCover app to create a cover for your book, using one of our layouts, or you can upload your own cover design. Just click 'continue' from the book conversion screen and you'll be taken to the MyCover App.

The front cover of the book, rather obviously, is where most authors want to put the title and identify themselves as the creator of the book.

The back cover of the book usually contains a summary or description of the book, and in some cases biographical information about the author. The spine of the book is the vertical edge as it stands on the bookshelf. In Australia and the USA, the text on the spine runs from top to bottom, but in Europe it traditionally runs from bottom to top. The usual order of the components on the spine is: author/editor, title, publisher and publisher logo.

Working with the MyCover app

1. Choose a cover design from the carousel at the top. To see each cover design in more detail, click here to download a PDF of all our cover templates. Please note: the pictures are just examples – if you want to use a picture, you can upload your own.
2. If you’ve chosen a cover template with one or more images, click on the image upload button to upload them from your computer. You can also change the colours of the cover images by clicking on the colours button . Images will need to have a resolution of at least 300dpi [dots per inch] to look good on your cover. If you’re not sure, most image editing software such as Photoshop or Picasa can tell you the resolution of your image.
3. Add in your title and author text. This will appear on the spine too, if your book’s spine is wide enough. Remember that the width of your spine depends on how many pages your book has, so you might not be able to fit words on the spine of a shorter book.
4. To choose the colours of your book cover background and text, click on the palette button . To make sure you get a professional looking book design, we’ve provided a choice of four associated colour palettes.
5. Alternatively, skip the above steps and simply choose ‘my own cover’ from the carousel. You will then be shown a diagram of the cover you'll need to create, including the spine width. Once your cover is designed to these specifications, you can upload it by clicking on the upload button. Remember that your cover needs to be a jpg image of at least 300 dpi.

Tip: Since your book cover will be mainly seen online, rather than in a bookstore, if you’re providing your own cover, make sure your design will stand out even as a ‘thumbnail’ image.

Converting your cover

Once you have finished your cover design, click the Save button and then the Pay button to convert it. You will see the 'conversion in progress' screen as you did when you converted the inside of your book. Once your cover has converted, your book will move from the Works in Progress to Completed Works section of your Dashboard.