Dust jacket and book case design for the new release of Sun Night.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
You’ve written your first book, now what? In this article, we’ll focus on book and cover design.
BOOK DESIGN BASICS
A prose book’s traditional size is 5.5” x 8.5” but it can be 6” x 9” or smaller. The size is entirely your choice, however, keep in mind what your printer offers first before deciding to avoid having to reformat your work afterward.
A children’s picture book can come in many sizes, 10” x 8” (landscape), 8” x 10” (portrait), 8” x 8”, and many other trims. Consider the width and height of the illustrations created for the picture book and how they will look on each layout before committing to the book dimensions, plus be mindful of printer offerings. Maybe you can even go into an oversized book trim provided printers can produce them.
BOOK LAYOUT BASICS
Laying out the interior of the book: Before you even begin to lay out your book, it is very important to know the trim size and format you desire. Once you lay the book completely, you will need to know the page count of the interior of your book to create the cover art files for production.
TIP: Start with the interior of the book layout first before designing the cover.
Laying out the book can be done by a graphic designer. You could also lay out your book pages using Microsoft Word and create a PDF from it, which your printer will need. Be sure to have a finished approved manuscript checked for grammar and spelling errors. In the case of picture books, it is expected to have a mockup of your book for the designer to use as a guide. Laying out a picture book requires more collaboration between you and the designer to achieve your expected outcome.
The interior of the book should be laid out with full justification for a prose book (see example below). Traditionally, the book title and author name appear at the top of every page as a header. I have seen variations of this from one book to another. In Sun Night, the book title appears on the left side, and the author’s name in the right side of the spread. The page numbers appear on the bottom of each page, traditionally in the center of the page, however, they can also appear on the bottom outer corner of each page.
Layout of interior pages for Sun Night.
The typeface and color you choose for the interior pages are also important. Since there are many typefaces available, consider one that is going to be easy on the eyes. If you have a preference, share that with the person laying out your book. Classic serif typefaces are traditionally the typeface of choice for prose. I used Adobe Caslon Pro for Sun Night because it is easy on the eyes. Do remember that leading (spacing between lines) is also extremely important.
It is advisable to use a different typeface from the one used for the book content, perhaps a sans serif, for the header text of the title, author’s name, and page numbers.
Regarding papers, printers can offer a limited number of papers for your book. I have used a cream color paper that is also easy on the eyes rather than the stark white ground of some papers.
All about COVERS
Now, let’s focus on covers: The cover artwork, types of covers, and how to layout a cover.
Cover Art: You may have heard that covers sell books, and I believe it to be true. People shop with their eyes first; they connect to visual shapes and colors before words more reason to pay great attention to the cover design. Designing covers is an art and it should be left to the professional with an eye for detail and experience in book design. There are a variety of styles that could be used to design a cover. The cover should represent the essence of what your book is about. It can also be a photograph, an object, a work of art, something personal or relatable. It should have a visual connection to the written or illustration work on the interior pages. Make sure that you own full copyrights to any photograph, design, or illustration you use on your cover.
The typography used on the cover needs to be thoughtfully decided as well. It needs to be easy to read and stand out among other books. High contrast colors should be used. While not necessary, using a typeface that is related to the story in your book would help readers connect to the theme of your book more easily.
TIP: explore bookstores for book titles with similar themes to see what they look like. It is a great way to get inspired and get ideas. You may already have an idea in mind as well, discuss it with your designer.
When I released Sun Night in 2018, I thought of using key artwork from the story, a sun collage I had done in school as a child. I reproduced the collage in a portrait size large enough that I could resize it to fit well into many different trims. Then, chose a typeface that felt more freeform to give the cover a feeling of childish play. The typeface was also used for the author’s name.
In the 2023 Sun Night cover, I went further by visually describing an iconic moment of the close relationship I had with my brother, the moments we enjoyed at the beach in Santa Clara. I wanted to play tribute to the 2018 cover and used the collage as an extension of the sun rays above the children in the design, then used a new bolder, and more readable typeface for the book title. The title has been embellished with many light effects since it sits over the sunlight emanating from the center of the composition.
You may be wondering about the author’s name, size, and location on a book cover. It all has to do with the author’s popularity or title uniqueness. It is a much bigger selling point to move the author’s name to the top billing and size larger if the author is well-known and popular. There needs to be a visual hierarchy between the title and the author’s name. If the author is not well-known, the title is much larger than the author’s name and the latter is laid out at the bottom of the page.
When designing the cover, this also includes the back cover and flaps for dust jackets. What to put in them is up to you and there is really not a rule that I have found, but traditionally, the back cover would include a synopsis, book reviews (if available) plus the ISBN and bar code. The inside front flap can also be used for synopsis if your back cover is filled with other content. The back flap is normally reserved for the author’s biography. While the flaps are important, the back cover will help sell your book and therefore an important real estate.
Below is an example of the dust jacket cover I designed for my book. It shows the marks and locations where everything should fit. Note that this is from a template provided for free by Ingram through their website ingramspark.com. Details below.
Dust jacket layout design using Ingramspark book cover.
Type of Book Covers: The most popular book formats are: hardback with dust jacket, paperback, and paper-over-board. Traditionally first edition books are released as a hardback (or hardcover) with a dust jacket. After the book has been on sale for some time (usually a year), the book is then released as a paperback (or softcover). Books with smaller page counts can be produced in a saddle-stitched (where the sheets are stapled together in the center of the book) or perfect-bound formats (where the sheets may either be stapled or glued together but the staples are covered by a cover sheet and the edges are straightened for a higher quality finish). This again depends entirely on your book and budget. One important thing to note here is that books also have page count restrictions, in particular those with smaller page counts. Inquire with your printer before deciding which cover size to use.
For the 2023 release of Sun Night, I created two book versions (actually 3 if we count the eBook). The hardcover version with dust jacket with a specially designed hardback. See the top image of this article for the finished piece.
For the paperback, the cover is similar to the dust jacket however since we do not have flaps on the paperback, the back of the book cover contains a synopsis, award recognition, and some family photos to help make more emotional connections to the story and front cover. Do remember that if you decide to create a paperback version of your book, you should also include an author’s biography section on the last page of the book. You could also pay a little more and have the author’s biography printed on the interior of the back cover.
Laying out the book Cover: Once the interior pages are created and you have decided what your cover will look like, you can begin laying out the cover. This requires skills in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Consider hiring a designer to help you with this process, especially one with experience with book cover design and page layout.
TIP: Ingram has made it easy to lay out the book cover with book templates. Visit Ingramspark.com under the Resources section for details. Once you know your book’s dimensions and the type of cover for your book, enter those details on the cover template generator. If you haven’t already, create an account with Ingramspark to accomplish this task. Their system will email you the template in the version you need. I highly recommend using InDesign to lay out your book cover and interior pages. The template would be sent to you as an InDesign file or PDF.
To ensure full ownership of my work, I decided to manage the whole creative and production process using Ingramspark.com. If you do not know a designer who could help you with your project, I’d recommend finding one at Fiverr.com where you can safely review portfolios of hundreds of artists that specialize in book and cover design. They have specific pricing based on their experience. I’ve used Fiverr to connect with artists before and it has been quite an easy and safe experience.
In the next article, we’ll go over getting your ISBN and setting your book in Ingram.
