Have you written a fiction novel or a nonfiction book that you would like to publish? With an excellent book and an eye-catching cover, you can do it, and it is more simple than you could imagine.

The first two books in this “Format a Book” series covered how to turn your Microsoft Word document into an professional looking print book, and then into the three most popular ebook formats (Kindle, NOOK and Smashwords). Only one step remains on your journey to publish your print book—creating a book cover file for Lightning Source or CreateSpace.

Turning a cover image into a book cover file for print publication is a process that often trips up new authors or publishers. However, this does not need to be the case. This book takes advantage of the author’s years of experience of preparing clients’ book cover files for Lightning Source and CreateSpace. In this book, she has distilled her techniques down into eight simple steps that anyone can understand and implement. Numerous screenshots make learning the steps even easier.

Learn how to use Photoshop and Adobe Acrobat Professional to create professional book cover files for Lightning Source and CreateSpace. Book cover files can also be made with free imaging software, such as Gimp. However, cover files for Lightning Source require a few extra modifications, which only Photoshop or Scribus can produce.

Are you ready to take that final step to publish your print book? It’s time to turn your cover image into a book cover file in eight simple steps!


Topics included in this book:

Cover Resolution
The Cover Template
ISBN Bar Code
Flatten the Cover Template
Cover Template Components (Lightning Source (LSI) and CreateSpace)
Place Your Cover Image on the Template
Convert Your Cover to CMYK Color
Adjust Cover Ink Percentages (LSI Only)
(LSI) Method One: Apply ICC Profiles
(LSI) Manually Adjust to 240% Ink Limits
(LSI) Adjust the Cover Colors
(LSI) Method Two: Apply Color Changes to Cover Before Converting to a Profile
(LSI) Method Three: If Only Bits of the Cover are Over 240%, Manually Adjust the Colors
(LSI) Great Black Color 237% Ink Limits
Create Your Cover PDF
Output Preview (LSI Covers Only)
Save Cover as a PostScript File
Check File Properties
To Do List for Processing a Cover File
APPENDIX A
Build Your Cover Image on the Cover Template
CreateSpace Covers
Lightning Source Covers
Building a Cover on the Template
Cropping a Cover on the Template
Create Book Covers Using Scribus
APPENDIX B
Set Up a Custom Profile in Preflight


Format a Book Series (3 Volumes):

1. How to Format a Print Book in 12 Easy Steps: Easily Format Books with Microsoft® Word
2. How to Format an eBook for Kindle, NOOK, and Smashwords in Two Hours or Less
3. How to Format Book Covers for Print Publication in 8 Simple Steps

All three books in this series are combined into one comprehensive volume entitled, Book Formatting for Self-Publishers, A Comprehensive How-To Guide. It is available in both NOOK and paperback editions.