Back Cover and Spine

Hi, and welcome to our “super secret” information page. If you’re here, then we’re nearing the end of your project and things should be getting pretty exciting!

Now that we’ve nailed down your front cover design and you have the manuscript edited and formatted, we can finish the book cover by adding the spine and back cover text

In a nutshell, this is what I need (and if you send this all at one time, things will go more smoothly):

  • Name of printer

  • For books printed by IngramSpark, please tell me:

    1. your 13-digit ISBN
    2. the trim size of your book
    3. the number of pages (include blank and unnumbered pages) in your book
    4. if you want a glossy or matte book cover
    5. if you want the pages printed on white or cream paper?
    6. if you want the USA price embedded into the barcode? If yes, what is the price?
    7. IngramSpark also offers a selection of paper weights. The choices are white, white 70, creme, and groundwood. Please see the second row on the graphic and tell me which weight you want to use.
Screen capture of paper weight options.

  • If you are using KDP/Amazon to print, I need:

    1. the trim size of your book (do NOT include bleed in this number. A typical trim size would be 6 x 9, 5.25 x 8.5, etc.)
    2. the final formatted and edited page count
    3. to know if you are printing on cream or white paper
    4. your choice of glossy or matte finish on the cover

  • Back cover text: You have room for about 250 words, less if there are lists or quotes. Please send it in an unformatted Word or Notepad document (no boxes, no images, no italics, etc.).

  • Optional:

    1. Please choose just ONE BISAC Heading: http://bisg.org/page/BISACEdition
    2. Author photo, if you have one: Must be 300 dpi at full size.
    3. Credit for author photo if applicable.
    4. Credits for other images or work you’d like on the back cover.
    5. Company Logos: Vector format is best. That will be an EPS file. Otherwise a 300 dpi jpg should work.

  • Don’t quite understand what’s going on? Book covers are done in one large file. The spine, back, and front are not separate. These are referred to as wraps, or full spreads. I’ll paste some images below to help you better understand: