Formatting Your Book Cover For Createspace Using Photoshop

When I published my first book on Amazon it was quite easy to upload the book cover I wanted. Then I tried to replicate the book cover for my Createspace book. It was not the same. After ordering the proof book and seeing the cover in person, I opted not publish the physical book.

With my Trilogy book I used the cover creator offered by Createspace. It's not fancy or imaginative. It's a plain cover with fancy words. View the cover here. I actually like the cover although I preferred the cover I was unable to replicate. Now I have released a new book with a cover I have worked painstakingly hard on; even getting advice from other Goodreads authors on a cover choice. Here is the result of my first cover done in Photoshop,  TaDa. I was attempting to capture multiple moods, playful, sexy, love, serious and mystery. Now I'm satisfied; my physical book and Kindle book look exactly the same. There is one difference which is the page count, about 57 pages less in the Kindle conversion. But that is a conversation for another time.

 Perhaps this is an issue you are experiencing and that's why you are reading this blog post. I will share with you how I replicated my book cover to use for my Creatspace book.

Start here: Download the Createspace template and unzip it. Save it to your desktop for easy access.

https://www.createspace.com/Help/Book/ArtworkDownload.do

Your cover must fit your book, so be sure to fill in the form with accurate information about the number of pages your book has. You will also need to know the size of the book you want to publish. I used the popular 6X9, cream pages. 

Step 2 Design Your Cover

Design your cover in a program such as Photoshop. Photoshop allows you to add multiple layers to crank out an awesome book cover. Before you save your final version of your cover you will need to turn off all the layers to be sure text and images  do not appear in the pink zones of the template. The barcode area should also be free of images and texts.

Step 3 Save Your Cover

Once all your layers are between the lines, turn all the layers on and save the file. Kindle accepts files in the form of JPEG, or .jpeg, TIFF, or .tif(f). Createspace accepts files in the form of PDF.

I am currently tapping out my next novel on my keyboard. When I begin on the cover, I intend to list the details of creating the cover in Photoshop step by step in detail. If you are interested in this step by step approach, send me an email or subscribe to the blog. Remember, this will be a few months in the future; I have to write the novel first.
Brigitta Moon