The Self-Publishing Writer’s Checklist 3 – Creating Your Book Cover

If you’re a writer you know your book will be judged by its cover. No pressure then. This Checklist takes you through the steps to producing an attention-getting cover.

You can copy and paste the checklist below or if you’d like the full list of 18 checklists in printable (PDF) format, just send me your email address below and you’ll have them by return. 

Otherwise, check back tomorrow for the Publishing Your Book checklist. You can catch up here on yesterday’s checklist Writing Your Book

 Project Name: ______________________________________Date:______________

Cover Planning:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Yes           No

1 Have you saved 5-12 book covers from Amazon for inspiration?

2 Have you “mapped” out or drawn your cover on plain white paper?

3 Have you sourced a designer for your book?

4 Have you decided on a cover size? (6×9 is most common)

For book cover design, don’t skimp here. We DO judge a book by its
cover. Freelancer sites like UpWork, Freelancer have great designers.

Cover Design:

1 Have you designed your cover in full (front, back and spine)?

2 Is your cover in print ready format at 300Dpi

3 Have you resized your cover and spine to fit the number of pages?

4 Have you added your book cover copy and description to the back?

5 Have you added a short bio and bio photo to the back cover?

6 Have you added your barcode to the back of the book?

7 Have you added the book title, subtitle and your name to the front?

8 Have you added your book title and your name to the spine?

9 Have you created a kindle cover version for your book?

For your back cover we recommend you state the book category at the
top, then have a headline, benefit driven description of the book, 5-7 bullet
points, a testimonial, and a short bio on you along with a photo, your
website and the book barcode. For resizing your cover, and spine to fit the
number of pages in your book and to generate a barcode for your book
we recommend you use www.bookow.com It’s free and instant. You
simply enter your book details and hit generate.