Help

No. Lulu provides you with the tools to publish and sell your books online, but it is up to you to do all the formatting and design of your book before you publish it on Lulu. That said, Lulu does have several ways for you to find cover creation help if you are uncomfortable doing it yourself.

During the publishing process, Lulu offers a gallery of free covers for you to use. These covers won't necessarily be as personalized as you might like, but they look great. The Lulu cover wizard will insert your title and author name on the front cover automatically and will put your ISBN bar code (if you purchased one) on the back cover. View the gallery covers here.

Clicking the SERVICES tab will take you to the Lulu Services Marketplace. The Lulu Services Marketplace provides a place for authors and creators to connect with third-party service providers. These service providers, although hand-picked by Lulu, are not members of the Lulu staff. The Services Marketplace simply brings together those seeking publishing services with those who provide them and handles financial transactions.

The Services Marketplace gives creators access to four broad categories of publishing services:

• Graphics services, including book cover design, illustrations and more.
• Editing services, including manuscript reviews, proofreading and editing.
• Publishing services, including manuscript formatting, PDF creation and consultation services.
• Marketing services, including press releases, websites and other marketing packages.

You can purchase services just like products on the site by clicking the "Add to Cart" button from the Service Details page. The Service Provider will contact you within 3 business days of your purchase to get started.

Make sure you carefully read through the complete description of a service before purchasing it. If you have questions about a specific service, contact that Service Provider directly via the "E-mail this provider" link on the service listing.

You can also peruse the Lulu Support Forums. Lulu's expert users can provide you with many tips and tricks for creating your book cover. Please be sure to search all of the help documentation for the answers to your questions before posting to the forums.

Last updated: 2008-12-01 10:59:36 | Back to top

One-piece covers allow for complete customization of your book cover. Uploading a one-piece cover is the only way to create a design on the spine of your book. (Standard spines must be a solid color. You may opt to have the book's title printed on the spine.)

Lulu will not add anything to your one-piece cover, including an ISBN bar code. If you plan to upload a one-piece cover for your ISBN book, you must generate your own bar code and add it to your cover.

One-piece (wrap around) cover files must be PDF. Cover files that are uploaded separately must be JPG, GIF or PNG files of at least 300dpi.

Last updated: 2008-12-01 10:59:17 | Back to top

Since we have introduced one-piece covers, we have seen a number of covers that have trouble printing. This is because our automated cover creation process created a PDF that was flattened to a single layer. However, it is possible to create a very complex PDF using Adobe Illustrator with many layers, fonts etc. Don't do this.

Avoid transparencies and transparent areas in your image files, as these cause unwelcome light gray or white areas in the printed material.

The more complex the PDF, the greater chance that the process of rasterizing for print will generate errors. If you've created a cover PDF that uses fonts and separate images, your best option is to open the PDF in Photoshop — it will automatically ask for DPI (300 is optimal) and color palette (choose RGB). It will then rasterize the file to a single layer.

Crop marks will need to be left off of the uploaded PDF.

Please Note: All printed books -- not just Lulu books -- can have a slightly offset spine. Some of the spine may spill onto the cover, or some of the cover onto the spine. The difference is minor and won't be greater than 1/8th of an inch. Still, because of this, we recommend you don't use sharply contrasting colors for your spine and covers.

Last updated: 2008-12-01 10:59:33 | Back to top

Create cover images .25" (.68 cm) larger than the height and .125" (.36 cm) larger than the width of the chosen book size. For example, a 6" by 9" book will need an image 6.125" by 9.25". There is a .125 inch (.36cm) variation in the trimming and folding process. The cover does not use a bleed at the spine. Covers for hardcover books are slightly larger than the interior pages. .75" of a casewrap hardcover cover image is folded around the cover. Improperly sized or applied bleeds will result in a white strip or important parts of the image or text cut off at the edge of the cover. Do not include crop marks or registration marks.

The following chart lists our book sizes accompanied by the appropriate size with bleed for the cover image file and a template to use while creating a cover image. Right-click or Control+click on the link and "Save as Target" or "Save Link as". The 5.5 x 8.5" and 8.5 x 11" Publisher grade books will have bar codes. For more information go here.

Last updated: 2008-12-01 10:58:54 | Back to top

No. You must include your own bar code for your one-piece cover. Unlike separate front and back covers, your ISBN bar code will not be automatically added to your one-piece cover. It is up to you to add every element you would like to appear on your one-piece cover, as this type of cover allows for total customization.

For more info on generating bar codes, see http://www.tux.org/~milgram/bookland/.

See How much space should I leave on my back cover for my ISBN barcode?

Last updated: 2008-12-01 10:59:36 | Back to top

Dimensions for a one piece cover can be found in the cover step of the Publishing Wizard or in the boxes below. Insert the book's page count into this Spine width calculator to calculate the book's spine width. If the dimensions of the PDF uploaded to the One-Piece Cover Wizard are not correct, the PDF will not be accepted by the Cover Wizard.

The cover dimensions for hardcover books are slightly larger than the size of the text block. This is normal; the cover is slightly larger than the pages of the book

This is the equation for determining the width of a one-piece cover for a paperback:

Bleed + back cover + spine + front cover + bleed

This is the equation for determining the dimensions of a one-piece cover for a dust jacket hardcover:

Bleed + Back Flap + Back Cover + Spine + Front Cover + Front Flap + Bleed (See a visual example)

This is the equation for determining the dimensions of a one-piece cover for a casewrap hardcover:

Turn-in bleed + Back Cover + Spine + Front Cover + Turn-in Bleed (6" x 9" example) (8.25" x 10.75" example)

Last updated: 2008-12-01 10:59:34 | Back to top

No. Lulu does not offer inside cover printing.

Last updated: 2008-12-01 10:58:54 | Back to top

Lulu will add:

• The Content ID of the book and Lulu's URL. This is an optional feature that will take up an area of approximately 1" x .3". The text will fall 2.5" to the left of the spine and .65" from the bottom edge. To learn how to remove the content ID and URL, see How do I remove the Lulu branding from my book?
• The Lulu logo on the spine. This is optional, to learn how to remove the Lulu logo on the book's spine, see How do I remove the Lulu branding from my book?
• A bar code. Choosing Publisher grade paper or entering an ISBN number in the publising wizard will generate a barcode on the cover. To learn more, see How much space should I leave on my back cover for the barcode?

Last updated: 2008-12-01 10:59:25 | Back to top

ISBN Barcode

Lulu adds a barcode to books with Distribution and books using Publisher Grade paper.

If purchasing a Distribution service or entering an ISBN for a book, leave a 3.625 x 1.25" area on the bottom right corner of the back cover that is free of important text or images. This area is for the bar code, ISBN and Content ID number. See image on right.

An ISBN bar code will be generated automatically if using the Lulu Cover Wizard to create a cover. If uploading a one-piece (wrap-around) cover, generate a barcode and place it at the bottom right corner of the back cover at least 0.375" from the spine and bottom edge of the cover.

If including the retail price on a book cover, it must exactly match the retail price that was set for Distribution. If it does not match, it will be removed. Likewise, do not add a UK retail price to the cover as this number will be converted by Lulu and will not match what was set. If you do not meet these requirements, the availability of the book to online retailers will be delayed for several days, possibly weeks!

If creating a book that uses Publisher Grade paper Lulu adds a barcode for the manufacturing process. The barcode is 1.74 x 1.11" and is printed .375" from the spine and .28" from the bottom of the trimmed cover. When creating a one-piece cover or cover images do not add a barcode, this will result in the book not printing. Leave space for the barcode .375" from the spine and .53" from the bottom of the image.

Last updated: 2008-12-01 10:59:26 | Back to top

No. The cost of a full-color cover is included in the production cost of all books. You may make your cover black & white if you like, but your book will not be discounted.

Last updated: 2008-12-01 10:59:06 | Back to top

Book covers can be made using several different design programs. We recommend Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and PaintShop Pro. However, there are other programs that will work just as well. If you have one of these programs, you should either know how to use it already or learn from a friend how to use it before attempting to make your own cover.

Last updated: 2008-12-01 10:59:04 | Back to top