After signing a contract with RDS, we will get to work right away on the items listed below:
- Complete a book proposal
- Come up with a title & subtitle
- General ideas of the cover design (overall mood, feminine/masculine, light/dark, type of image, etc)
- Choose a few commercially available fonts that you like
- The font you choose for your author name is important. Think of it as your signature that you will use on all the rest of the books you produce.
- Write a back blurb
- Obtain a professional picture of yourself
- Compose a short biography
- Determine needed interior artwork (chapter title pages, etc.)
- Rough idea of page count (finalized page count will be given when formatting is done)
Once these are gathered, RDS will send them to the Graphic Artist (GA). We will receive back a quote and either engage in a contract or find a different GA.
Once a contract is signed, the GA will work with the author on the cover, back matter, and interior artwork. All correspondence needs to include RDS. A few things to keep in mind when reviewing your cover:
- Spelling is correct
- All lines that are centered line up with each other
- Horizon is level/straight
There will be an interim time after all the graphics are completed and before the page count is finalized (while editing and formatting is completed). The GA will not complete the project until given a final page count.
The following files are needed from the GA:
| File containing | Type | File size | Used for | |
| Front cover, spine, back (with blank space for barcode) | color | paperback | ||
| Front cover (white background needs thin black border) |
.jpg | < 50MB 2,560 x 1,600 pixels 300 PPI |
color | eBook |
| ** | .jpg | thumbnail | color | eBook |
| Full title page (same as front cover with RDS logo at bottom) | .jpg | large | b&w | paperback |
| ** | .jpg | small | color (rgb) | eBook |
| Title & subtitle page | .jpg | large | b&w | paperback |
| ** | .jpg | small | color (rgb) | eBook |
| Title only page | .jpg | large | b&w | paperback |
| ** | .jpg | small | color (rgb) | eBook |
| Chapter title artwork | .jpg | large | b&w | paperback |
| ** | .jpg | small | color (rgb) | eBook |
** = same as above
Items in the table above are for Kindle Direct Publishing. More of their paperback cover requirements can be found here.
eBook cover requirements are here.
We will not finalize work with the GA until the proof copy paperback is reviewed. Seeing it as an actual book is different than what you see on a computer screen.