kindle cover I didn't know how Kindle KDP related standards of image for book covers work.

[kanishkabhandar]

Hello everyone, I recently completed an order in which a client wanted specific illustrations for front and back cover of her book. She approached me and told me her idea and I gave her a free sketch sample to give her a picture of her ideas. She liked it and placed her order. After completing the order, she liked my work and rated me 5 star. However, afterwards we both realised that the size of the image that I sent her don't match the Standards for a paperback cover. Now I am sending her the same image in different resolutions while she is trying to adjust everything.  Now, I feel really bad that my work wasn't as useful at the end, also I didn't know anything about book cover image resolutions to illustrate, so I feel a bit guilty. Can anybody tell me what exactly should have happened from the beginning so this doesn't happen?

[melanielm]

Paperback cover dimensions depend on the word count of the manuscript. KDP gives a template or specific dimensions the designer should use. It includes bleed zones (or whatever they're officially called) and such so you get both covers and spine correct. Either the buyer has to tell you this precisely, provide the template, or you'd need a KDP account to fetch the template yourself.

[kanishkabhandar]

Okay, thank you for replying to this topic . I will be careful next time. 

[theratypist]

@rachelbostwickRach maybe you have some insights to share!

[rachelbostwick]

42 minutes ago, theratypist said:

@rachelbostwickRach maybe you have some insights to share!

Thanks for tagging me in! ❤️

You can download the templates for an Amazon book cover here: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/cover-templates

The customer will need to tell you the book size, the number of pages, and the color paper they are going to use, then you can download a PDF or PNG file you can open in your art program to have the exact size needed.

A lot of times my customers will hire me to resize their covers and add the text after they work with a talented illustrator whose specialty is more the "art" side of things than the technical side, so don't be afraid to ask for help in the future 🙂 It's pretty common for an illustrator to not know what specifications are needed for this sort of thing. Good luck! 😄

[kanishkabhandar]

Thank you so much for telling me that. 😊😊