Your book cover is usually the first thing a reader notices about your book. It’s good to have an eye-catching cover as this can help increase sales for your title. We recommend looking around for inspiration in our store and comparing your cover to similar bestsellers. Here are some general guidelines that can help you make a great cover.
-
File size
- Your cover image should be no larger than 5MB.
-
Orientation
- Your cover image should be in portrait, not landscape. This best suits the screen size of our devices and apps.
-
File format
- A JPG or JPEG format image works the best; PNG files are also perfectly acceptable; all others may be prone to corruption.
-
Resolution
- For best results, your image should be 300 DPI (dots-per-inch). However, files as low as 72 DPI are also fine.
-
Dimensions
- Our device screen sizes have a width to height ratio of 3:4. It is therefore a good idea for you to make sure that the width of your cover image is ¾ of its height.
-
Box Set Covers
- We strongly discourage using 3D Box Sets in your cover image. This can make your cover appear smaller on our site as there is a lot of blank white space. We recommend using 2D images for Box Sets.
-
Public Domain Covers
- If you’re publishing a title that belongs in the Public Domain, please ensure that the cover you’re using is also part of the Public Domain. We encourage users to create original cover images. Covers should not include information from the original publisher.
-
Restrictions
- Cover images cannot contain graphic nudity or persons involved in sexual activity.
For tips on creating cover images for box sets, please see this post.
Partner Site Cover Requirements
Some partner sites, such as Bol, have specific dimension requirements for book covers. To ensure your cover appears on Bol, please make sure its dimensions are at least 500x500 pixels and do not exceed 6000x6000 pixels.