Making your own cover

[sharronsbooks]

I am having a problem getting the program for covers to let me use my own design completely.  I can not find a way to get rid of the lulu format .  Please does anyone have some advise since I am so completely new at this and am having difficulties navigating  this program.

[kevinlomas]

If you are using two images (one for back and front) it will paste right over the existing stuff, but you will also need to click the Text tab and there you can see how to get rid of the default text.
Same applies if you are putting smaller imaged in to the frames.
Also, use the background tool to colour the entire cover to your choice in a way that the spine matches your images' border colour.

[Ken Anderson]

Try using the Advanced One Piece Cover Designer.

[petraceason2]

sharronsbooks,

Advanced one piece Cover Designer works really well. But you have to convert to .pdf file to upload it. {It works even if, like me, you have to induce a massive work-around to defeat Adobe's deliberate crippling of their product.}

The Page size you need is 9.25 inches high, by (12.25 + Your spine width) inches wide, and it matters! If your Cover is too big, Lulu chops the extra off the RIGHT hand edge, messing up your format.

You can find the Spine Width Calculator on your 'My Lulu' Page about half way down on the Left Hand Side as a Blue Link.

Make sure that your background colour/design completely fills the page, no margins, and that the centre of your spine is EXACTLY at the centre of your cover.

Designing your own cover for your own book just adds that last little detail of ownership.

Very fulfilling.

Have fun doing it,

Petra.

[Ken Anderson]

The AOPC can be a PDF or a JPG.

[petraceason2]

Yes, Sorry Ken Anderson, I forgot.

Petra.

[natpt]

I struggled with getting the cover wizard to work for me, and I really didn't like any of it's layouts. Once I figured it out, I wrote a blog post detailing what I did:

http://schoolofnatalie.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-i-printed-my-blog-book-with-lulu.html

hope this helps.

[kevinlomas]

Not bad advice, even if a bit late in a thread from months ago

Some of what you say is not quite right though and you do not just cover Cover creation but an entire book, which is a bit confusing.

You do not need to use Lulu's Templates, all you need to know are the sizes. Also, with the page Templates, unless you know how to change the defaults then you can end up more frustrated than just learning to do it from scratch.

Do not use Word to resize images, because regardless off the size shown on the page/s, the file size remains the same and can create a large pages file size.

The premade options in the Cover Wizard are just that, options, and even if you select one, it can still be almost infinitely edited.

Always read the terms when downloading even free stuff. That http://www.shabbyprincess.com/index.php/terms-of-use/  site does not allow 'commercial' use and if what you create has a price and/or ISBN then it is commercial usage.

There's no need to go to a photo-editing site to add text or in fact anything. You can even use Windows Paint to do it on your PC. There are also many free art/photo applications you can download.  Examples >>   http://www.digitalartistdaily.com/blog/2012/01/top-5-free-art-programs/

Anyway, no offence, but after all that over-complication you have still created an almost 'stock' cover.