Book Cover Image on Website Product Page Needs to Also Be CMYK

[#1]

I'm ready to release my new book, but the cover that shows on my product page is much much darker than the uploaded image and what i receive in the paperback print when it is mailed home.  It just doesn't look good enough for me to make live and sell to the world.

I had a conversation on live chat with a representative who said that the problem is the cover we need as authors to upload for print are CMKY but the covers generated for the display preview is RGB, which "doesn't translate CMKY well at all," in her words... continued, "The files will print fine, but the cover appears in the preview with a different saturation. If you want to change it so your cover and your preview are exactly the same, you can change your file to RGB, but we don't really recommend it, since printers print in CMKY, so a CMKY cover file will have better quality and be more accurate to what you upload."

So I say, Yes, I understand that for sure.  Which is why I need to keep the uploaded file a CMKY.  But if you look at my product page you can't even see the author's names and the colors are so dark that it doesn't look appealing to buy.  I want to override the image that is displayed on my product page to show an RGB version i can create for you in photoshop right now to maintain integrity of the image?  Or I think it is to Lulu's selling and author's selling advantage to keep the integrity of the image by generating the preview in CMKY.

I think this idea is important and would be extremely valuable to many authors beyond just myself.  What are the chances we can make it happen?

Thanks,

HawaH

[#2]

Ah, all this about CMKY and RGB! It confuses people in to thinking that is what they have to upload when a 'simple' jpg will do (at 300dpi). It's what I use and they work fine, at least when printed. (But I do make sure my monitor is set as close to 'real' as possible (test prints etc)).

But the Previews and cover icons we see on our Spotlights use Flash anyway, according to Lulu, and it is set at very low res, so it makes no difference what the source file is. It will also 'bleed' colours. I have a Preview with a cover with red text on a blue background and it looks smudged.

Now if they had a Preview tool that could do this >>>   http://www.zazzle.co.uk/little_killer_poster-228089450741762200

[#3]

Yes, if they had a preview tool like that it would make it much more clean and professional for sure.  And I'm sure they'd sell more product.  But they wouldn't even have to go all THAT out and great... just improve slightly what they have for the preview and I'd be happy!

The front cover image of my book looks so dark and gloomy that if I went to the page I woudn't want to buy it.  But if you see it in print and on the postcards it's colorful and bright and attractive.  Do you think anyone from Lulu reads these comments and tries to make these improvements for their customers?

[#4]

Hi Hawah, thanks for the suggestion. CMKY cover support is a suggestion we've gotten before and something we're open to considering for the future. Thanks for using Lulu!