Book Cover Size Guide: Dimensions & Best Print Practices

A perfect book-reading experience starts with a great storyline but finishes with a beautifully-crafted cover. Learn about the standard book cover sizes, proper resolution, and all the basics you need to know when creating a book cover.

Without a great piece of writing, there is no book. However, a great book cover is crucial to get your masterpiece noticed.

Many writers nowadays decide to self publish their book, rather than wait for it to be picked up by a publisher. As a result, they often have to create a book cover design themselves.

If you don’t want to use a book cover template, knowing the right book cover dimensions is imperative to ensure your printed book will look as intended.

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The basics

Before we jump into the exact cover measurements for all the different book genres, here are some things you will also need to consider during the process of bringing your book from your laptop to a physical copy to be displayed in a store, and ensuring that the cover works across all the different platforms.

The file format

The format in which you submit the cover file will influence the quality of the final result. The most popular formats for printing are:

• JPG = saves storage space with little perceivable loss in quality
• PNG = high resolution  + supports transparency
• TIFF = popular in photography and printing, high image quality (but large file size)
• PDF = fixes the file exactly the way how you want others to see it (regardless of device type or size)

Color and Resolution

You also need to be aware of the various color modes that are used across different mediums. Opt for CMYK for the best results with your cover art for a printed book, and RGB for a digital copy.

Keep in mind that a cover designed to be printed should be of much higher resolution for best quality—about three or four times larger than that of an ebook cover.

Resolution is measured in DPI (dots per inch) for printing and PPI (pixels per inch) for digitally-viewed covers. The industry standard for print-on-demand is between 150-300DPI, as anything above that makes the file too large to process.

Standard book cover sizes

Books come in many different sizes for different purposes. What size is a book cover depends on three factors: printing costs, word count and established genre standards.

Book printing companies charge based on the page count, meaning, a larger book size will decrease the page count and therefore the price. However, try to be intuitive when deciding on the cover size in proportion to the page count. If you are about to publish a lengthy book, similar to one of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels coming in at about 800 pages, the book size will have to be bigger for practicality and more comfortable reading experience. If your book is 300 words or under, it can be on the smaller size, leaning more towards the pocketbook dimensions.

If your book is 300 words or under, it can be on the smaller size, leaning more towards the pocketbook dimensions.  

In the same way, a cookbook that is generally on the bigger side in order to provide more space for the hunger-inducing food photography, shouldn’t be too small or too different from this standard.

As a general rule of thumb, unless using a different dimension can be justified by a practical reason, stick to the conventional measurements. We recommend checking out Amazon, which provides product dimensions for books to get a general understanding of common book sizes in your genre.

Fiction

Fiction is one of the genres that have the most variation in size, starting at 4.25 inches wide and ending with 5.5, allowing for some leeway in word count as well as the quality and application of the book—is your book intended for a proper sit-down reading session at home or the library, or for passing the time while traveling via public transportation instead of staring at a phone screen? These factors will end up influencing the final size of the book.

Novels

In the same way that novels often tell an intimate and personal story, a smaller book cover size can feel more comfortable to hold and read than a huge encyclopedia-like book that can feel rational and tough. Using a smaller cover size can help get the book out of the way between the reader and the story, making it that much easier to get into the story.

Children's books

As the little ones first learn to read through children’s books, the pages contain much more visual images and art to help children perceive the story. In order for the words and the illustrations to be seen as well as for the kids to be able to grip the book, a larger book size is ideal. Bulkier, playful and script typography are also recommended.

Textbooks

Textbooks and books intended to deliver information are typically less concerned with practicality and more with making sure all the knowledge on the topic is contained inside the pages. With that said, as textbooks are typically on the longer side, having too small of a cover size will make the book too thick and bulky to carry around in a backpack, which is a big part of this genre’s book’s use. For this reason, textbooks typically have a paperback cover and are also larger in size, making them easier to carry around.

Non-fiction

Non-fiction book dimensions float along with the most average sizes, never going too small or big. Non-fiction books also have a variety of categories included in the genre, so there is also a large diversity of sizes for the book covers. Depending on the type of content and how many words and pictures the book will contain, it's better to opt for bigger sizes.

Memoirs

Memoirs are a great way to connect with an interesting personality and get to know the details of a person's life. Just like novels, memoirs benefit from choosing a smaller cover size that will not be too uncomfortable and get in the way between the reader and the book when getting to know the personality behind the words.

Bleed, trim and spine calculations

When publishing a book, the cover image is perhaps the most important visual aspect of the process, however, it is not the sole one. Most print-on-demand services will require that on top of the front cover you submit the back cover, the spine and bleed measurements.

Trim and bleed lines are two critical terms that you have to familiarize yourself with to ensure the finished product comes out looking professional and how it was intended to look in the design process. Printers are not 100% precise, and if you have a design that extends all the way to the end of a page (such as in the case of a front cover), you run the chance of having a white line around the edge of your design, which would certainly make it lose quality.

The trim size is the final measurement of the pages (how the pages will look in the bookstore). To take these trim lines into consideration, try to keep all the critical content (text, images) at least ¼ inches or 6.35 mm from the trim line.

The bleed line is the line until which you should extend all the artwork and visual aspects of the page that you wish to go all the way to the edges. This line should go past and be further from the center of the page than the trim line. The general guideline is to have 0.135 inches or 3 mm extra on all sides of the design.

The spine width is calculated by taking into account the page count and paper stock (material which the papers are made from, which can be vastly different with paperback and hardcover books). Various websites and tools can be used to calculate this number, such as Gutenberg, IngramSpark, Print on demand and more

Digital book cover dimensions

When publishing your book digitally, focus on making sure to meet the retail platform’s specifications for the front cover size rather than the e-reader’s. Most smart devices are smart enough (pun intended) and will adjust the cover according to the size of your tablet or iPad. Where the dimensions do matter, however, is on the website or app where your digital book will be sold, as the “judging the book by its cover” principle still applies here.

Here are some ideal dimensions and ebook cover sizes across various self-publishing platforms, as well as genres of books.

Most self-publishing sites such as Apple Books, Kobo, Lulu Publishing and Smashwords recommend at least 1,400 pixels width ratio for book covers, so aim for these dimensions when creating your digital book cover.

Where to get your book cover design?

Now that you have all the standard book cover sizes, one question remains: how are you going to design the look of your book cover?

You can always opt for a Canva template, or similar. But the cover of your book should be as personal as the writing itself. 

So, choosing a generic book cover template, no matter how well designed, will never feel right.

Hiring a freelance designer or illustrator is certainly one option. However, if you want a professionally designed cover at a fair price, we recommend you check out our unlimited design service.

Unlimited designs? That’s right. For a flat monthly rate you can request as many graphics as you want. So not only can you get your book cover designed, we can also create a brand new personal website for you, update your social media presence, and even create snazzy ads to promote your new book.

Have any questions? Get in touch for a free 1:1 consultation, and an opportunity to share your book cover design vision with us.