Jacket or cover design: From a marketing point of view, jacket or cover design is more critical than book design: Whether on a shelf or a website, your book has to stand out. You can’t make a sale if you don't first attract attention.
Traditional publishers handle book design for their authors, either using in-house designers or, increasingly, through outsourcing. If you decide to self-publish you’ll need a designer unless you buy a package from a self-publishing provider, many of them require you to choose your design from a selection of templates.
Since the end results of book design are print-ready files, designers use desktop publishing software. In book printing terms a Word doc, a PDF from a Word doc, or a file created by Microsoft Publisher is not a print-ready file. Common DP applications include InDesign, PageMaker, and Quark Xpress.
But you don’t really care which application your designer uses; you do care whether the output meets your book printer’s file specifications.
A good book designer provides a clean, professional, complementary text design, an eye-catching jacket or cover design—and print-ready files. The art of book design is important, but so is the science.
While different printers have different guidelines, in general terms you’ll need PDF files with fonts embedded, Type 1 or TrueType fonts (but sometimes not both), high-res images in specific formats, graphics as vector art, margins that meet standards… yes, it can get complicated. (Here’s an example of file spec guidelines.)
The book manufacturer will preflight (evaluate) your files to ensure they meet requirements. Fail to meet printer specs and you end up with delays and/or additional charges for fixing your files. (Some book manufacturers use file rework charges as a profit center.)
Once your files are ready, it’s time to find a good book printer.
