The interior files for The Shoebox were too large to upload to either Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing or Barnes & Noble Press. Full-page illustrations made the files really huge, but we really like having full page illustrations with every chapter. The only alternative was to publish through IngramSpark.
I was fine with that because my experiences have all been good with IngramSpark. This time was different, because the jackets did not print as expected. What looked fine on the screen of my iPad Pro did not look fine when printed. The colors were different.
I don’t blame IngramSpark for this. It’s more my own lack of experience. A computer screen produces color using RGB light. (That’s points of red, green, and blue light.) A printing press produces color by using CYMK ink. (That’s dots of cyan, yellow, magenta, and black ink.) Certain colors, particularly muted and darker colors, may look much the same on a screen, but when printed, they will use different percentages of each ink color.
After two costly revisions, I decided to go with a strictly black-and-white jacket. (That means no cyan, yellow, or magenta inks—only black ink.) After all, the hardback book has a gray “Digital Cloth™ Cover” that looks nice, feels nice, and should be sturdy.
Just A Side Note: As I was making this decision, I couldn’t help but think about the black-and-white TV set I watched until the picture tube blew out in 1980. Those were the days!
But I know this cover may not be what many of you are expecting or wanting. It doesn’t look like most other books for children. It looks more like a book for grown-ups.
Below is the final cover design for the hardback and paperback books printed and distributed through IngramSpark. Although shadows and silhouettes will play an important part in this whole book series, the cover definitely doesn’t have what you would consider a “traditional” appearance.
One More Side Note: When this final revision arrived yesterday, I couldn’t help but think of Wednesday Addams from the original black-and-white television series “The Addams Family” saying “It’s so nice and gloomy!”