If you want your book to be a contender, don’t underestimate the importance of your cover—more than any other single factor, it determines whether or not your book sells. The average consumer spends just eight seconds looking at a front cover; consider that your book’s “standing eight count.” Printing technology gives a cover a potent visual punch. Read on to find out how you can use special effects in sharp, non-tacky ways that will make consumers see stars all the way to the cash register.

Embossing
Embossing is the process by which a die is used to raise an area of paper to create letterforms, shapes, and textures. There are several types of embossing, including sculptured, multilevel, chiseled, platform, and dome.

• Lightweight Use: Use embossing to emphasize the title.
• Welterweight Use: Emboss images to give them dimension. Or try embossing the edges of faux stickers for a more realistic look.
• Combination Punch: Combine embossing with foil stamping to give a more “finished” look to the foil. (Using foil stamping and embossing together is called “stamp and bump” in printer jargon.)

Ringside Tip:

• Don’t emboss spines or back covers. Embossing really only packs a punch on the front cover.
• If possible, only emboss areas that are close together. This reduces the size of the embossing dye and consequently reduces the printing cost.

Hall of Fame: The Loch by Steve Alten (the title, monster, paddle and boat are embossed)

Foil Stamping
The foil stamping process covers paper with a super thin, flexible sheet of metal. The foil comes in a range of colors and levels of sheen. Mirror foils are the most reflective, while dusted foils are more subdued, and nonmetallic foils offer shiny solid colors that look a little like plastic. The foil is carried on a plastic sheet and during the printing process, stamping separates the foil from the plastic and makes it adhere to the paper.

• Lightweight Use: Use it to emphasize the title. Foil can also be used in decorative elements.
• Welterweight Use: Printing ink over foil is a very dramatic effect. “Ink on foil” can be done on a small area or over the entire cover. For more information about ink on foil, check out Cutting Edge Technology Guaranteed to Make Your Book Cover Pop.
• Heavyweight Use: Foil stamp the entire cover and print on top of the ink.

Ringside Tips:

• When using foil over the entire cover, use opaque white ink to cover the foil in specific areas where you don’t want the foil to show (for example the area for the ISBN barcode).
• Foil stamping is the most effective way to achieve a metallic look on uncoated paper. Do not use metallic inks on uncoated paper stocks. The rough texture of the paper absorbs the ink and eliminates the metallic look.

Hall of Fame: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling, The Lost Van Gogh by A. J. Zerries

Holographic Foils
Holographic (or diffraction) foils have a “rainbow” or patterned light reflection.

• Heavyweight Use Only: Use holographic foils with caution. Holographic foils can overwhelm a design and look tacky fast! However, used in the right way, they can be show-stoppers.

Hall of Fame: Spook by Mary Roach, Confessions of an Heiress by Paris Hilton

Uncoated Specialty Stocks
Uncoated paper is usually rough to the touch and is manufactured in a great variety of finishes, colors, and weights.

Ringside Tips:

• Use uncoated papers to create eco-friendly, historical, literary, journalistic, or nostalgic looks.
• Use a photographic texture that mimics a textured or antiqued paper to get the specialty paper look without the cost (example: Season of the Snake by Claire Davis).
• Due to its rough and absorbent surface, uncoated paper becomes dirty more easily than a coated paper. If you opt for a white or light-colored cover design on uncoated paper, be prepared for more damaged/returned books. (Note: That didn’t stop Blink!)
• Remember, metallic inks on uncoated paper lose a lot of their sheen. Opt for foil stamping instead.

Hall of Fame: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, Blink by Malcom Gladwell, and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Follow these guidelines and your contender will have more than just a fighting chance.

For more information about printing technology, see Cutting Edge Technology Guaranteed to Make Your Book Cover Pop.