Hardcover Book Printing: For Storytelling, Marketing & Memories

While you’re probably thinking of novels and bestsellers, hardcover books can do more than tell a story. Or at least, they can tell a different kind of story – many, in fact. For business owners, hardcover book printing services like ours give their products a spotlight that embodies sophistication, style and staying-power. We’re talking coffee tables, bookshelves, collector-type stuff here.

Familiar yet versatile, it’s a format that spans industries. Think cookbooks for the restaurant and food service sector, yearbooks for academics at all levels, portfolios for artists and photographers, organization overviews for nonprofits. No matter what content you’re presenting, hardback or case bound books give it substantial weight (figuratively and literally, depending on your page count, of course).

Businesses and print marketing aside, you can print your own books for personal use, too. If you’ve ever wanted to self-publish a book, Smartpress can help you through the online printing process. Create personalized photo books for friends and family, memory books of vacations, even custom sketchbooks and journals. With hardcovers, your keepsakes keep.

Hint: Want self-publishing tips and tricks? As a full-service online printing shop, we’ve got them right here: A Novel Idea: How to Self-Publish a Book with Smartpress.

Now part of Smartpress’ wide range of online printing services, hardcover books can be as customized as you like – there’s no design template you have to stick to. Want all images on one page and all text on the next? Go ahead. One image in the middle with text wrapped around it? No problem. Vertical or horizontal orientation? Your choice!

Oh, and the cover? Its sturdy, rigid book board is automatically finished with velvety Soft Touch Laminate, giving your custom books an unexpectedly luxurious and tactile feel, along with essential protection from wear and moisture. Inside, you’ll find each page feels significant thanks to our coated white matte paper stock and its 100# text weight.

Print hardcover books with designs on the front and back cover, as well as the spine. Your books can include up to 56 pages (54 interior pages plus two for the cover, which equals 27 sheets plus two for the cover) and be ordered in quantities between 10-250, which is a big win for small businesses and individual consumers alike.

Did You Know: After a hardcover book is released, the paperback edition hits shelves about six months to a year later. Why release hardcovers first? It’s simple: Customers buy them despite the higher cost.

• There’s no denying it: We tend to judge a book by its cover. Design yours in a way that grabs your audience and graphically conveys the topic or message of your book. Just keep in mind that printing is not available on the interior pages of the cover.
• Legibility, legibility, legibility! Choose a well-designed font for body text and pay attention to the font size and sentence length. (If the font is too small or paragraphs are too long, it will wear on the reader.)
• Don’t forget the spine. The part you see most on the shelf, spines usually include the book title, author’s name and publisher’s logo (even for a self-publisher like yourself). Stand out with a unique design element such as a graphic that ties the front cover to the back cover.

• Set the stage with color. Bright, bold colors grab attention and create excitement for your audience. To convey a calmer tone, keep your color palette more neutral. Try a black and white cover to denote authority or sophistication.
• Keep it simple. It’s easy to go overboard with a design full of bells and whistles. Take a simplistic approach and create one or two focal points to draw in potential readers.
• When submitting your print-ready file, be sure to include a 3/4″ bleed on all sides of your cover art. We also recommend designing two files: a cover file and an interior pages file. Both files should include single pages (not spreads) in the order they’ll be read.