Spine paperback problem

[alhawke]

I recently changed my company imprint name and address. So my paperback was changed with just the title information. Now Amazon says the spine:
"Reduce the size of your spine text in your cover file. Spine text needs at least 0.0625" (1.6 mm) space on either side so that it doesn't wrap onto the front or back cover"

But it's the same cover???

I tried to increase the size of the book by 10 pages. That didn't work. Does the actual cover need to be altered? And why was it accepted before?

[Gregg Bell]

I recently changed my company imprint name and address. So my paperback was changed with just the title information. Now Amazon says the spine:
"Reduce the size of your spine text in your cover file. Spine text needs at least 0.0625" (1.6 mm) space on either side so that it doesn't wrap onto the front or back cover"

But it's the same cover???

I tried to increase the size of the book by 10 pages. That didn't work. Does the actual cover need to be altered? And why was it accepted before?

I would call them and tell them it's the same cover. See what they say.

[Post-Crisis D]

Was the text on the spine rasterized on the previous accepted submission and left as text on the most recent update?

[alhawke]

No, there's no change with the cover. I'm thinking maybe it's a change in the computer algos since the book was published 3 yrs ago?
edit} I should add, the hardcover with the adapted hardcover from 3yrs back worked fine. It's really odd.

[Post-Crisis D]

They might have changed the specs on their end then.

I seem to recall a while back that we had a discussion on spines and how much the text on the spine bounced around from book to book or title to title with the same specs.  It seems to me, again going by memory, that it was a pretty wide variance.

[alhawke]

I don't know. I've reset the sizes and re-published over 5 times now. I'll try a couple more and, probably, throw in Gregg's advice of ^^ contacting them. I'll fix it somehow. Thanks!

[Lynn]

Can you download a template for your book size from Amazon, then open your cover image file, overlay it with the template with a lower opacity and see if anything stands out as not being within the safe zones? (Using a photo editing program that uses layers, like photoshop or gimp.) Then you can decide if you need to make adjustments to the cover itself. But it's a good way to see if there's a problem that needs corrected first.

[alhawke]

I think I've been going about it "opposite". I've been enlarging the book by adding pages when the book might need to be shrunk. That's my new theory and it explains why it hasn't worked. But I've submitted it about 7 times now. So I'm gonna try the opposite and cut pages.

I'll consider your idea too, Lynn. Thanks!

[alhawke]

I think Post-Crisis is right. It's gotta be the actual text in the spine with a new spec requirement. I've tried to shrink the font, cut 10 pages, add 15 pages more, and none of it is doing a thing. Only two more solutions. I'll contact Amazon and they'll say it doesn't matter. Doubt that'll go. Or I'll have to request a revision on the cover with the cover artist--a bit ridiculous being that the book's been on sale for 4 yrs. But--sigh--c'est la vie.

[Post-Crisis D]

I've tried to shrink the font . . .

How are you adjusting the font size?  Is the text still editable?  Or has the text been rasterized and you're just adjusting the rasterized text image?

If the text on the spine is still editable and not rasterized, try rasterizing it and see if that makes a difference.  That is, make sure the text is no longer in an editable font but that it's been turned into a vector or bitmap or whatever format the cover is in.  Flatten it, merge layers, whatever.  Just make sure the text is no longer editable.  Then see if it accepts it.

If Amazon's system is able to detect text, even rasterized, then that won't work.  But, if Amazon's system is only able to recognize editable text, then rasterizing the text may work.

[alhawke]

No, I meant that I was changing the font of the internal text for the entire book. My idea was to shrink the entire book by page length to see if that would work. It didn't.
I don't know how to adjust the spine on the cover. The typography on the spine was created by my cover designer.

[Bill Hiatt]

Try to choke an answer out of Amazon support. If that doesn't work, can you approach your cover designer? Maybe the designer will do a revised version for a fee that would be worth it just to not have to keep dealing with the problem.