You might be surprised by how many readers remove the dust jackets from their hardcover books and throw them away, as they believe the dust jackets make holding and reading books more difficult.
But just as people who kept their Star Wars action figures in the boxes now have rare treasures worth serious money, vintage book values soar when some forward-thinking reader keeps the dust jacket intact. But dust jackets offer more benefits than just raising the future auction price of a rare book.
What Is a Dust Cover on a Book?
The dust jacket or dust cover is a loose-fitted printed paper overlay that fits around the outside of a book and folds around the inner surfaces of the cover. The dust jacket is put in place to:
- Prevent scuffs
- Protect the cover from stains
- Prevent fading
- Provide a space for information about the book and author
Both hardcover and softcover books can benefit from the protection a dust jacket affords.
Benefits of Dust Covers for Hardcover Books
While early dust jackets were meant to be removed and discarded after purchase, publishers soon realized that the dust covers were ideal for displaying titles, artwork and company logos. Collectors also recognized that dust jackets helped preserve their books and safeguard them from damage.
Protect Your Book
If you’re an author publishing a book, whether through a major publisher or via a self-publishing service, you’ll want to ensure that your book arrives to the customer in pristine condition.
A scratched or scuffed dust jacket isn’t a big deal — it’s easy enough to obtain a replacement. But if that same scratch or scuff were on the actual cover of the book, the damage would most likely be irreversible.
Professional and Stylish
Applying images directly to hardcover book covers is more expensive than paper dust jacket printing. As such, the dust jacket can display artwork and designs that might otherwise be too elaborate or expensive. Authors are free to explore interesting imagery to capture book browsers’ eyes and supplement the themes of their stories.
Customizable
Because dust jacket printing uses simple sheets of paper, authors have many customizing options. Want to print something on the inside of the jacket? Need a jacket for an oddly sized or shaped book? Interested in experimenting with holographic effects? Dust jackets make all these approaches possible.
Why Choose Print Bind Ship for Dust Jacket Printing?
While you can print your own dust jacket, partnering with an experienced printer like Print Bind Ship is the way to go if you want it to be durable, attractive and consistent across hundreds or thousands of printings.
Experience
We have the best professional equipment available and the expertise needed to use it to good effect. We know what it takes to design and print an attractive, long-lasting dust jacket.
Design Assistance
Our talented in-house designers will work with you to ensure that your graphics look their best and support your publication’s content and interior design elements.
Top-Notch Customer Service
The friendly team members at Print Bind Ship are as easy to talk to as they are detail-oriented and committed to quality printing. Our goal is to provide you with a product you can be proud to send out to customers.
How to Order Printable Dust Jackets Online: 3 Steps
Dust jacket printing is our forte. When you’re ready to bring your book to market, we’re ready to make it everything you hoped it would be.
Step 1: Solidify a Design
Already have a design in mind? Great! Need help from our designers? That’s what we’re here for!
Together, we can ensure that your cover design accurately represents your book’s content, from the artwork itself to the lettering and font surrounding it.
Step 2: Send Your Files to Print Bind Ship
We can print copies of your book and dust jackets to go with them at the same time. All of our printing is done in-house, including our specialized dust jacket printing process. We guarantee your book will look as polished and professional as any put out by a major publisher.
Step 3: Receive Your Printed and Completed Book
We can print, bind and ship orders of any size, from a single prototype to thousands of copies for sale. We offer warehousing of goods, logistics and shipping, print-on-demand services (which prevent you from having to deal with inventory), analytics for improving sales, order fulfillment and much more.
Create Dust Jackets Worth Keeping with Print Bind Ship
Rather than treating dust jackets as disposable, make them a valuable part of your book by emblazoning them with dazzling designs and unignorable graphic elements. Dust jackets do an excellent job of protecting books and increasing their collector value.
If you’re wondering whether a dust jacket is right for your book, consult with the experts at Print Bind Ship. We can help steer your book design in the right direction while ensuring that you maintain full control over the project from start to finish.
FAQ
Dust covers provide space for attractive graphics and author information. They also help protect books in transit and during ownership.
Yes. Dust covers are designed to be removed quickly for a less cumbersome reading experience and easy replacement.
Not necessarily. That said, preserving a book is more difficult without a dust cover, and the lack of one can reduce its collector value.
While most publishers don’t sell replacement dust jackets on their own, self-publishing companies may be happy to provide a single cover. It’s also possible to find these items on reseller sites such as eBay.
Softcover books can also benefit from dust jackets, though they aren’t as necessary from a design standpoint because softcovers can also feature high-quality printed graphics.