Google Play showing cropped cover image

[goodmorningjulie]

Hi guys! First time posting a problem on here, and I couldn't find a section that seemed logical for this, so I'm trying this one -

I've made an epub for a client and it is working (I think! So far!) on Nook, Kobo, Kindle (in mobi format) etc but she's concerned that in the Google Play store the cover shows up as being party cropped. I attached a picture of what she's seeing, and what the cover should be showing (subtitle and name at the bottom are missing in the preview).

I'm finding it hard to find any helpful resources from Google's site itself, and I found a resource at ebookcoversize.com that says covers for Google Book should be 1618 x 2500 px and the one we used for everything (except Kobo) is 1600x2400, so virtually the same proportions/not enough to make the kind of difference she is seeing on screen. I have no idea what is causing this, any help would be appreciated.

[HarryT]

Moved to the ePub forum.

[Notjohn]

I don't upload to Google. It was a lot of bother, it returned me little money, and Google's discounting caused me trouble at Amazon.

However! My most recent book gets its cover cropped on the Barnes & Noble Nook online preview, though not in the actual downloaded book. My books are now fed to B&N through Draft2Digital, so the identical epub goes to all distributors except Amazon. (I don't include a cover in the epub uploaded to Amazon.)

[goodmorningjulie]

Hi Notjohn - Thanks! Can you explain "Google's discounting caused me trouble at Amazon? Thanks!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by goodmorningjulie

Hi Notjohn - Thanks! Can you explain "Google's discounting caused me trouble at Amazon? Thanks!

Amazon don't allow you to charge a higher price with them than you're charging elsewhere, so if Google discount your book, Amazon will automatically reduce their price too, resulting in lower income for you. If (as is commonly the case) the majority of your sales originate at Amazon, that could be detrimental to your financial situation.

[goodmorningjulie]

Thanks!

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by goodmorningjulie

Hi Notjohn - Thanks! Can you explain "Google's discounting caused me trouble at Amazon? Thanks!

What HarryT said. I raised the price at Google quite a bit, to prevent this, but even at that, one of my $3.99 books was listed on Amazon for $3.84, and sure enough, it proved to have been discounted even further by Google.

[dgatwood]

Yeah, there's a long discussion on the subject. Google's discounting is usually fairly predictable, but occasionally it goes off the rails, and when it does, it really screws the authors. I've written to Google complaining about this, pointing out that their policies basically push authors away by depriving them of income from their primary income stream without (typically) providing any significant number of sales to make up for the loss. They never replied. They never do.

Originally Posted by Notjohn

However! My most recent book gets its cover cropped on the Barnes & Noble Nook online preview, though not in the actual downloaded book. My books are now fed to B&N through Draft2Digital, so the identical epub goes to all distributors except Amazon. (I don't include a cover in the epub uploaded to Amazon.)

Might I suggest submitting the books through Nook Press directly and seeing if your cover problems magically go away?

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by dgatwood

Might I suggest submitting the books through Nook Press directly and seeing if your cover problems magically go away?

Yes, I think that would work, or anyhow I never had a problem with the covers when I uploaded directly, and I have been using Sigil and its cover tool for three years now. But the problem doesn't seem to have affected sales at all, and working through D2D has huge advantages for me.