itch.io

I am not an image editing expert and this explanation will probably reflect that.  I downloaded a high resolution image of the cover, opened it in Paint.net, and resized it to 8.5 x 11.  I created a second canvas that was the exact size required by Lulu (~17 x 11) and, using the dropper tool to get the exact same colour, painted that canvas red.  Then I copied the cover image over onto the right side of the second canvas and exported it as a pdf.  It definitely took me a few tries to get exactly right.

Ha!  I saw that.  It's perfectly fine, this was a printing test for a game I'm going to run for my kids and their friends this winter.  They can have this copy and I'll make myself some nice new shiny versions.

For sure.  That would be great.  

I used Premium Black & White, 60lb paper, Paperback, Matte Cover.  The only work I had to do was to download the image for the cover.

...and it turned out great.  I'd never used them before and was initially a bit worried because Lulu warned that there were layers with transparencies.  I couldn't find or fix the issue so I just printed the pdf as is and it seems to be fine.  I can't find any printing errors.  It cost me $16CAD in total and I'm more than happy.