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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 51
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Hi BookCountrians (I made that up, but here's hoping it sticks).
I'm in a bit of a pickle, here. I've got a novel coming along really well (it's on here and I'm expanding and editing behind the scenes as I upload new chapters I'm done with), and my plan is to self-publish the thing as an ebook. However, herin lies the problem: I don't want my front cover to look like a car accident in Photoshop.
I have some image editing experience, and a coworker (web designer and artist) has offered to create a cover for me, but I know that his artistic sensibilities don't quite match up with what I'd like it to look like. The advantage of self-publishing is that I can have a cover that I want to release to the public, rather than one a publishing house chooses for me, but the wealth of choices on the web are mind-numbing.
I've tried narrowing it down, but unfortunately the vast majority of book-cover designers have pretentiously minimalistic websites that don't really tell me anything about them, or their work, and it's difficult to picture what the result would be if I was to pay for their services. I'm happy to invest a decent sum in the cover - realistically, I know that in my own experience, seeing a great cover makes me stop scrolling, and anything that leads people towards taking a closer look is worth the capital I allocate to this particular aspect of the marketing mix.
Does anyone on BC have experiences of working with book cover designers, and if so, how do you go about ensuring you've got the right person, for the right price? It feels like an artistic lottery with a three-to-five figure ticket price, and I can't help but feel a little brain-numbed by it all.
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Joined: 5/7/2011
Posts: 1
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The first thing to understand is that design is not subjective. Style is subjective but design is always objective.
Unless you're a designer, the chances are that the cover you have in your head is wrong for your book.
Go to a amazon or somewhere similar and pick out half a dozen novels that are similar to yours (ignore the cover, focus on content). Then, from that list pick the three with covers you like the best (you're paying, you may as well get what you want, but that has to be a secondary consideration).
Post a job on one of the many many freelance sites such as peopleperhour.com and when you do, include a link to the three covers you picked as a basic guide for the designer.
You'll get a few offers, look at their portfolio. Does their work look good? Do they have good feedback from other clients? You tend to get what you pay for. Pick the one whose portfolio and feedback your gut tells you is right.
A good rule of thumb for pricing is to take half a dozen quotes, drop the highest and the lowest two, then pick from the remaining three.
A good designer will need to understand the book, so make sure you have a summary ready, but they probably won't have time to read the whole thing, so make sure it's only a few hundred words — enough for them to understand the spirit of the book.
Never ask for spec work, it's an insult and a decent designer will walk. (Spec work is speculative work, in other words you ask 12 designers to produce a cover and then only accept and pay only 1.)
Remember that at this point, they're the expert. You're the client, but this is their career, they care about their work. If you're not sure they're a professional don't hire them, if you are, then let them do their job.
Finally, you have to pay for the work once you've agreed to it, but you're not committed to using it.
I wish you the best of luck!
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 51
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Thanks for this - it gave me a lot to think about and a load of ideas for where I can look, how to go about choosing someone, etc. Props to you!
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 279
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If you have Adobe Illustrator you can buy stock photos from a website like Shutterstock.com and the artist will have laid the groundwork for you to go in and just type the title in over the art. It's painless and fairly cheap. The shutterstock.com charges 50.00 for 5 image credits.
According to the licensing agreements on that site, you can use that image for an ebook until you hit 250,000 sales. After that you need to purchase an extended license. If you sell that many you can afford the 250.00 extended price
I used them to design a genetics pamphlet. I downloaded the image I liked and since I had Adobe Illustrator I just went in and filled in the blanks the artist left. In about two minutes I had a cover that looked like it was designed just for me.
Hope this helps anyone who needs a cover on a budget.
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 49
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The issue with just using stock images is that you may end up with a cover that's nearly identical to what someone else has. For a pamphlet that might not be a big deal, but for a novel it could be.
Professional cover designers rarely just use stock images. They'll take two or three stock images and combine them to create a cover that's unique. Take this cover, for example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30724187@N05/5059402447/
That's made up of a stock image, stock texture, and some color adjustments. There are links to the original images used in the notes, so you can see what the pieces were. It's something that took me literally 15 minutes to put together for a novel I'm working on. But no one else is going to have the same cover.
If you're looking for custom artwork for your cover, one place to check out is DeviantArt. Browse around there for a bit and find some artists whose work you like. Then see if they do work-for-hire.
One thing to be aware of: make sure you buy all the rights to the artwork created for you. Don't do a royalty share or anything like that, because it can get complicated very quickly. You're much better off to pay someone a few hundred dollars up front and own all the rights to the work than to pay less and then have to deal with sending payments to this artist forever.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 51
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This is all fantastic feedback, with a lot of ideas, so I'm going to respond to each one individually:
Ivoidwarranties: The 250k rule is a really useful one to know. At the moment I'm trying to decide whether I want to base the cover around actual stock images or have an artist/designer create something from scratch.
cameronchapman: I like the style of the cover you made, and if you could do that in fifteen minutes, I can only imagine what an entire day's work must look like. DeviantArt's certainly a good idea, but I do wonder whether or not it's able to show me the best of the best in the right context. I guess it's a case of experimenting, really.
Addley: Interestingly, I actually work as a copywriter (not the interesting bit, forgive my syntax), and on the desk next to me is one of my closest friends, who happens to not only draw, but illustrate via the computer, do flash, and help design websites for huge, Hollywood-level clients. He's offered to do it for me, but although his web-design style is good, I'm not so sure about what kind of covers he'd produce. He did however produce the banner for my website using my instructions and a tree vector image i gave him, which was great.
My issue is this: Do I keep looking, or do I ask him for a few attempts? He means a lot to me as a friend, and if we're having artistic differences it's not an ideal situation to be in, especially as we're both friends and desk-mates.
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 279
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@CY Reid Yep, the 250k rule pertains to one of the stock photo sites I use. They have a lot of vector art that can be modified in Adobe Illustrator. If I'm tossing something up on Amazon I usually will pick a simple graphic with a lot of contrast that will stand out as a thumbnail, like this...
http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?searchterm=Fire+Dragon&x=0&y=0&search_group=&lang=en&search_source=search_form#id=59786944
I purchased that stock photo and the matching font set and within about twenty minutes I was able to mock up something that will stand out in the fantasy section of Amazon. If I went after a more detailed cover it would get lost amidst the thumbnails.
The way I figure, if I sell enough of one title to need the extended license on any of these graphics then I can afford to pay an artist out of pocket for a custom cover.
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Joined: 7/16/2011
Posts: 4
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Hi Everyone,
My name is Rick Elias and I just self published a ebook at amazon kindle called "Death Cry" They are listening...by the way I'm new to this site. I found a very Good book cover artist, his name is Bota Marius. He charged me $500 and gave me 5 different covers to choose from, which was nice of him to do. He took two weeks for the finished product. Checkout my blog to see Bota Marius artwork at http://rickeliasnovels.blogspot.com/ let him know that Rick Elias sent you to him. Well, I hope that helps anybody that needs a book cover artist.
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Joined: 2/27/2011
Posts: 18
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Hi!
Guess it's time for me to come out of the closet here on BC  I design book covers, ads, promotional materials and merchandise for authors. My service is called Book Graphics and you are very welcome to rummage through my site, look at the samples of my custom work, and browse through my large stock of pre-made covers. The URL is http://bookgraphics.wordpress.com/ ;
Enjoy
p.s. Snag my recipe for CHRISTMAS SOUP while you're there - it's at the bottom of the home page.
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Joined: 2/27/2011
Posts: 18
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BTW, my article for the Book Country BLOG was posted this week. 'Collaborating to Make a Great Book Cover' - http://bookcountry.com/Industry/Article.aspx?articleId=123728
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Joined: 4/8/2015
Posts: 49
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this is a pretty old thread. thought i'd add some updated info.
it's gotten pretty easy to find pre-made book covers for under $100. i was really happy with mine from thecovercollection.com
other good sites to try:
thebookcoverdesigner.com
rockingbookcovers.com
beetifulbookcover.com
paperandsage.com
good luck! --edited by katie78 on 8/19/2015, 9:05 PM--
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Joined: 3/13/2014
Posts: 26
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Why not create your own cover. With Paint.net (you can get this free by downloading) you can merge images, cut and paste, and do all sorts of image enhancements then add a title. It's fairly easy to use and there are online tutorials. You can get some great pics from Shutterstock for a subscription fee. It's a lot cheaper than $100 per cover if you take an image or two and manipulate them.
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