If you’re an author, a good looking book cover is a must.
However as an author, unless you’re one of those people writing your books overlooking a beach in your million dollar mansion, we hesitate when we see $400-1000 price tag.
Honestly, most authors get about $5-7 per book they sell, so you gotta sell a lot of books just to cover your bookcover. Come on. I get it.
Someone wrote that instead of buying boats, they write books.
Yeah, let’s not go there.
I mean, if you can afford it, then it’s an amazing investment. You get one of a kind book, and it draws people to buy your book. You want to give your baby every chance it can to shine right?
One way to get a good looking book cover, know exactly what you’re getting, (my refusal to give authors infinite edits on their book covers has given some cold feet) a premade book is a good way to go.
You can find these online. You are likely able to find them through Facebook Groups, Instagram, Etsy or just google bookcoverdesigns, and a bunch of them will come up.
Once you find one you like, you can ask for minor changes. Font changes, colour changes, or placement changes.
They will likely look like this:
Basically they will change the Author Name, Tag Line, Title etc to your own book.
Likely they will let you change other things, but you should be expecting to be charged. It takes time to change things. Not everything digital can be changed with a snap of a finger!
Things that will likely not cost:
Change the font and I know which font I want or a similar one.
Change the colour of the font
Change where the author’s name and title is, or change where the characters are.
Things that will likely cost about $10-$20
Change the colour of person’s hair, clothes, things on them
Change the colour of the book
Add a small character in the book
Things that will likely cost you a bit:
Change the person on the book cover. or change their hair shape etc. (I will explain why in future blog)
Add a character or remove a character.
Change the landscape. (At this point just get an original book…)
PROS:
You get a really good idea of what you want from the start
Cheap
Good way to find an artist you’ll likely stick with long term
CONS:
They usually use images from Stock Images, so you’re not getting an UNIQUE book cover. Likely, there’s going to be someone with a similar book cover to you.
Yeah, don’t get a Premade if you’re the above baby.
Tips when you’re choosing your Premade cover.
DO A GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH. If the image comes with pages and pages? Don’t use it. This means you have a good eye - but a lot of people also do, and they used that image already. You don’t want the same book cover as your neighbour author.
Extra: Don’t let your guard down because nothing comes up with the book cover images. Google image search isn’t that clever. If there’s a font on the image, it’s probably unlikely to pick that up.
If you are asking the designer for changes this and that, don’t be surprised if they tell you that this is now going to be an original book cover and they charge you accordingly. A lot of people think something they want changed is simple, but it could mean the designer has to go buy another photo or redraw/re design the whole thing.
Know what size or platform you will be publishing first. Sometimes you will get a size from the designer, that your platform won’t accept. It’s handy if you already know, and they can give you the right size from the start.
Subject to Copyright: usually means that you can’t take that book cover and sell it yourself. It’s fine for you to use it to promote your book, like making mugs, stationary, banners etc. * double check for fine prints though*
Best of luck! If you have questions, let me know :)