Need Ebook Cover

Most of the time, you get what you pay for. And as I heard someone say that good cover and formatting is 70% of the sale, I wouldn't go budget... Unless you don't think you can recoup the costs in a few months.

Smaddux said:

Does anyone know where I can get a nice cover made? One that isn't too costly?

Click to expand...

A member of AW (leahzero) recently offered to design ebook covers for free. No kidding.

Look around at DeviantArt and the likes for styles you like and contact the artists, ask them how much they'd want for a cover in those styles. Or maybe they'll just license one of those images for you. (Hint: Mine's here. )

Good suggestions, Vaehling. Interesting website.

So what is the going rate for an ebook cover? Are we talking $50 or are we talking $500. Obviously, I know it depends on the artist but what's the ball park?

I'm currently designing covers for only $35 since my business is newer. They're of high-quality, but of course you should judge for yourself. URL in my signature.

Jamie, it really depends entirely on the artist and what the market will bear. Enita, above, offers to do a cover fir you for $35. I got mine (seen as my avvie) for $100. Renowned scifi and fantasy artist Bob Eggleton could demand far higher prices (I wouldn't be surprised at seeing an Eggleton cover starting at $2 grand and up).

My wife has done a bunch of covers. She gets about $100 a cover. All her clients now are regulars. A large part of the time is simply the communication between her and the client. Scetches going back and forth or requests for changes are made. She starts higher but once they know and trust each other and have a good communication the price drops considerably.

My cover artist has a lot of experience, and charges a reasonable (although not cheap) rate. He's very responsive, very good to work with:

http://www.jsimmonsillustration.com/

Deviantart is a good place to hunt for the right artist for your book covers. You can go to their forums and post a job offer and select the artist you like.

my daughter did mine. she has a degree in graphic design. she did it from two photos that she took this summer while visiting me. pm me if you want more info--s6

I found my cover artist on DeviantArt, as well. He did a fantastic job, and I'm going to be using him for my other covers, as well as promotional art as well. It's the little screenshot in my sig, but if you want to see a larger version of the cover click the thumbnail below.

I've done some of my own in Paint.Net. I'm also lucky enough in that my fiance is an amateur graphic artist and does amazing work. (Seriously, I know I'm obligated to say that, but even if I wasn't I'd still say it. She's really quite good.)

EDIT: I forgot to put my point in, sorry. Paint.net isn't that hard to use (and it's free), and there are a lot of tutorials and how tos on the internet and if I can generate a salable cover (they are selling slowly but fairly steadily. Not enough to live off of yet) then I reckon most anyone can. I'd also note, my covers are all for shorts and I refuse to pay $100 or even $50 for the cover of a short story. A collection, quite possibly, a novel, yes if I had to, but for a short story? Nope. Not going to happen.

My. .02

I'm dipping my foot into the cover foray.

I did my own:



and I'm willing to do others. Since I'm just starting out I won't be charging professional numbers. But this is what's involved (ie: what you're paying for):

1. the image (some sites--iStock, SutterStock--sell rights to photos or art, or you can purchase rights direct. This can range in price from $25 to $500, depending on the image/originator)

2. the time (what amount of time does the designer spend on the project)

Here's another one I've done:



I'm also a pencil artist and have a DeviantArt account:

http://thepix.deviantart.com/