Cover art: DIY or hire out? [moved from e-publishing]

Hi,

I did a combination of both hiring out and doing it myself. I spent a few bucks on fivver.com and had someone design my cover. Then I tweaked it myself and I have been quite satisfied with the results. I think it cost me around $20.00 total to get it done.

I have six books in the series and they all use the same cover except the titles and photos on the covers are different so it is easy for me to change the titles and photos in Photoshop for each new book.

I did it myself A professional cover just wasn't in the budget. I used Photoscape which you can download for free just google it.

If you're not a graphic artist yourself, pay a professional. If you consider yourself to be a professional, then your cover art should be that of a professional.

When I see a terrible looking cover on a self-published book, I immediately think, "This author couldn't be bothered to make their book marginally presentable. I'll bet they didn't put effort into their writing, either." That's a very unfair assumption to make, but I'm willing to bet that's what goes through the heads of many potential customers, too.

A striking cover is a great advertising tool. It's the ultimate visual representation of your book. Don't settle for less unless you can't afford the investment at all.

If you're an artist and you know your way around Photoshop, try to make one yourself. Then, solicit feedback. If the average person can tell it wasn't made by a professional, then start saving up.

Moving this to our art and design room. Hold onto your hats!

I will be doing my own cover for my fantasy novel, as well as a map. I am a professional computer artist but I do mostly game graphics and animation so I am brushing up on skills. I got the map illustration down pat though.

There are tutorials for many different software packages and TONS of helpful people over at
http://www.cartographersguild.com/forum.php

You can also offer the job if your book needs a map.

I do it myself, but I'm a designer I would actually recommend to DIY if you think you can, and you can always ask the community for input. The hardest part is typesetting and making it work with the design.

I'd say to have at least $100 if you were going to source it. If it were me, I'd charge $300 for front, back, and spine. Illustration takes a lot more time though. I've used stock elements for mine. Lady From Day for instance has four different images to create the cover. Then I made my custom title logo from scratch.

If I had the skills

I would definitely do it myself, but I'm going to have to hire someone.