Self-Publishing: Book Cover Designers?

sandree

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Cathleen - I love your Snow White cover.

Marissa - the covers in your sig line are lovely.
 

sandree

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I almost want to write fantasy just so l can use all those curly typefaces!
 

CathleenT

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Okay, Marissa--I'll bite. Who do you like for templates and what do they run? I've seen some that are very expensive.
 

c.m.n.

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Thanks for this thread!

I've also wondered the best formatting software to use. Since I haven't self-published since 2016, I wasn't sure if there are any new formatting programs out there or not.

I wanted to save up for Vellum but I never did. May be I'll just try all the free options and stick with what I like.
 

Margrave86

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Thanks for this thread!

I've also wondered the best formatting software to use. Since I haven't self-published since 2016, I wasn't sure if there are any new formatting programs out there or not.

I wanted to save up for Vellum but I never did. May be I'll just try all the free options and stick with what I like.

Honestly, the best formatting software is your word processor.

Modern word processors store documents as XML. Ebooks store documents as HTML. Since these two formats are almost identical, it's trivially easy to convert a manuscript that uses styles to the HTML/CSS that ebooks use to display text.

Since ebooks are HTML, like websites, you don't need to worry about formatting text margins, and all the accoutrements like drop caps, chapter headings, and page breaks are very simple to make with a word processor's style formatting.
 

indianroads

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I found Jake Clarke on Reedsy.com - he's done the covers for my last 2 books and is about to do the third. Great guy and easy to work with.

There are a lot of cover designers you can find on that site. I looked over their samples, and what genre they have experience in, then exchanged messages and discovered that we can work together well.

I think Hidden Gems has cover designers listed as well.
 

Sarah M

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Hey, I'm still looking and weighing my options for a cover designer, but I have another question related to that. I have a two-book series ready to publish. Is it a good idea to get both covers done at the same time? Or wait until I publish the first book before having the second cover done?
 

CathleenT

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+1 to Marissa. Consistent branding is huge, and so many things can go wrong if you don't nail them both at the same time.
 

LJD

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I usually have multiple covers made at once. The only issue would be if the first book doesn't sell at all and you want to rebrand before Book 2 comes out...then you might have wasted your money on your initial Book 2 cover (and will also be paying to redo the cover for Book 1). But I'd probably get them both done at the same time...