There's a pretty wide range. I bought a generic one for short stories on Fiverr... I don't think it was actually $5, but it was definitely under $20. But usually I spend between $100-$200.
I paid around $200 for mine from http://fionajaydemedia.com/ We were so pleased that Karen had Fiona do hers. She also got a neat writeup in USAToday on her work, not bad for a twenty-something work-at home mom with two kids. She does a turnaround in two to four weeks.
I will add to what has been mentioned above: If you commission an artist to create/draw/digitally paint a cover, $200 to $1000 or more, depending on the artist, as opposed to using stock images or photos as the basis of the cover, before combining or manipulation by the cover creator.
I being a frugal man, have found the pleasure of spending time and creativity for my own cover. Time being more valuable than any amount of currency, since it cannot be earned back. Though I will have to agree with the others, that it will cost you in money if you wish to buy a cover. There are sites that offer pre-made cover designs that range from 25-200$ depending on the artists want for their particular design. And if you plan to commission a cover from an artist directly, it will cost you much more up in 100-2000$ (and possibly higher) spectrum. It just depends on how you want to expend your resources to meet your end results really. Though the more you put in, the more you hope to gain in the end result. Seems to some that the cover is all (and often the only thing that that makes a book worth reading), so to follow in that line of thinking, it would serve you well to trust in an artist that can offer you what you are looking for.
My publisher generally pays graphic artists $100-200 for photographic covers, but has paid upwards of $500 for fully illustrated covers.
They get the tax deduction for sub contracting it out. Though you could get that deduction if you happen to get a business license. Though it would only be worth it if you happen to have enough expenditures for the venture. That and filling out a Schedule C is a pain in the ass if you happen to buy a lot of work based materials.
This is another one (like most of your questions) where I wouldn't worry til you've written the book Book/ebook covers range from nothing (doing it yourself with a site like Canva) through sub $100 for a template cover to $200-$1000 for a designer. Doing it yourself is not to be recommended unless you have a reasonable eye for design... templates are a cheap option but sometimes look it, designer covers are generally best but again you need to make sure you get a good one (which doesn't necessarily go in line with cost) You also need to think about making sure your cover and title fit your genre , e.g a pink cover with swirly text and pictures of high heels and shoes is probably going to be a romance or chic lit , a cover with swords and dragons is likely to be fantasy and so forth .... look at other covers in your genre and see what the conventions are
Like what everyone else has mentioned, the cost varies greatly. One option they haven't mentioned is to hire two different people: one to make the cover picture and one to turn the picture into a book cover. I paid an artist on Fiverr $25 to make the picture for my book (short story) and I could've spent another $35 to have the picture made into a book cover. Kindle and Createspace offer templates, however, that allowed me to save the $35 and just use the picture (Createspace's templates really stink though, so I had to get a little creative). The most important thing for me was to have a unique picture, and I do. Just be sure the artist knows you want to use the picture for commercial purposes, and make sure that's mentioned in their offer!
Not sure what problem you had with CS templates. Actually, they are just basic measurements, of both the back blurb, and front, plus an eighth of inch around the perimeter, plus the width of the spine, based on the number of pages and type of paper you selected. I think the tricky part may be getting the size to come out right in the .pdf you need to upload. Fiona Jayde provided the cover in the correct size in .jpg. Her first, for the E&D, required a bit of trimming for the 1/8th margins, as I recall (like tenth or hundredth of inches, remember I am anal-retentive engineer), but the one for Karen's was spot-on. I did Come, Follow Me myself (and it shows) but here are the steps 1. In Powerpoint set the page size to the CS requirements for your book size, pages and paper type. 2. Either create your cover in PowerPoint, paste in the .pdf, or upload the .jpg image, depending on how you got your cover. 3. Make sure the image is exactly centered on the blank background and save as .pdf. Then just upload. Worked right the first time.
I think she meant the templates for cover design, not the book itself. If you hired a designed you uploaded your own fully-designed cover, but if you're only using a custom image you probably need to use the CS cover templates, and I agree, they're not... sophisticated.
Oh, my apologies... CS does have templates for self-designed covers, but I did not use them.. Forgot they were there, sorry
Both of those covers look like the product of a traditional publisher, not someone self-pubbed. I mean that in a very good way, I'm sure it was money well spent in helping your sales.
