Cover Art

I hunted around for a source for cover art, and was disappointed to find that book cover artists want more for their efforts than I might end up making on publication of the work itself. Oh, sure, an unknown novelist right out of the gate could hit it big, or even small-scale sales over time might make more than I expect, but let’s face it: revenues are usually hobby-level income, at least for those of us without a certain measure of fame who are self-publishing.

So I took a stab at creating something myself. Feedback was... well, let’s just say people were searching for something nice to say and coming up short. Check my blog if you’re interested, but my wife probably summed it up best: “It looks like a travel guide.” Ouch.

So, back to searching. I start all my searches for visual artists on DeviantArt, which hosts work from rank amateurs to mainstream professionals. Reviews, feedback, helpful hints, tips and tricks; they’re all there. Sound familiar?

One of the artists I follow there is Francois Beauregard (https://www.deviantart.com/built4ever), an architectural designer and fantasy artist who has done work for Wizards of the Coast, among others. Several years ago, I had reached out to him about commissioning a study for a house I was designing. The project never got off the ground, so I didn’t go any further with him, but continued to follow his work.

A week or so ago, I reached out again and told him what I needed. He insists that he’s not really a cover artist, but my issue is dealing with the artistic background image, not doing typesetting and page layout. I sent him a few shekels via PayPal to get started, and with just his “napkin sketches” based on descriptive text I’ve sent him, I’m already refining my visualization of the setting, tuning up some of my descriptions, and making corrections (he pointed out an historic inaccuracy in something I wrote).

The price we agreed on for a cover-worthy drawing was affordable, so I asked about a few other drawings, all affordable as well. It looks like I am going to get a package of art to festoon my novels (two are planned), including a map. I’m very excited.

Check out Fran’s work, and if you like it, reach out to him. And browse the other work on DeviantArt. It’s a great site. Note, though, that you might want to hit the checkbox to limit mature content, as some of the work, including photography, is definitely NSFW.

What resources do you use for cover art?

 

My book series is my dream work, almost everything I do, I do to further that work. I want to realise my dream world. So I am working with an illustrator for some art pieces to use in my book. Singed a contract with one a few days ago, first picture will cost me around 600 Euro and that is just one picture, it is for these types of things that I have saved some money.

I can't paint at all, so I really have no other option, sure I could check for a cheaper source, but I like paying a fair wage for a fair job.

My expectations for my own success are rather low, I have plenty of problems with the language I'm writing in (English). So I don't expect to make that money back, but what is more important for me is that I tried, and perhaps I will succeed in at least recreating the world that is in my head, which will be further realised with the help of some illustrations.

Some people like to buy houses and cars, I like to buy pictures of my world. Maybe I'm making mistakes with my priorities?

But I love my hobby!

 

1) There are any number of sites that offer cover art services. Trawl them. Do NOT steal from them, but note the trends, the looks, the templates and setups that are happening now. Conversely, you can trawl Amazon for your genre of story and do the same, take note of what's happening right now.

2) If you're going to do it yourself, get comfortable with the finer points of Photoshop or GIMP. I use the latter. It's free and legal shareware. I can't imagine life without it. You'll need to learn more than just the basics. Some amazing things can be made to happen just by playing with the layer modes, and that's but one of a bewildering array of tools.

I don't pretend that this is award-winning, but I did make it myself after a $10.00 investment in the licenced image you'll note within the whole.

 

When I took a stab at paranormal romance I had to buy covers. I searched high and low and eventually realized a lot of designers have moved their main base of operations to Facebook groups. There are groups where multiple cover artists can post and then usually private groups hosted by each designer where they sell at discounted prices. That's where I found the most extensive and best range of options.

Now I'm trying to make all of my own. Just minor photo manipulation stuff (I'm no artist). Luckily I'm now in genres where that's possible and I'm spending pennies to make it.

Also, anyone interested in cover design or just getting access to stock photos for formatting flourishing or what have you. There's a great deal at appsumo $39/100 photos at depositphotos (https://appsumo.com/depositphotos/).

 

I'm making my own, since ive not only been using programs like photoshop since I was a kid, but i also am a dab hand at professional 3d modelling software.

I understand why your wife said that, too. The original focuses too much on the setting and not the idea of the story.

I think you have to be very genre-focused when you look to your cover, and ask "Does this say 'Sci-fi?' 'Does this say Horror?' 'Does this say Political Thriller?' etc etc
Yours being time travel is probably harder to define, since although you'd say "ooh, time travel - Scifi" your story isn't really (as far a I've gathered) so much about the technical aspects or the technology of it, but the human story behind it.

The cliche trope of a cover for time travel (i imagine, i dont think I've ever read a time travel story... woah) is probably people with echo images after them or something. So I hope its not too on the nose like that, heh. I'm looking forward to seeing what your artist comes up with.

I think the pricing is also just a trade-off really depending on how much you're prepared to spend to get your "baby" out there. Because although im going to try and make mine look great on my own, im still going to spend money advertising it and promoting it places, balancing that out for me not spending anything on the cover.

Because I think the important thing to remember most - is that if your book does end up doing great things, sales wise, you can always go back later and upload a new cover image.
To me, book covers are great, and they do entice in readers, but not as much as when they used to stand on bookshelves and had to compete with thousands of other books. Nowadays, you're trying to squint your eyes at a small thumbnail to begin with, and most people look at the review scores first.

 

I made my first book's cover art with GIMP, but it isn't the best.
Suppose I will have to work on it for my next book.

 

I use GIMP. I have skills sufficient to do a certain amount of layout, typesetting, and the like. My struggle is knowing what to craft. My visual artistry skills were never good, and have waned over the years.

 

I quite enjoy making my own covers, and I don't think they're shockingly bad. I just don't get enough opportunities to practice with the speed I write!! I'd love to do some for other authors somewhere down the line.

Couldn't attach the images because the files were too big but they're down here somewhere (the ones nearer the bottom of that page are the more recent and hopefully better but I'll leave that to your judgement!):

https://nickharper.pb.design/bookcoversnickharper

 

I looked at your cover on your blog. Overall, I'd say I didn't really understand what your story was from the cover. Which is the cover's main purpose. Steve Rivers is right in that you should study the covers in your intended market and you should copy them, to a degree. That way readers know what they are being sold. They can look at the cover and say: "Oh this is a time travel adventure/romance" or something like that. You aren't making art, you're making packaging. It's the biggest passive marketing you'll do for the book. I didn't use much visual artistry when I made my covers. I looked at the successful ones in my subgenre and used them as a template, inserting my own specific details.

 

I pay for covers from professional cover artists. They know what sells in my genre and a couple of hundred dollars is nothing compared to the good it will do my book. I've been working with one artist for years and they have never steered me wrong yet.

 

It's the "one to three thousand" quotes that turned me off.

 

Wow! I've never seen covers that expensive. $100-$300 was probably the average.

 

Usually they add in the paperback version for $20-$50 extra.

 

Maybe I was fishing in the wrong pond. At any rate, I'm happy with the artist I selected.

 

Nobody is charging that except artists that are in high demand. You can expect to pay around $300 for a custom cover just about anywhere.

 

Hi,

I used to do my own, then realised I'm talentless at it (see my avatar!). So I started hiring artists and browsing the pre-mades. I got some from DeviantArt but the main problem was that most of those who I found there, that I liked were either too expensive or else never answered the messages I sent them. Lately I've been getting artists from a facebook site : https://www.facebook.com/groups/bookcovermarketplace/?multi_permalinks=3589231924437049&notif_id=1589363133239907&notif_t=group_highlights by simply putting out an add posting with a price and what I want. It's been mixed results. I'm not crazy about the Barton Villa covers, but the Adrift cover I really like.

Cheers, Greg.

 

Just popping in to share this place that sells prefabbed covers
as an option to consider if you want to go that route and not
spend a lot of money.
https://selfpubbookcovers.com/index.php?premade-covers

 

Here's the Facebook group I mostly used. It's paranormal romance heavy but there are all types of designers. You can also make a post asking if any designers have something specific: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2331941143791060

 

Personally, being the hobbyist writer that I am, who is not at the stage to go into traditional publication, I use the site Canva. It works in conjunction with pixabay and has millions of free images to use. Both for commercial and personal use (though always see the terms as some images may have their own terms)

Canva provides various layouts to try. Some images you have to pay for the rights to, but there are lots of free ones.

Best thing is it's free and safe to use and becoming increasingly popular. I know wattpad and a few other self publishing sites promotes it.

I think it's a great starting point for people like me anyway!

 

Need to check that one out, since I use pixabay
for a lot of things including part of my cover art.

 

Yes it can. I just checked. File --> Export As... --> In the dialog, in the lower-left corner, there's a pop-up for File Type Selector, the list for which includes Portable Document Format.

 

I can highly recommend Affinity Photo. Back in high school I learned most of what I know with its sort-of-predecessor, DrawPlus (as well as PhotoShop but I oddly found that fairly limiting in comparison, it's not for everyone I guess) - Affinity lost some of the nicer features but it's since become a really well-rounded design tool and it's ridiculously easy to use.