How To Get A Book Cover As An Indie Author
You’ve written a book. Congratulations! But as a self-published author, you now need to get a cover image. What do you do? Read on….
Publishing houses hire their own artists to make cover images, and have graphic artists format those images into book covers with text. They also have a marketing department to help decide what sort of cover art is selling the best, collect “voice of customer” feedback to choose from several designs, and can afford expensive graphics software and fonts to do the design work. It can cost them thousands of dollars to do all of this, but the end result is professional and appealing.
But as a self-published author, chances are you don’t have that kind of money to lay out.
I know it seems daunting. You’re probably not a graphic artist, painter, or photographer, much less experienced in changing art into a book cover, so where do you go to get a professional-looking cover made?
I’ve self-published four books so far, and I haven’t needed to pay more than $300 for a cover. In one case, it cost me nothing at all.
I’ve used three different methods to get covers made, so it’s a good cross-section of the available opportunities. I think I have a pretty good handle on the pros and cons of these methods.
