How To Save Money with a Professional Book Cover Designer

Tips to Saving Money with a Professional Book Cover Designer

  • Professional Book Cover Designer
    I am not saying a professional COULD have helped this book. Maybe nothing could.

    Have a pretty good idea of what you are thinking of and convey that to them – ina rough sketch, long conversation, etc. The more they know about what your vision is, the closer they can come to it, the happier you will be with your design.

  • The opposite – Be open to completely new ideas. Maybe you are too close to the subject matter. They are coming at it from a readers and marketing perspective.
  • Listen – think about what they are saying. A professional designer has been doing this for years and like any professional in their field, consider they have some expertise. (See article on What Makes Good Book Cover Design?)
  • Minimize re-iterations – I would like to se that in green (back to the drawing board and more time. Time is money to an artist.) I would like to see that in red. (back to the drawing board and more time). You get the idea. Every time they have to re-do something, costs them time and you money.

Stock art vs. Original Painting or Custom Photography

  • Professional Book Cover Designer
    Maybe it’s just the title – but Scouts were never like this when I was a kid

    Original paintings take time. The artist only gets to charge one time for their effort. You may be selling this book cover for years. Original paintings are expensive.

  • Custom photography – setting up shots, lighting, etc. takes time. If they have to special effect or fabricate something for a fantasy cover, that takes time and money. Custom photography is expensive.
  • Stock art – a good cover designer can take stock art and manipulate it in Photoshop so that is unique and no one else will have a cover like yours. Royalty-Free Stock art can run from a hundred or so to a few hundred dollars (in other words, the stock art or photography can be sold over and over gain, even if the customized art is unique). Rights-managed art is where you ‘rent’ an exclusive license for the art and no else will be able to lease it for that time. It can be expensive.Book Cover Design Price Ranges

Resources & Links


Left Hand Publishers offers professional book design services for their authors. These services are completely optional and authors getting published by Left Hand are under no obligation to use our design services. They are extremely affordable and more so just a courtesy, auxiliary service we offer to make it easier for authors to have professional covers designed for their books. Writers are more than welcome to use a third-party design service for their covers, but before Left Hand Publishers can offer a publishing agreement, we must be able to approve the design. A bad cover design will impact sales and that will impact Left Hand's percentage of the royalties. A book cover design that does not fit the required parameters, will cost more to print and may not printable at all. We are looking out for our authors' best interests and want them to have the most affordable and professional cover that will not only reflect their brand and manuscript but generate additional sales. For more information on our book cover design services at .