Getting a great cover design for your book without paying the earth

So, you’ve spent months and possibly years on completing your manuscript, you’ve edited, proofread, edited, re-written, edited some more, and now, finally, you’ve finished it! What’s next?

Well, the obvious next stage is in publishing your book, but before you go rushing to KDP or IngramSpark, you should give some very real thought to your book cover design (strange you say, a book cover design company talking about the merits of having a professional cover...hmmmm).
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Of course, we’re bound to be of the opinion that having a professional cover will help your book, but whether you like it or not, people do judge a book by its cover, so ensuring that your book looks professional and grabs the attention of a reader (and in a good way), is vital to the success of your book.

Over the past few years self-publishing has become incredibly easy for indie authors, you can have your book ready to buy on Amazon just a couple of days after uploading, and there’s no pitching it to a stream of endless publishing houses, just upload and go. However, unlike those publishing houses, you won’t have their advertising budget, every sale you make will be the result of the hard work you yourself put into it.

You do need to embrace the fact that people will judge your book on the first impression it gives, just look at the masses of choice that we have as book buyers online, and because the sales pages are set out with books as thumbnails, we tend to scroll through quite quickly when searching for a new book.

But do you need to spend thousands of dollars on a cover? No, of course not, most professional packages for book design start off way more reasonable than you may have thought, and they’ll give you a tailored cover specific to your book’s synopsis and focal point, all designed to sell your book to a reader.
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What if you are publishing on a smaller budget and still want to give your book a great cover? This is where ready-made book cover designs can really help, as the artwork is complete, the prices start off from a lower point than that of having a custom design created for your book, you can get a professional cover with a lower price tag.

A ready-made design can usually be adapted with your book’s title, name and blurb etc. quite quickly, there are also options if you are printing your book as both paperback and hardback, along with promotional elements such as 3D renderings and social media banners.

However, the design will be more generic than a custom cover, so if you need specific elements or characters upon the front cover, you would be better off using a tailor made one. You’ll also find that the artwork will normally be upon the front cover only, with the back and spine being a solid color (or with a gradient). Most custom packages tend to come with designs for print, eBook and some promotional elements too, there are also revisions included which you won’t get with a ready-made.
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However, ready-made book covers will come in multiple genres from horror to romance, nonfiction to thrillers and sci-fi to fantasy etc., so you can normally find a design which will work. 

You will need to know some details before you purchase your readymade book cover, these are elements that the designer will require to be able to size and prepare the design for your book specifically, they are:
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• Your chosen printer (POD Publisher such as KDP Publishing, IngramSpark etc.)
• Your confirmed page count
• Your book’s interior paper color
• The trim size of the book
• The book’s title, sub-title and your author/pen name
• The blurb for the back page
• Your bio for the back page (if adding one), try to keep all copy for the back page to around 250 words max.
• A profile picture (again, if adding a bio and normally with non-fiction), keep to high res and professional.
• Your book’s ISBN number

 
So, whether you decide to use a premade book cover or a custom design, make sure your book gets the professional representation it deserves.