Congratulations. You finished your book. Now it’s’ time to pick a cover. Some have ideas, others don’t. As a writer and 14 years of experience in Photography it might be a bit easier for me to how I will achieve a book cover but not necessarily which one will be best for my own book right away. It takes a lot of thinking. Sometimes, we think way too much. Good to have editors and publishers in your team. Though that doesn’t mean you cannot do it on your own. I know plenty of Authors that are self published and simply hired a cover designer or illustrator for their story. One thing I find essential is to have someone experienced to proof read.
Now what are the basics of a book cover?
The very first questions I get is ” how much do you charge? ” Unfortunately its not that easy to answer. If you hire me and we ”purchase an image online” it might be easier/faster. Images purchased online are for commercial use and will give you the Right to use it for your needs right away. Depending on the layout, we might end up needing a few images. However, there is a big chance that your image, is somewhere else out there, completely unrelated to your book. It can get confusing and to be honest not that very unique. Important to know is that a book cover designer doesn’t just purchase the image(s) and leaves it plain. 99% of the time we add text and more layouts and several other images together to create just the one cover that you want.
I have a wide variety of images/designs that I own and hold copyrights on that I offer to my clients first. It saves time and money. I don’t sell my individual images. As a writer myself I know how costly it can get to publish a book. Little things add up. Some of my work is displayed on 500px. I used to have an entire website for my business as a Photographer, though after 14 and some years I decided last year to spice things up and closed it. To see some things open for public click Alisha Liker and of course I have thousands of other commercial work for my Author clients in my folders that aren’t visible for the public to avoid copyright infringement. So when i create a book cover with my own images it will be 99% more unique however it doesn’t mean i don’t have to purchase a picture of a cherry or a glass of wine to combine together, in case I don’t have this particular image handy.
To learn more about book cover designs, here’s a good read ” Book Cover Design Basics”.
So what’s included and what are the costs?
Pricing. Honestly, I don’t even have a set rate yet. I do take a $50/€50 deposit and then go by whether or not my client needs. Some images needs purchased, whether or not I have to illustrate , whether or not I have to create a text based cover. Clients pay me anywhere about $150 to $500 per assignment plus what ever my client needs from commercial use images. Those images cost anywhere between $2,50 and far and beyond. I never paid more than 10 bucks for a clients per image. I trust my clients and my clients trust me. Charging an hourly rate sounds kind of scary and i can see a lot of potential clients shy away from this thinking the designer might take advantage of it.
Things included. First and foremost the uniqueness. The design we create is yours only. A few free revisions. You can use it for all of your commercial use. You hold the commercial Rights. No one will appear out of nowhere and claim what ever they want to claim. Bigger companies or editorials want percentages of everything you make. I am always here for you in case of questions, requests or changes. Via zoom or skype. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in India, USA, Europe etc… Of course we will have an agreement that will keep both of us safe legally.
Refunds are an option and will be more explained in the agreement.
Beautiful Chapters 