Guest Post - How to get Great Cover Art at Reasonable Prices

Guest Post

How to get Great Cover Art at Reasonable Prices

By: Alexis Radcliff

Everyone judges books by their covers, no matter what the old adage says. Like it or not, people will assume that the quality of your

book cover indicates the quality of the writing inside. A bad cover might be the number one thing holding people back from taking a

chance on your book.

This is a problem for many independent authors. Who has $500 lying around to pay for a professional cover or custom artwork when you haven't sold a book yet? What's an independent author to do?

For starters, relax. You don't need a lot of money to get a decent cover. Today I'm going to give you several options to help you find a cover that doesn't suck, within a budget that works for you.

Preliminary Work: Know Your Budget, Know Your Genre

If you believe in your writing and you're trying to sell books, you're running a business. This means you need to think like a business person and get serious about investing some cash to get your business off the ground. You might not have $500 right now, but how much do you have?

Can you afford to loan yourself $200 from your savings to help you make that money back? How about $75? $30? Remember that you do need some money to make money, and you only need to sell 10-15 books to make your $30 back. Pick a number that's comfortable for you and be willing to invest in yourself. You believe in your work, right? If not, now is the time to go back and polish your writing craft, before you've spent time and energy on promoting a not-so-great book.

You also need to go and study the other books in your genre. Go to Amazon, drill down into the category where your book will be, and look at what the top-selling covers look like. Download the images. Study them. Ask yourself what common themes and images they have. That's your target.

Once you have a budget in mind and know what kind of cover is appropriate for your genre, you're ready to proceed.

Option 1: Pre-Made Covers ($30 - $150)

If you Google around for cover design or check out the resources pages on sites like KBoards, you'll find many designers offering pre-made photo-manipulation covers for books in the $35-$100 range on their websites.

Pre-made covers are ideal in the lower budgets for two reasons: first, because the seller might be willing to negotiate with you on work they already did, and second, because you know exactly what you're getting and whether it fits your genre. This reduces the risk of spending money on a design you might not like when you can't afford to waste money. If you don't have any art skills and you have a very low budget, this is your best option.

You'll want to browse premades until you find one that fits the genre conventions you identified earlier, ideally in your price range. If you find a perfect one that's a little too expensive, there's no harm in reaching out via email to the designer, explaining your situation, and making a lower offer on it. The worst they can say is, "No."

Option 2: Custom Artwork from DeviantArt ($50 - ?)

There are many extremely talented artists on DeviantArt who are open to working with independent authors on cover art. The trick with this one is that it can be hard to find people experienced in both art and cover layout, so if you go this route you can get gorgeous cover art, but you might have to do the text layout yourself.

Text layout is not as daunting as you might expect if you're willing to watch a few tutorials, and you can get lots of feedback while tweaking it to make it look better. Jason Gurley has a great (professional) tutorial series on cover design that can help, and I also recently posted a few quick and dirty tips to make your covers look better. Mediocre text layout over great art is a million times better than having terrible cover art with any kind of text layout.

To find good artists on DeviantArt, just start browsing using search terms related to your genre. Custom painted artwork tends to be most common for fantasy, science fiction, and all kinds of speculative fiction, so search for things related to your book. Don't set your heart on any one artist. They might be too busy, they might not take commissions, and they might be out of your budget. Find lots of artists that might work for you, and reach out to each of them individually via private messages. The more artists you contact, the better your odds of finding someone who will work with you.

You want to explain your situation and be up front about your budget. Custom artwork can be very expensive, but again, many artists are willing to work with independent authors just getting started. If they can't work within your budget, they'll tell you that or they won't respond. Either way, be courteous and respectful. They're trying to make a living from their craft just like you are.

Tips on Negotiation and Reaching Out

As a business person, you need to become comfortable with negotiation and reaching out to people. Remember that negotiation doesn't have to be stressful and adversarial. A good negotiation happens when both parties get something they want and are happy with the outcome. It's important to be pleasant, stay calm, and be firm and upfront about what you want and what you're able to pay.

Here's an example of a good email you can send to an artist or designer:

"Hi [Designer Name],

I found your excellent artwork on [your website/KBoards/DeviantArt], and I'd love to [commission a piece/license the rights] from you for a cover for my upcoming book, [Book Name]. I'm looking for [something like this other piece you did + link OR the rights to this specific cover/art].

I am a new, independent author, and the budget I'm able to offer right now is [$XX.00]. Is there anything you can do for me within that range? If so, please let me know, and I'd be happy to send more details.

Thank you for your consideration.

Best,

[Author Name]"

You can write your own variation, but there are a few things that you should note about this message:

      1. It is detailed, clear, and concise. You've stated exactly what you want, given all the necessary details, and said what you're willing to pay. The artist has all the information they need to decide whether they're able to work with you or not.

      2. The tone is polite, friendly, and respectful. A polite and friendly message is much more likely to result in people being willing to work with you when you're cold-emailing them.

      3. Use proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Being professional also means being polished in your communication. Make sure your message isn't full of errors or overly casual.

      4. It thanks them for their time. If they read your email, they're doing you a favor. Even if their answer is a cold shoulder or a rude reply, you need to stay cheerful and respectful. Getting upset is almost never worth your time -- use the energy to reach out to someone else instead.

Any email you send out should have similar attributes to these if you want to maximize your chances of getting a positive response.

By following these tips, anyone should be able to pull together a great cover within their budget. Also remember that you can trade up as you start to sell books! Maybe the $30 cover you found isn't the best cover in the world, but once you've sold 30 or 40 books, you can reinvest in a nicer cover and bootstrap yourself up to the next level. Rinse and repeat.

Whatever you do, don't lose hope! Sometimes people won't respond well to you on the internet. If you want to be an author, you're going to have to get used to that (and get over your fear of people saying mean things to you or not responding at all). Go out, keep trying, and work hard to make your dreams a reality.

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About the Author:

Alexis Radcliff is an author, gamer, unashamed geek, and history junkie who spent the better part of a decade working in tech before dedicating herself to her first love, literature.

Her new novel, A Vanishing Glow, is the first book in the Mystech Arcanum series, a deep and thrilling blend of steampunk and flintlock fantasy with mature themes.

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About the Book:

** A Vanishing Glow is available now! Buy it on Amazon.com! **

A VANISHING GLOW is the exciting opening to THE MYSTECH ARCANUM series, a deep and thrilling blend of steampunk and flintlock fantasy with mature themes.

It is an Age of Revolution, an Age of Industrialism. Constructs, living men who are as much brass and steel as they are flesh, man the factories and wage the wars of a ruling elite who gorge themselves on the fruits of the common man’s labor. Mystech, a brilliant fusion of magic and machine, gives rise to a new class of privileged inventors and merchants even as the country festers with wounds from decades of internal strife.

Only one man holds the promise of a brighter future: Nole Ryon, the crown prince. When his childhood friend Jason Tern answers his call for aid, the two of them set out to fight for the change their country needs in order to survive, even as shadowy foes frustrate their efforts. But soon, Jason and Nole’s idealistic mission of hope becomes a furious manhunt for a political murderer as the nation balances on the precipice of a country-wide civil war. Can they cut through the threads of intrigue to discover their true enemy before everything is lost?

Sweeping from the ancient cities at the heart of the nation to the dusty edges of the war-torn frontier, A Vanishing Glow tells a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and assassins, friends and lovers, who come together in a time of epic struggle. Here a brave officer risks everything to win back his estranged father’s respect; a brilliant young engineer attempts to atone for her sins; a war-weary commander tries to pick up the pieces of the life he lost; and a man touched by the gods struggles to prepare a nation for the coming of an ancient evil which only he can see. In the dying light of a once-prosperous society, amid twisting plots, suffering and betrayal, lost love and shattered dreams, all must fight for what they hold dear. Who will taste the fruits of victory and who will lie bloodied on the ground in the light of a vanishing glow?