Why is every single cover I see gold writing with a bunch of random crap behind it? Like some curls, maybe a snake or some leaves or something? And these are traditionally published books with the budget to make something original, yet they all look like pre-made covers from the same guy using the same format over and over.

As an artist and an author, it's not that hard to make something unique, so what’s going on?

(These are all from one publishing company)

I’m seeing a lot of AI posts lately on here and OP’s not understanding why readers or other writers hate AI so much. Ignoring the ethicality behind AI and sticking to the exact argument it’s very much a creatives supporting creatives argument. AI steals as much writing from writers as it does art from artists. You would mind if a book was written entirely or partially by AI the same as an artist would mind if art is made by AI. It’s the same posters I see complaining about AI taking over the writing scene lately and leaving no room for them also posting their AI book covers. AI steals both art and writing and neither is more important than the other so if you’re against one you should be against both. Both writing and art are in the creative space and should both be protected equally. The other issue with this is readers who see that you’ve used AI on your cover assume there is also AI in the writing because it doesn’t make much sense to be against one and not the other as again they’re very similar things. This is why many readers turn away as they do not want to read AI written books or see AI made art.

EDIT: This may be removed as I see that there is a rule against discussing or posting AI covers though I’ve been seeing a lot of AI covers posted lately and them not being removed so I am unsure.

Had someone do a cover for me (this is without the text) and I wanted to see if this was ai. They advertised it wouldn't be so I wanted to confirm before I went any further. Any help is appreciated, thank you!

Five cover quotes in two weeks ranging from $80 to $2,400 for the same scope. Wraparound paperback cover with spine for a 280 page novel.

The $80 quote is a Fiverr designer whose portfolio shows the same template with different fonts. The $2,400 quote is from a designer with bestseller credits and the price apparently includes "branding strategy" and "market positioning research."

What I actually want is a cover that doesn't immediately read as self-published. That's it. I don't need bestseller positioning, I just don't want my book screaming "this person made their cover in Canva." Which is what the $80 covers do.

I've been told the sweet spot is $400-$800 for genre fiction, more for non-fiction or complex typography work. Does that match what you've paid. And how much does genre-specific designer experience matter versus a good designer adapting via comp titles.

This is the blurb:

Two former lovers who parted on a bitter note are drawn into a story far bigger and darker than their own. Guided by a quirky and at times unreliable narrator, the messy past and chaotic cast of characters pull them toward a confrontation with the truth . . . and with themselves.

One by one we meet the different participants of this story, who shape the path of our unlikely couple. Some of them whisper encouragement. Others serve only themselves. The third ones are the agents of chaos, ready for their next sabotage adventure. All of them have their own motives. After all, what is a proper romance without a little interference?

Immerse yourself in the world where men are lonely enough to plan a fistfight with gorillas, while women quietly develop strategies how to scare off a bear.

Here, heroes wear pajama pants, billionaires get a taste of sexually transmitted justice, and restaurant workers find creative ways to tamper with the menu.

Watch illusions unravel from the inside in this dark speculative romance inspired by myths of the past and mysteries of the present, where love is both the chain that binds, and the only path to freedom . . .

Thank you so much for any help! You can critique and also tell me if I mismatched the colors etc... I am not professional.

Hello everyone. I am looking for a new book cover designer for my up coming short story. I have a cover made by someone on Fiverr. However the general consensus is that they used AI to create it. I am looking for real artists to create my book cover based on the same cover concept. Anyone here can help ?

Edit: Thanks everyone for your response. I have commissioned one of the artist who had responded for this work. I really appreciate everyone's response.

So admittedly, this is going to be a very ignorant question because I know next to nothing on the subject. Of course, for all the hours I put into my work, I don't want to cheap out on the cover. With that said, if I pay to have a cover created, how do I know they won't be using AI? What is the giveaway that tells you a cover is AI? And where or should I say how are they creating these images out of nothing?

Hello everyone,

I’m looking for an artist to create a book cover for my fantasy novel.

The concept is a minimalist, cinematic design centered on a broken shard divided into four pieces. Only one of the pieces should be glowing with fiery orange light and contain a symbol of fire. The background should be black, with warm ember tones and strong lighting to make the shard stand out. Since it’s minimalist I really want it to stand out and look as clean as possible.

I’m willing to pay! If you’re interested, please share your portfolio link or message me with examples of your work and your rates. I do not have a set budget in mind for this cover but I am willing to pay over $100 for the right artist.

Thank you in advance!

Hi, I'm hiring a cover designer/artist for my dark epic fantasy novel, Forged in the Dying Light.

Summary of the Novel: Abused and isolated by her mother, Princess Emily Ericsson has never had an easy life. However, a chance meeting with two boys her own age leads Emily to question everything she has been taught. Should she stay complicit in a legacy built on chains and blood? If freedom will kill her country, does her country deserve to survive? The fight for freedom is a long, ongoing process, but perhaps what is needed is one simple push off the edge for her people to topple a corrupt government. Emily’s path to self-discovery is long, but maybe he will discover something about himself along the way. 

The softcover will be 385 pages long in a 5.5-inch by 8.5-inch format.

The hardcover will be 385 pages long with a 5.5-inch by 8.5-inch text block. 

I also want an ebook cover, but it would just be a PNG of the front cover.  

My budget is $200 US, but the price is negotiable up to $250 US.

I understand that I’m asking for a lot, as I am asking for a full art cover that includes spine artwork that will flow onto the other seven novels in the series. (Eight novels total). I have a rough draft of what I want the front cover to look like, but I am not an artist, nor do I know what would be genre-appropriate. I will DM the rough draft to those whom I like, so we can discuss the job more in-depth before I hire anyone. 

I am not accepting random submissions by DM. Anyone who does so will be automatically rejected.

I’d like to share the cover of my book... "A Ghostly Song"

It’s an epic fantasy novel that I spent six years writing and building its world. I’d genuinely love to hear your impressions... What do you feel when you look at this cover? What is the first thing you think about when you lay eyes on it?

Does this cover look clean? I provide disclaimer that i'm not a medical professional, I also advise people to consult their medical providers 1st.. Just want to share from my journey. These types of issues are tough and can cause people to want to shorten their life span.

I know what that feels and want to offer some support through this book. Goal is to help others before my time finally expires.

I don't know why there have been so many book covers posted here that have a picture/illustration of someone's back. Like, I have been seeing so much of this here. So, rather than responding negatively to all those posts, I'm making this post in the hope that it helps aspiring book cover designers.

As one of my mentors said, "what is interesting about looking at a person's back?"

I'm sorry to say, but a book cover with someone turned around and we are looking at their back is not interesting, and it has no point of view. It very very rarely works. It doesn't make us feel.like we are in the book or with the character. It doesn't pull people in, it pushes them out. Draw us IN.

Create compositions with a hierarchy, and for all of our sakes, make the damn title and author legible. This, I'm seeing in this sub at an incredible rate.

-signed a professional many times published book cover designer and illustrator

Edit: I am floored by the defense of boring "person's back" book covers. Good luck! They are cliched, overused, and weak IMO. I guess if it is a historical fiction romance, and you want to just follow a trend, go for it. (Oh yay, it's another book cover with a woman's back in a Victorian costume...must be light reading historical fiction romance...) But, I think we can do better. If a person MUST be on the cover, and you really don't want to show the face, use a 1/4 view, use some cool overlays or design elements to mask it, put them in the distance, turn the face up or down. People are hard wired to look at faces, faces sell books.

Hello. I'm an indie author that published a book back in July. I published a book that's an Urban Romantasy with the cover made from GetCovers. A few months in, I'm pretty sure my cover isn't doing me any favors.

For one, my cover is very typical. Which I know people say to try to copy the style of other books, but my book doesnt stand out at all besides the colors. Without the colors, it looks cheap and not at all special. And it's a different book, so it needs to look different. It also doesn't work because because there's no sense of the Urban part. And while I've looked for Urban Romantasy, there's not many that I see to really mincik. And Urban Fantasy covers don't match the vibe of my book at all.

I haven't been able to find a book quite like mine (I've tried) with the same vibes, so I guess I kind of have to set the standard. Which is so hard. It's Urban Romantasy but it has cozy elements in a high stakes world. Its New Adult. I know, I want vibrant colors (pink and purple), a look into what the puma like shifters look like, and I want flowers to represent the MMC. I also want the Urban element and the cozy yet high stakes vibe.

Nothing I've come up with yet seems to satisfy the book. So I think I need help. I don't have a lot of money to commission someone right now but even if I did, I don't know what I'd be commissioning. I want to do this myself. But I'm also wary about GetCovers because you really need to hold you hand with them, and I probably won't get the cover I need anyway.

I've been trying to make them myself but none have really worked out.

So can I please get some help? Idk what to do.

I’ve written a sequel to my fantasy comedy series following a pest control agency - but this one is a parody of Game of Thrones!

Will I get in trouble for the name (Throne of Games)? There are nods and references to Game of Thrones, but it is all my own world and characters. Will it be okay with the added “An Unofficial Parody” subheader?

Hello! A few months ago many authors started to be interesed on my art for their covers and merch. I didnt had any experience in that field at that time so I gave pretty accesible prices.

Maybe TOO accesible I am affraid, now I am getting more requests than I am able to manage to take, so I am considering to raise my prices but I am not sure if it's apropiate and I don't have any other place to ask 😅

Currently I am charging $440 usd for the bigger pack that I offer (it's a full cover desing, an art piece that can be used for page inserts or art prints and a bookmark desing, both sides) and it takes me 24 whole hours to complete, divided in several days ( I got the exact time info from ClipStudio Paint). The price also includes commercial licence for everything, printing files, editable files and mockups.

The illustrations are 100% digitaly hand drawn.

For the full cover alone I Charge $220

The front cover $150 (same with 2 characters illustrations)

And for the Bookmarks $30

I try to keep my prices low because I know getting money it's really difficult so I am worried to loose some clients because of that. But I am starting to feel exhausted already, and I am booked for like 2 months still 🫠

For you as an author $500 for the bigger pack will be affordable?? I am even thinking on making it $550

I have seen bookcovers alone (not hand drawn) go for $600 so I am not really sure about the pricing for this

Just a few notes before I go:

- The full pack pics were not allowed in the thread because of the level of nsfw they had, but I can show in private

- English it's not my first language, so if I don't make sense XD it's because of that

- I entered the book cover desing marked by accident 5 months ago, so I am super new in this space. I have been taking courses online but I don't have any career for it

- On the other hand I am an experienced digital artist that have been working as such for +7 years

I was debating with another author friend of mine who is working on making their own cover with stock images. Shutterstock is filled with AI generated images.

If a design is hand-made, but uses AI-generated stock images that are then arranged and molded into the design, doesn't that still count as an AI cover? I would assume people would be able to look at the cover and identify the images as AI...They're argument is that the work is still being done by a human who's arranging and working the design

Personally, I'm terrible at identifying AI unless it's really bad, so maybe I'm not the best person for them to have this debate with

Hi there! I’ll keep it short and sweet. I’ve been on the hunt for an artist and I haven’t had any luck finding someone that can illustrate women of color.

The main character is a black woman with braids and I would love to have a portrait of her as the cover. She is the main suspect in the murders at her college so to have a haunting portrait of her as the cover would be amazing! Please just add your portfolios here.

No need to DM me . I’ll go through and contact you if interested. Thanks for taking the time ! I really appreciate it and hopefully I can finally find what I’m looking for!

UPDATE 10/10/2025: Hey everyone! checking everything out now thanks so much for taking the time. I have to be honest though if your portfolio doesn’t have any black people as portraits I’ll have to skip you. I don’t want my book cover to be your first try. I appreciate you taking the time!

guys i would just like to find out how much will it cost to make a book cover for my thriller book? idk if smth depends on the genre.

if u have any questions feel free to ask in comments.

I‘m not done with this but I am curious if it grabs your attention? This cover is for my own book that consist of short horror stories. The big empty space on the left is where the book description would go. And still deciding how to make the title properly.

Honest question, do people really judge a book by its cover? Especially for e-books? ​ I can't remember a single one. ​What is important for me it's that the book doesn't start losing pages. ​

FINAL EDIT: Artist Found! Thank you everyone!

Hello! I am looking for a cover artist for my first self published novel.

I am wanting an illustrated cover for both soft cover print books as well as e-book.

The novel is a paranormal crime drama with romance, and I am happy to give more details. What I am looking for in a cover in a lake landscape with some extra elements to tie into the story.

Thank you in advance!

Edit: Thank you all for reaching out! I did not realize how many people would respond, and It is going to take me a minute to go through the messages and comments. Thank you again so much!!!

Edit 2: Getting back to people slowly. Thank you again!

So I just finished my first round of editing on my first novel. It’s going to (hopefully) be a trilogy so I’d like to work with one artist who I can keep coming back to. Would anyone be interested?

Edit: hi everyone! Thank you to everybody who responded (bit overwhelmed!) I’ll reply to who I can I promise!

Thank you everyone I’ve found somebody to work with. I appreciate every response!

I got a professional cover done for the first book in my romantasy trilogy. I was going to go with a style more typical of the genre, but then I found a stock photo that looked exactly how I'd imagined the main character, so I asked the designer to use it. I have since realised that people are turned off by covers that have photos of people on the front. I'm worried that the cover is a major reason I am not making sales.

I am hoping to release book 2 in the coming months, but I am not sure what to do about the cover. I feel like it should remain in a similar style for consistency across the series, but I don't want to make something that won't appeal to people. I am thinking of using a photo of a person again but this time have them facing away and not taking up as much space. But I also wonder if I should go with a different style that fits better with the genre - like the more subtle design on Fourth Wing. Authors and book marketers, what would you suggest?

I write, and I don't use AI other than spell checking.

I have used AI to help me create some animated book covers, so using it as a tool for my own creativity. I see on the posting rules that no AI-generated art should be posted, so I am not.

But I am interested in where you draw the line between using it as a tool and replacing a skillset?

I can't draw very well, but I know what I want to produce.