Book Cover Design - Kreative Author's

Costs

• In most cases authors want a print cover and an e-book cover. Once a print book cover is produced, it is a simple matter of capturing the front cover image and producing a proper jpg image for the E-book. An important consideration is that e-book covers need to look good when viewed on a screen, even very small ones.
  
• The cost of producing your cover will, of course, depend  on the work required.
  

• Unlike e-book covers, print book covers also require a spine and back laid out to the printers specifications
  

• A cover can be produced for as little as $200 if all the material is supplied at one time and in a manner that is suited to  placement and ready for design and layout with no further modifications required. This is, however, seldom the case.
  

• If all the material is supplied as above, there will  likely be changes you would like made. This may add $20 to $100.
  

• Supplying me with several images to choose from will allow you to take advantage of my cover design experience in selecting the most suitable image. This may take a bit more time, since I will likely  need to show you my choice as well as yours.
  

• Some images need to be modified for cover design; for example, the sky of an existing image may need to be extended upward in order to accommodate the book title without obscuring other portions of the image. This may add anywhere from $25 to $100 to the cost, depending  on the extent of modifications required.
  

• Most clients prefer to put in time themselves to find a suitable photo or image. Some prefer that I locate suitable images for the Cover
  

• I have occasionally found appropriate images within a  half hour of beginning my search. The image is incorporated into the cover  and approved by the author.
  

• Some searches have gone on for two or three hours without finding a suitable image. If and when I do find an image that I  think will work, it may not be to your liking, in which case the search  must continue. At $25/hr., this can become costly.
  

Here are some websites you might like to look at in your own search for appropriate images, if you do not yet have one:

http://www.bigstockphoto.com/

http://www.shutterstock.com

http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php

http://www.flickr.com/photos/

• If you need a unique custom illustration for your book cover, you may need to engage an illustrator or photographer to provide  the images. I would incorporate them into a cover design which would  include title, text on the back, spine, barcode, etc, then prepare files for a printer.
  
• The illustrator should be in contact with you to make sure he/she was progressing toward a design to your liking. Custom  illustration covers are usually considerably more expensive to produce, since illustrators may charge anywhere from $250 to $500 and more forthe illustration, depending on the work done.
  

Approximate costs summary

$149  base cost (all materials supplied, no modifications to material)

$100  modifications to material supplied

$75  additional cover samples using supplied material

$25  search for and supply stock images

$250 custom illustration production