Graphic Designers in Appleton, WI

I am a graphic designer and I would offer that if a portfolio seems inconsistent that is probably more a reflection of catering to different price points for clients with different budgets, not that the designers talent is streaky. Difference between a $50 and $500 cover is often not skill, but the fact that one pays for maybe an hour of work and the other pays for 10. If you like someone’s best work I wouldn’t be scared to inquire and ask what it would cost to get something of the same quality.

I use [http://www.derangeddoctordesign.com/](http://www.derangeddoctordesign.com/) for everything. I have two series out through them and I LOVE their work. They do a lot of different genre's. I think it's mostly frowned upon to do your own covers because so many people try and they look awful. If you can do work as good as the top books in your genre, it might be safe to do it your self. Just get an honest second opinion.

Do it yourself. No artist is going to know or care about your book as much as you do. Go for a minimalist look. https://imgur.com/gallery/cSMHJ

I designed my own. I use InDesign and Photoshop for my job (although I'm not a book designer), so I know the basics. And since I've started promoting my book, I'm on a lot of self-published ebook promotion mailing lists, which means I see a *lot* of poorly-designed book covers and can tell you what not to do. Here are a bunch of tips: 1) Never use a font that came with your computer. And in general, never use a serif font — they nearly always look amateurish. Get a good bold headline font for your title, and if you're not sure what looks right, look at other books. Tendollarfonts has great ones for cheap; fontsquirrel has pretty good ones for free. 2) The secret to good design is good photography. Unsplash has royalty-free photos that are artier and more appealing than any stock photo web sites. I found a remarkable photo for [the cover of my book](https://www.amazon.com/Selfdestructible-Mike-Vago/dp/1732479011/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=) there. 3) Have the right amount of text on your cover. If you only have title and author, it looks too sparse. If you have a paragraph, it's a cluttered mess. You should ideally have title, author, and one other thing. If it's a series, that other thing can be "Book 1 in the Space Accountants of Doom Series"; it can be a tagline: "Could a cowboy fall in love with a vampire... who was also a werewolf?"; it can be a quote from a review. But have *something* there. But not more than a sentence or two. 4) No floating people or heads. This is something I see a lot of for some reason — a photo of a person (or just their head) silhouetted so they're not standing on anything, just floating on a neutral background (sometimes with a glow outlining them. It looks weird, don't do it. 5) Pixlr is great. It's Photoshop, except in the cloud and free. It doesn't have some of Photoshop's high-end tools, but for makin' book covers, it's more than enough.

Following Book Design Covers...

The Book Cover Collection have been amazing for me

I'd definitely throw my vote in for /u/akidneythief, Jake from [jcalebdesign](http://jcalebdesign.com). Quite a few of my clients have worked with him, and I've heard only good things about their experiences.

https://99 designs.com/profiles/jestyr37 He designed the cover of my novel and I'm super happy with it. Easy to work with. Can see some of his stuff in the link and I can send a pic of my novel's cover if you want.

I've had some from http://www.goonwrite.com which I'm very happy with. I've also designed some of my own, but I'm pretty shit at it. Since you're already a professional graphic designer, go for it! To my mind it's fonts that make or break a cover, and I'm sadly shit with fonts. You're probably awesome.

My husband made mine in his spare time and he is a software dev. Our heat went out and we’ve had a lot of huddled under blanket time lol. I say try it yourself but get good criticism before you use it.

I will probably get downvoted for this because it goes against popular advice, but if you have an eye for design, are familiar with what books in your genre look like, and are fluent in Photoshop or another design program, give it a go yourself. If your skills don't measure up to what you see in bestselling covers yet, there are lots of tutorials out there. I say this because I was going to do my own, but heard the "buy a cover" advice so often that I thought I must be missing something and hired a designer, one with a great portfolio and several bestselling clients. After lots of delays, she finally sent me a cover that was more amateurish than something I could have done myself in an afternoon. Have faith in your own abilities, I guess is what I'm saying. Try it, and if when you're done you can't honestly say that you're proud of the cover you made, then hire a designer.

I use a cover designer I have great faith in. (And I'm not just saying this because he's married to me) I had a cover designer let me down because my husband & I were too busy moving house at the time the cover needed turned in. That cover was the bane of my existence. Sometimes, covers vary because of the elements an author is asking for in the design, others it's designer preference. I like utilizing the cover services of my husband because not only does he listen to my concept fully, but he has a great design eye that goes above what my mental picture of the cover would be. Message me if you want to know more.:)

Try Reedsy. Liam Relph.

Need for information for book cover designers. Please visit our website and get some good tips for book cover designers. ​ View More: [Coffee table book publishing](https://www.maneeshmedia.com)

I only have one series but my one cover artist has been fantastic. Be very detailed about what you want the final product to look like and don’t be afraid to ask for changes- and be careful here, because some designers limit the number of proofs they will create, or charge extra after a certain number. Most of the ‘don’t design your own cover’ advice is left over from earlier days when authors were designing them in MS Paint. Nowadays the first thing you learn is you must have a dynamic cover suited to your genre, so that advice may be out of date. There are a lot of writers designing fabulous covers for their work. Mine was an author who’s self-designed covers created so much demand she quit writing and designs full time. https://www.thebookdesigner.com/ writes a monthly column featuring 50-100 cover submissions. He picks the best each month and critiques most of the others. Always some good info on what NOT to do, plus font pros and cons, shading critiques and many other things I’d have never thought of. I’m definitely not a designer.

J Caleb Design!

What is the genre of your book(s), your budget, and your timeline? In general you pick an artist based on their style being what you want, your budget, and their availability. You should also pick an artist that regularly designs covers for books that do well in your book's genre/niche, since they're going to know what will code properly and appeal to that market. ​ ​

I've had 5 covers (both ebook and paperback for each) done by [damonza.com](https://damonza.com) and have been very happy.

My [recommendations](http://www.stuartthamanbooks.com/blog/2018/6/18/my-official-recommendations-for-pros-in-the-book-industry). Hopefully it helps.

Antonio Stappaerts.

Am a professional book cover designer ([www.natashasnow.com](https://www.natashasnow.com)) and definitely won't recommend myself (lol), but if you're going to hire someone or design one yourself, make sure you know what's selling in your genre and what's marketable. A book cover can be fantastically well-designed and suited to your book, but might not sell in your target genre. Look on Amazon and study up (either way) on what's selling in the genres you want to be in. I'd say it's step #1 when deciding on how you're going to market the book, and to which audience. :) Good luck!

Contact Lee.Wegener@ARCW.org He is willing if you need more help

Pete Driscoll - artRebecca 'Letizia' Fuhrman - website

Preston Folkestad. You might want to ask him.