Production · from $640 · 2 to 4 weeks
Original cover design by a working designer with a portfolio in your category. No stock-photo collages, no template flips.
Most readers see your cover at 200×300 pixels on a phone before they ever see it at full size. Our covers are designed and approved at the size they actually sell at — not at print scale where everything looks good.
Cover design that starts at thumbnail size and works backward, because that’s where 90% of the buying decision happens. Three original concepts, not three colors of the same one. A designer who has shipped covers in your category before, named on the proposal. Full rights to you, source files included, ready for KDP, IngramSpark, and audiobook.
Sell you a single concept and call it “exploration.” Three concepts means three. If a designer brought us one concept and called it three, we’d return it.
Behind the scenes
Five shots from the studio — the kind of work that ends up on your project.
The work, in three tabs
Not three variations of one concept. Three genuinely different directions, each with a written rationale for why the designer thinks it'll work on Amazon's category page.
We discuss the book, the audience, the category page. You send 6–10 comp covers — ones you love and ones you hate. The designer studies the category before sketching.
Trained as a fine-art printmaker, then spent ten years inside HarperCollins designing covers. Believes a cover is a sales argument compressed into 1600 by 2560 pixels. Will not start a cover until he has read the first chapter.
What book cover design actually does
Same paragraph, before our work and after. The kind of difference twelve focused hours makes on a page.
Sample deliverables
How it works
Week 1
We discuss the book, the audience, the category page. You send 6–10 comp covers — ones you love and ones you hate. The designer studies the category before sketching.
Weeks 2–3
Three full concepts, presented as mocked-up thumbnails next to the existing top-10 books in your Amazon category. You see exactly how yours competes.
Weeks 3–4
You pick a direction. Round one of revisions on the chosen concept. Most projects need 3–5 changes.
Week 4
Round two is the polish pass. We finalize spine width once you've confirmed page count. Files delivered in every spec you'll need.
Pricing
No 'contact us for pricing.' If a tier here looks close to your project, the final quote on the discovery call will be within 15% either way.
Front cover only, ebook spec. For digital-first launches or pre-launch reveals.
Full wrap. Front, back, spine, ebook, print. Most-booked package.
Custom-illustrated cover. For literary, memoir, children's, or any project where stock won't carry.
The lead, in full
They join the discovery call. They sign off every deliverable. They are not a sales rep.
Art Director, Cover & Interior Design, 13 yrs
Trained as a fine-art printmaker, then spent ten years inside HarperCollins designing covers. Believes a cover is a sales argument compressed into 1600 by 2560 pixels. Will not start a cover until he has read the first chapter.
Case study
Studio
When we say no
We turn down work every week. Less stressful for everyone.
Book cover design — FAQ
For some genres, yes — well-licensed stock is the genre convention in romance, thriller, and contemporary commercial fiction. Where stock is used, it is licensed via Getty, Adobe, or a comparable major library with full commercial rights. For literary, memoir, and business books we usually commission original photography or illustration; that's an add-on of $400–$1,400 depending on scope.
Yes. Full transfer of all rights to you on final invoice payment. You can reuse the cover for foreign translations, special editions, swag, marketing — any use, in perpetuity. The only exception is stock-licensed imagery: you own the cover composition, but the underlying stock licence has its own terms (which we hand you).
Yes. On the discovery call we name your designer and link to 10–15 of their covers in your category. If their existing work doesn't excite you, we'll propose a different designer.
Rare, but it happens. The first response is a brief recalibration — usually the brief and the designer's read of it were misaligned. We deliver a second round of three concepts at no charge. If you still don't like those, we refund 50% of the deposit and part ways. (We've had this happen twice in seven years.)
Front, back, spine, and bleed, all in. The print PDF is the full wrap. You write the back-cover copy; we design it onto the cover.
Three things. First, the designer has a portfolio in your specific category — they've sold books like yours before. Second, you get three original concepts, not one template flip. Third, you get the source files and full rights, not a flattened JPEG. Fiverr can work for $150 if you're publishing a side project; this is for books that need to compete in their category on Amazon.
Yes — audiobook 3000×3000px ACX-spec, Kindle Vella episode art, and Apple Books square thumbnails. Included as additional deliverables for $190 on the same brief.
Pairs with
Most projects use two to four services. We bundle on the discovery call.
Ready when you are
A 30-minute discovery call with a senior editor — no sales script, no pressure. We'll tell you whether we're the right fit for your project, what it would cost, and how long it would take.