Custom Covers
Get in touch via the contact form on my website OR email me at ads [at] 17bookstudiodesign [dot] com and tell me the custom cover package you want to purchase as well as any extras you require from the prices page (you can always order extras later). I will send you a design brief to fill in. Just follow the instructions in the brief and send it back to me. I may send you follow-up questions to clarify some things. I will let you know when your project is booked in my schedule and request the deposit via Paypal invoice before I start working on it.
Note that the discounts applicable when 3 or more custom ebook or print packages are booked simultaneously will be deducted from the price of the final book cover.
I aim to provide your first draft within 7-10 business days of when your project is booked in my schedule. You get up to 5 rounds of revisions. The faster you reply with feedback about what revisions you require (within 1-2 days of each revision would be great), the faster you get your final cover.
Usually 10-14 business days from the first draft if minimal revisions are required. If you need all five rounds of revisions, then your cover will take longer to finalize. I will keep you up to date via email. Final files are delivered after payment of the second and final invoice.
You will receive:
- an upload-ready ebook cover
- an interior title page
- two 3D renders for promotional purposes
- a print full wrap cover if you purchased the print cover package. Alternatively, you can upgrade to a print cover (KDP or Ingram) later.
I do not purchase exclusive images for use on my covers but I am happy to use one that you provide, as long as it is at least 300 ppi in resolution (which most photographers would automatically do) and 6″x9″. What you would need to do is buy the image and provide 1) proof of ownership or right to use the image and 2) photographer and model release forms. Supplying your own image does not change the design package fee. If I feel your design requires a non-exclusive image from a premium stock site, I will discuss this with you first and tell you the extra fee that will apply for purchasing the premium image. I am happy to provide you with the receipt of purchase upon request.
Yes, you can. You will have to provide me with proof of license and the image needs to be at least 300 ppi and 6″x9″. Supplying your own image does not change the design package fee.
General FAQs
Well, if you ask so nicely. Check out my prices page for extras I provide and their charges. If there’s something specific you have in mind that is not listed on the prices page, feel free to talk to me about it. No, I will not make you a banner big enough to put on the moon that says “I AM THE GREATEST WRITER IN THE WORLD. PLEASE BUY MY BOOK”. I mean, the ppi and dpi on that thing would be eye watering. An hourly rate of $80 will be applied to all off spec extras.
If you want to make changes to the print book trim size and spine width following purchase and delivery of the final file, this will incur an additional charge of $80 per hour. If you’re only adding a handful of extra pages to the book without changing the trim size, I wouldn’t bother requesting a spine width modification. KDP and Ingram allow a small margin of error on the number of pages.
Sure thing. I can do this free of charge upon request. But not like, ten times, alright? I mean, come on, decide already!
Most designers use non-exclusive stock images as they are affordable. Exclusive images can cost from several hundred dollars up to and above $1000. It will be up to the client to provide their own exclusive images if they want book cover designers to use one, unless the designer is also a photographer and provides their own exclusive images. In which case, I expect they will charge for the exclusive image as well as the cover design. So yes, this means the chances of seeing the same non-exclusive stock image or elements of a cover on different book covers exists, particularly if there is a limited variety of good stock images for that particular genre or it’s a great image that captures the genre well (from my experience, romance is the one genre where you are most likely to see the same image used on different covers). Stock images are licensed products, which means they are not bought outright but licensed for specific use. Most designers use standard license images from sites such as Shutterstock and Adobe Stock (these are the two main sites I use). A standard licensed image can be used worldwide in perpetuity for unlimited digital use, for up to 500 000 print materials (books/magazines/posters etc), and for free advertising (SWAG for authors to give away for free). If you exceed 500 000 print materials or want to use the images on merchandising goods (T-shirts, totes, mugs etc) for resale, then you need an extended or enhanced license depending on where the image was purchased from. Here are some links where you can check out the summary as well as the full terms and conditions for the use of licensed stock images for Shutterstock and Adobe Stock. It makes for great bedtime reading. Enjoy!
Shutterstock this-is gonna-drive-me-into-a-coma version
Adobe seriously-the-light-is-fading version
Having said all of the above, a good designer will always modify a stock image to make your cover as unique as possible. And most designers do not charge their clients for the standard license, non-exclusive stock images they will use for their covers. They may however charge an extra fee if they buy a premium stock image from another site, in which case they should discuss this with you first and give you the option to say yes or no.
Once purchased, you own the book cover as designed by me but copyright is another matter. Strictly speaking, I own the copyright to the unique composition of the drafts and final versions of the cover but I do not own the copyright to any of the images, artwork, vectors, paid fonts used, not unless I created them myself. That copyright belongs to the creator of that image or element, i.e. the photographer, artist, illustrator, or the stock image site if they purchased the copyright from the original creator. The copyright owner can sell/transfer those rights over in a legal contract but I suspect that would be a very pricey enterprise.
You will effectively be using those elements of the cover under the terms of the license under which they were purchased, which is usually a standard license agreement, and you will have to abide by the terms of that license. You can always upgrade your license if needs be if you wish to use your cover art for purposes not covered by a standard license. Just get in touch with me and let me know.
For custom covers, I can provide a psd file where you can edit the text layers but the image will be flattened or merged. I charge $150 for this file. I do not provide a fully editable file. Note that I use many paid fonts and unless you’ve bought the license to use them too and have downloaded them to your computer and they are in your Font Book application, you won’t be able to recreate them when you edit the text layers.
I can provide you with a textless cover image upon request free of charge.
That would be great. Please credit me as follows on your copyright page:
Cover Design by 17 Studio Book Design
Yes. If you have an existing book or series you want to revamp or redo from scratch, I can do this under the custom ebook or print package. A discount of 10% will be applied if 3 or more books are required.
If either of us feel that I am not the right designer for your project in the initial revision stages, then I will take a kill fee of 33% and refund you the rest of your deposit. So if you booked a $350 custom ebook package and put down a $150 deposit to secure the booking slot, I will take $115 as the kill fee and refund you $35. For a $425 ebook + print package, I will take $140 of the $150 deposit as a kill fee and refund you $10. If we’ve pretty much finalized the project and I am ready to deliver the files, then the entire deposit will serve as a kill fee.
The best thing you can do is to closely look at portfolio to see what kind of covers I can make in your genre before you approach me. Also, let me know during the third revision stage at least if you feel unhappy with the general direction the design is taking.
No, you cannot use the drafts or revision images anywhere public before final payment is made. You would effectively be using them without my expressed consent and will be violating the copyright of the design. You can show the draft or revision images to people privately for their opinions (ARC team, super fans, your author posse) but remember that they will be low resolution images, not the correct size, and you will need to request that they do not share the images. After payment, you’re getting a high-resolution final file so you won’t need the drafts or revision ones anyway.
I could but I can’t promise you the book will sell. Your cover is your product to own but also my design and I could never deliver something I wouldn’t be happy to have on one of my own books. Your cover needs to do two things within a few seconds of a reader seeing it: convey the genre very clearly and look close enough to some of the other bestselling books in that genre for the reader to want to click to find out more. A detailed scene from your book featuring a character with a particular hair/eye/outfit color using a weapon and in a setting exactly as you described in the book may not convey that. Also, those details will be lost at thumbnail size, which is how most readers view books before they purchase them these days. Unique is great and all designers and writers want to be unique. But you need to think like a reader. Human psychology favors samey, i.e. people tend to subconsciously go for things they are familiar with.