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You are here: Home / BAIPA News / An Online Option for Attractive, Affordable Covers (Part 1)

An Online Option for Attractive, Affordable Covers (Part 1)

July 10, 2017 by Patricia Leslie

Recently I discovered SelfPubBookCovers.com, a web-based business that provides a good, useful service for indie authors. The synchronicity was stunning — at that moment I needed three new book covers: a digital front cover for my Steampunk novel, and two full print covers,  one for an extensively revised 2nd edition of my short-fiction collection, Mercurial Tales.

Patricia A. Leslie

The website is quite user-friendly and offers hundreds of finished cover-artworks, from dozens of graphic artists. Prices range from $70 to $100.

First, I spent a couple hours thoroughly studying the site (you can browse by genre, or by artist). I dragged 21 “possible” selections to a sub-page to evaluate further. In a couple of hours, I had found all three cover designs, for a total of $260. Each one felt ideal to me. These prices, however, are only for front-cover, digital versions. Back and spine added by the artist, including back copy elements and spine titling, would be another $149. So, depending on the basic price, one print-ready cover will probably run between $220-$260.

After the author or publisher buys a cover, it is never re-sold. It goes to the client’s account-page, which provides each “working image” with adjustable graphic-design grid-marks. The new “owner” then personally sets up the titling and author name as overlaid layers on the cover art. There are many legible, title-suitable fonts, in a range that addresses most genres. Point size is flexible. Additionally, there are “glow” and “shadow” options to make the lettering pop against the background art. I found this process a piece of cake, since I’ve used InDesign software and the graphics options on my Wix websites for a couple of years. In less than two days, I had three new, complete covers (in low-res, digital format) finished and posted on my websites and newsletter. The whole process was satisfyingly painless.

This was “Stage One.” See my next post about having a “back and spine” added for print.
(Coming next week.)

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Filed Under: BAIPA News, book design, self-publishing, tips Tagged With: book cover, resources

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Comments

  1. Catherine Held says

    July 10, 2017 at 5:58 pm

    Patricia-It sounds like you found a great solution. I would love to see the finished product. Can you post some copies of the covers?

  2. Patricia A. Leslie says

    July 10, 2017 at 7:31 pm

    Catherine,
    Thanks for acknowledging my blog post. You can actually see all 3 of my finished, new front covers on the landing page of my website (www.lesliebookcommunity.com). The 3 new covers are for: Mercurial Tales; Valedictoria Scott’s Mysterious Adventures; Patricia A. Leslie’s Peculiar Wit & Occasional Wisdom. You’ll also see the cover for the first book of my 4-book fantasy series there (The Ballad of Tam Lin), which at this point, I’ve long been aware is a “fail”, and which I hope to also re-do as soon as I find the perfect series of cover images. I’d be interested in hearing opinions of the new covers that were done through SelfPubBookCovers.

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With COVID-19 teaching us all how to function remotely, BAIPA will meet via ZOOM ONLY until it is safe to resume in-person meetings. (Even when we decide to resume in-person events, we will continue the Zoom option.) We are implementing all the recommended precautionary measures to keep our meetings private and safe for all participants. All members and visitors who register in advance will receive a link to attend via Zoom video conferencing. On the Friday evening before the meeting, we will send the link and password out to members and to non-members … More

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