Where to Buy Custom Cover Image for Novel?

Dog Moon · Nov 22, 2014

I have a question. I have a novel that is currently in the process of being published and I'm only missing one thing: an image for my cover.

Unfortunetely, I'm sort of broke and I don't have much money. The company I'm going through can give me a cover, which they said they would, but if I wanted a custom one I'd have to pay like $200 for that and I just don't have the money and I was very unsatisfied with their generic proposal.

It's a fantasy novel and wouldn't need to be terribly complicated, but if anyone has some suggestions or know someone who can help me the help would be GREATLY appreciated.

If you have questions please let me know and thanks in advance for the help.

Morrus · Nov 22, 2014

You could go to shutterstock or somewhere similar where you can get very high quality stock art for good prices. The only downside is it won't be unique to your book, but the chances of seeing it elsewhere are very slim indeed.

sabrinathecat · Nov 22, 2014

Or you could try asking an artist for help. There are some that will work for credit, or on spec, so that you pay them either percentage or a flat fee based on when you have a profit.

Dog Moon · Nov 22, 2014

Morrus said:
You could go to shutterstock or somewhere similar where you can get very high quality stock art for good prices. The only downside is it won't be unique to your book, but the chances of seeing it elsewhere are very slim indeed.

Yeah, I thought of that, but this book means a lot to me and I want the cover to mean a lot to me too, if possible. As I said, I could have gone with something generic, but that's not really what I wanted.

Dog Moon · Nov 23, 2014

sabrinathecat said:
Or you could try asking an artist for help. There are some that will work for credit, or on spec, so that you pay them either percentage or a flat fee based on when you have a profit.

Do you happen to know anyone like that? This is absolutely new territory for me and the more information and the more specific, the better. Thanks!

Morrus · Nov 23, 2014

Dog Moon said:
Yeah, I thought of that, but this book means a lot to me and I want the cover to mean a lot to me too, if possible. As I said, I could have gone with something generic, but that's not really what I wanted.

Depends what you mean by "generic". You can find some pretty specific high quality pieces there and be fairly confident nobody who reads your book will ever have seen it or will ever see it elsewhere. You'd be the only person who knows.

Dog Moon · Nov 23, 2014

Morrus said:
Depends what you mean by "generic". You can find some pretty specific high quality pieces there and be fairly confident nobody who reads your book will ever have seen it or will ever see it elsewhere. You'd be the only person who knows.

Well, that's true, I guess I was sort of combining two ideas in this statement... the company that is publishing my book gave me a generic image and I guess it annoyed me enough that I feel like I want something actually related to the book itself. So even though I know I can find some good quality pics on those sites, I just feel like I want something relevant to the book itself. It just makes me feel better about my book having the cover relate to the content directly

Morrus · Nov 23, 2014

Dog Moon said:
Well, that's true, I guess I was sort of combining two ideas in this statement... the company that is publishing my book gave me a generic image and I guess it annoyed me enough that I feel like I want something actually related to the book itself. So even though I know I can find some good quality pics on those sites, I just feel like I want something relevant to the book itself. It just makes me feel better about my book having the cover relate to the content directly

You will be able to find something relevant to almost anything on those sites. But I understand.

Whatever you do, I beg you not to follow the advice you quoted above and find some artist willing to do it for credit/exposure/royalties. When you ask "do you know anyone like that?" what you're asking is "do you know anyone naive enough to allow themselves to be exploited?" Yes, you can easily find artists like that. No, you shouldn't do it.

No matter how badly you want it, that's not ethically fair and is generally looked down upon these days. Artists should be paid fairly for their time and work, and, sadly, if you can't afford it, you can't afford it; but please don't try find some artist willing to do it for peanuts because they're desperate for work. Your ethical alternative is the shutterstock-style compromise, where you don't pay much, but at least the artist potentially sells it more than once.

$200 for a novel cover is a pittance for the amount of work that it takes; its a damn good price. You should take up that generous offer, or accept that for less money you don't get exactly what you want.

It sucks, I know. But the world of artists sucks even more.

EDIT - wait, hang on, a company is publishing your book for you but expects you to pay for the art? What the hell? Run away screaming. You're being exploited, as well as your potential artist. What company is this? Are they paying you?

Dog Moon · Nov 23, 2014

Morrus said:
You will be able to find something relevant to almost anything on those sites. But I understand.

Whatever you do, I beg you not to follow the advice you quoted above and find some artist willing to do it for credit/exposure/royalties. When you ask "do you know anyone like that?" what you're asking is "do you know anyone naive enough to allow themselves to be exploited?" Yes, you can easily find artists like that. No, you shouldn't do it.

No matter how badly you want it, that's not ethically fair and is generally looked down upon these days. Artists should be paid fairly for their time and work, and, sadly, if you can't afford it, you can't afford it; but please don't try find some artist willing to do it for peanuts because they're desperate for work. Your ethical alternative is the shutterstock-style compromise, where you don't pay much, but at least the artist potentially sells it more than once.

$200 for a novel cover is a pittance for the amount of work that it takes; its a damn good price. You should take up that generous offer, or accept that for less money you don't get exactly what you want.

It sucks, I know. But the world of artists sucks even more.

EDIT - wait, hang on, a company is publishing your book for you but expects you to pay for the art? What the hell? Run away screaming. You're being exploited, as well as your potential artist. What company is this? Are they paying you?

Well, I'm definitely not trying to take advantage of anyone. I would want to pay a fair price for what they deserve. I just honestly don't know what that is.

Unfortunately, at this point I can't back out. It's a publishing company where I pay, but they edit, market, print, etc. What annoys me is that a cover image was part of the package, but whereas I thought they would do something more unique for me, the package only covers very generic junk. [so they would provide a free cover image, but as I said their free choices were crap; this was never pointed out to me back when it was gifted to me so I never thought twice about it. Sadly, seems like a hidden cost that they don't mention until it's too late] It was half gifted to me from an old friend who paid a good portion of the price and I just paid in the rest. Nowaday I probably wouldn't have gone this route, but since I'm so close to the end I figure I might as well take that last step and finish it.

Ryujin · Nov 23, 2014

I have to agree with Morrus that $200.00 for a 'custom' cover is a pittance. The only other ethical alternative would be for you to shoot a cover photo yourself, that fits what you want from it. That may well take photography and editing skills that you don't have, and models and props that you don't have.

A friend and I recently did a photo shoot in which I supplied most of the props (thousands of dollars worth of materials and labour) while he supplied his superior studio photography skills, studio, three models, makeup artist, stylist, and equipment. This was done on the cheap, for promotional purposes. Professional results cost money.

Where to Buy Custom Cover Image for Novel?

Dog Moon

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Morrus

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sabrinathecat

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Dog Moon

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Dog Moon

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Morrus

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Dog Moon

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Morrus

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Dog Moon

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Ryujin

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