Everyone judges a book by its cover. Whether it's what draws you to pick up a novel or the clinching factor that leads you to buy it, the cover is the first impression for your book. But what I didn’t realise before I entered into the author world was how much more there is to book design than just the front cover.Â
Obviously the front cover is extremely important and arguably the most fun part of design. The face of your book has to make an impression as well as convey the story to the reader in just a glance. But even within the front cover there are many things to consider. For example, are you using stock images or do you need an illustrator? What colour scheme do you need for the book? And all that is before you even consider typography! I never knew how impactful fonts could be until I became an author. Â
So let’s say you found a book with a beautiful cover, so you flip it over to see what the book is all about. Well, that back cover is a part of the design as well. It has to be cohesive but also not so complicated that you can’t read the description, which also has to be formatted properly and beautifully with decisions about colours and fonts as I mentioned before.Â
Then you open the book and, yes, that is design as well. The typesetting impacts the readability of the book. Which font you use, which size of font, do you want chapters to start on a new page or the back side of the page, and what kind of design you want for chapter headers are amongst the many decisions to make. And it all has to be formatted properly for printing, whether paperback or hardcover, or digitally formatting for ebooks.Â
Designers do a LOT to make books into books.
As someone who was overwhelmed with the amount of decisions that came with independently publishing my own book, I wanted to break down some of those decisions and provide some insight to other authors. No one can make those decisions before you, but at the least I can help shed some light on where to start. So let’s dive into how to hire and work with a book designer.
But first, some housekeeping...
For ease of communication I am going to refer to designing the exterior book cover specifically, however, the advice is applicable to all kinds of design that an author is going to have to consider. Â
Additionally, this is based on my own personal experience as it relates to self-publishing. There is no singular path when it comes to independently publishing a book.Â
I was fortunate to find a designer who does my book covers, interior layout, and ebook design. Other authors may hire for these components separately.Â
Finally, this is specific to independent publishing, where the author is also the publisher. When traditionally publishing, how much (or how little) control and choice the author has over the book’s design depends on the publishing house.
Okay, with the disclaimers out of the way, let’s get into it.
Know Before You Go
The first thing you should do is research. Even before you start working with the designer it is important to come up with a clear idea of what you are looking for in the cover. Remember you’re hiring someone to bring your idea to life, not to come up with the idea for you.Â
Start by looking at other books in your genre and age group. Take note of the trends or commonalities of the books that both draw your personal attention as well as what is popular. What features or qualities cause these best sellers to be at the top of the list? While you do have full power in independent publishing to design the cover to your personal preference the cover isn’t just about what you want… it needs to be something that will sell.Â
This research is important for identifying your path forward, as you will need to look for a designer that can cater to your goals. Just like authors, designers have their own styles and specialties. A cover design for non-fiction books may not be the best suited to design a fantasy book, and vice versa. Knowing what you want out of the cover is going to help you narrow down which designers to approach for potential hiring.Â
That being said, it is my personal preference to hire a designer. I think there are a lot of things that authors can do themselves with tools like Canva or Adobe, and the availability of free stock images like Unsplash, and I love using these tools for creating marketing materials. But the two things that I believe are worth paying for when publishing are 1) the editing, and 2) the design. Since I can’t create a book cover to a professional standard, I would rather leave it to the professionals.Â
However, that is not the only path forward. While it is my bias to have covers professionally designed, that doesn’t mean there aren’t author-designed covers that are amazing or professionally designed covers that are, well, not. It is all subjective at the end of the day. So if tackling the book design is something you want to take on yourself, whether out of interest or in an effort to save costs, you go for it. Just make sure you do your research, especially when it comes to properly formatting the book for printing.Â
Either way some flexibility is important. Having a strong idea of what you want for your cover will give the process direction, but once in the design trenches you may find things change. Maybe some components aren’t feasible, or you can’t find a copyright-free image that quite fits the theme. Or you see the drafts and the design doesn’t look quite like it did in your head, and will need to be adjusted. It happens, so some patience and flexibility is always good to keep in your back pocket.Â
Now, assuming you are interested in hiring someone, and you’ve got a good idea of the style and design you want for your book, it is time to find a designer.Â
Finding a Designer
There are lots of places to look to find a designer. First and foremost, check the acknowledgements in the back of the book that has your favourite covers. You may also find designers on service websites like Fiverr and 99Designs. These sites can help you find a design in a budget-friendly range.
All designers should have a portfolio available on their websites or platforms. Similar to signing with an editor, the communication begins with an inquiry. Reach out to your designer of interest no less than three months in advance. The earlier you reach out the more likely your designer will be available, and it's best to make sure you have lots of time to get the designs completed as well.
Some questions you may also want to ask the designer in your inquiry (if it's not already clear on their website):
How many rounds of edits will you go through?
What is the payment structure?
What is the cost for extra rounds of design?
Will they also do the interior layout? (If not you'll need another designer for this)
Will they do other formats, like ebooks?
Other things to look for as you start the conversation:
Are they communicating with you? A designer that doesn't communicate effectively to you, in a reasonable time frame, can make things very frustrating throughout the process.
Do they ask questions? Are they really trying to understand the intention of the cover?
And just like a designer, make sure to discuss the full scope with the designer before proceeding. Ideally, there is a contract to sign. This protects both you and the designer, and makes sure that there are agreed upon terms before the job event starts.
In terms of payment, commonly you will pay a portion of the feed upfront, and then the remaining amount upon completion of the project. Again this is different for every designer, and remember your final cost may change depending on if you needed any extra rounds of edits throughout the process.
The Design Process
How many rounds of design will differ from designer to designer. Here is what it looked like for the design of my first book, Demons at the Doorstep.
After an initial consultation with my designer, she provided me with four initial black and white sketches based on the key imagery and concepts I had shared.

After I chose two that I liked, the designer did a partial rendering of the designers, adding some colour and depth. She presented me with two design options, and I ended up choosing the one with the large necklace with the title on the top rather than the bottom of the cover.
While I was initially thinking the cover would be black/dark purple, my designer was also nice enough to present me with an inverse colour option to consider.

I ended up choosing the title font from version 1, but the colours of version 2. At the time I went with the dark cover because that felt more fitting to the story itself. It also works better with the series as a whole, given the array of covers I was planning on using with each following book. That being said, I wonder how different it would be if I had gone with the inverse colours. Each little choice does contribute to the overall tone of the cover.
After that I picked the layout I liked best and we moved to full rendering. From there I had a few tweaks. For example, if you compare the above and below images you will see I asked to shorten and/or remove some of the swooping tails off the individual letters. At this stage all edits are fine-tuning tweaks.
This process took around 3 months from initial conception to final product.

The process for the internal layout design didn't really start until after my copy edits were completed. I did provide the designer with a sample up front so she could 1) read the book to get a feel for what the design could or should be and 2) so she could provide a sample layout of the interior. This sample was used to discuss things like font style, text size, chapter headers and spacing.
Once the manuscript is done I handed it off to the designer to fully format the interior of the book. Through our initial contract I had one more round of approval, however, I ended up paying for an additional one or two more rounds of editing to get those pesky mistakes that slipped through.
With Demons at the Doorstep the proofreader I worked with made their review in a word document that then went to the designer for the internal layout. However I have since learned, courtesy of a different proofreader actually correcting me, to give the proofreader the book in its initial internal layout format. This streamlines the process and also means they can catch formatting mistakes that may have popped up.
To be fair I chose that first proofreader for price, rather than quality, and did suffer a few consequences because of it. You can read more about how to find an editor in my Publishing 101: Editors blog post. Irregardless of the budget your working with, finding a service provider you feel you can trust, who uses clear communication and outlines the expectations of the process clearly goes a long to helping the production process be smooth and efficient.
In Conclusion
Deciding on a book cover is a daunting and often overwhelming task. The decision will ultimately be final and that cover, even if you do a reprint or second edition, will exist for the rest of eternity on the internet and on people's shelves. So above all else, it is important that you love your cover as well. This is your creation after all, and you should be proud of it.
All that being said, I am by no means an expert and I would be remiss not to direct you to those who are. I work with Jaz of Fleck Creative, and she has created a series of reels on her instagram breaking down the design process, need-to-knows for authors, and really great insights into the industry as a whole. To learn straight from the source, please go check her out. The fact that she puts in the time and effort to provide all of this super helpful and clear information just goes to show how amazing she is, and is a great learning opportunity for authors across the board.Â
Happy designing.Â
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