Creating a great cover!

You will hear it said repeatedly by folks in the publishing industry that people do judge a book by its cover.

You probably don’t need a killer cover if...

• you already have a readership that will buy anything you offer them.
  If that’s true, you probably have a traditional publisher who designs killer covers for you.
• you have a captive audience, i.e. you offer lecture courses that include a copy of your book.
• you just want a few copies for friends and family and don’t want to offer it to the marketplace

Everybody else needs as killer a cover as they can get!

That said, there are ways to make cover design less expensive.

Do you have photos that you can use (and that you own the copyright to)?

Do you have original art that you can use (and that you own the copyright to)?

Do you have some favorite fonts and colors that would make a nice cover, even if it has no pictures?

So what will a killer cover cost?

The going rate for cover design is between $1000 and $1500. Ouch! Of course that usually means that the designer is an experienced book cover designer, with a portfolio you can check out. There are lots of these folks around, and if you can afford it, it may well be worth the money.

raqoon design will make every attempt to deliver you a killer cover using your graphics, your artwork, and your ideas, and we can often do it for as little as $500. What we do is mock up a preliminary design fairly quickly and present it to you. If you like it, we’ll make it nice nice and prepare the cover file for you. If you think it’s OK but not great, let us know how to fix it. If you hate it, you lose your $100 deposit, but don’t owe us another cent, unless you use the design. (Please don’t do that.) If you need lots of changes, obviously that will cost more. The first $500 buys you 10 hours of a designer’s time. After that, we charge $50/hour until you’re happy.

What if you need artwork?

raqoon design works with a number of excellent graphic designers. Depending on what you want, we can recommend someone, and you can deal with them directly. Or you can find a designer yourself. As long as you own the copyright to the work, we’ll put it on a book cover.

The bargain basement cover

If you have a nice front cover already designed, you will still need to create a complete cover, including front cover, back cover, and spine. We will use your front cover, your copy, and possibly an author photo and put together the complete cover for $100.