Publishing E-Books For Dummies

Finding and Working with a Cover Designer

Creating your own cover might sound like a lot of work, especially if you (like me) would much rather write than struggle to make a decent-looking cover. Although I create my own covers for my free e-books, I pay a professional to design covers for my other e-books — and there’s nothing stopping you from doing the same.

You don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of money to produce a great-looking e-book cover, though it’s worth the money to see it as an investment in your book. Here’s a rough rule of thumb: Start with a $100 minimum for a straightforward cover design by a professional graphical designer — and plan to budget between $200 and $300.

If you can’t afford this amount, consider one of these strategies to find someone to help:

Hire a freelance designer who’s willing to work at a discount. A recent graduate (or even a current student) who simply wants to gain experience may even be willing to work for free. You could e-mail local universities’ design departments to see whether they can pass a message around to potentially interested students.

Swap skills with an experienced designer. For example, the designer creates your cover, and you edit the copy on her website.

Offering the designer a percentage of sales rather ...