 Hello, hello writers! I'm Kristen Kiefer, author of fantasy fiction and creative writing resources and you are listening to the Well-Sturried podcast where I share insights, encouragement and actionable advice designed to help you craft sensational novels and build your best writing life. Always in 30 minutes or less so you can get back to writing of course. Ready for the show? Let's get talking! Is it or is it not a fantastic day to talk about book publishing writers? Today's episode of the podcast translates the latest article from the Well-Sturried blog into audio. Titled How to Commission a Great Book Cover Design, you can find the article that also serves as the episode transcript at www.well-sturried.com. Now let's dive in. Despite the saying, readers do indeed judge books by their covers. A great book cover design catches readers' eyes and gives them an immediate understanding of the book's genre, intended audience and tone, and in many cases its overall quality as well. This information then helps readers decide whether clicking on the book's listing is worth their time. If so, they're all the more likely to purchase the book in question. Can you see why a great cover design is essential to your book's success on the market? If you want your book cover to make a positive first impression on readers, it's important that you hire a designer to create a cover for you. Unless you're well-versed in cover design theory, market trends and design software, any book cover you create yourself is likely to fall woefully short of the quality that most readers look for when publishing a new book. Fortunately, there are a wide variety of cover design options available to writers on nearly any budget, including pre-made covers that can cost as little as $30 USD. If, however, you absolutely cannot afford to spend a dime on your cover design, I highly recommend working through the step-by-step design tutorials that Derek Murphy offers at diybookcovers.com. Would you rather commission a cover design instead? Great! Let's break down everything you need to know about securing a fantastic cover design for your book, including the most popular cover design options favored by independent authors. How much does a good book cover design cost? The price you'll pay for a cover design will depend on whether you need a cover for print, ebook, or both. Ebook cover designs are often less expensive because they don't require a back cover and spine. However, if you plan to publish both print and ebook editions, many designers and design companies offer discounts on these bundled services. Some will even design an audiobook cover for a small additional fee. When should you commission a book cover? If you're planning to publish for ebook only, you can commission your cover design at any time during the publishing process. However, to commission a print book cover, you'll first need to format your finalized manuscript. Why? Because designers need your book's finalized page count before they can accurately size the spine of your book cover. They also need to know your book's trim size, i.e. the length and width of your book, and the color of the paper you'd like your book to be printed on, white or cream, the layer of which also affects the width of your book's spine. What does the design process look like? Every design company and freelance designer will have a unique process when working with authors. Most cover design companies can take on commissions at any time and offer a purchase form to make commissioning your cover a cinch, with turnaround times often spanning just one to two weeks. On the other hand, freelance designers often ask that you query them via email to ensure they have availability in their schedules to work on your project, and to ensure their services are the best fit for your book. Don't be afraid to contact freelancers with any questions or concerns you might have. A good designer will always want to ensure their services are a great match for your book and needs. What should you include in a design brief? When commissioning a cover design, give your designer a thorough understanding of your book's genre and intended audience. If you have a book blurb or back cover copy, which you will if you're commissioning a print cover, give this to your designer as well. This information will help your designer create a book cover that is most likely to catch the eye of your ideal reader. If you have a specific vision for your cover, or even simply a few design elements you'd like included, don't hesitate to share this with your designer as well. Just bear in mind that what you've envisioned may not be the design that will help your book sell best. For example, many authors ask to have a specific scene from their book illustrated on their front covers. This approach was popular among some commercial fiction genres in decades gone by. But nowadays, illustrated scenes aren't common on book covers, and including one on your own isn't likely to snag reader's interests. That said, sharing a few design ideas in your brief can help your designer create the best cover for your book and audience. For example, if your romance leads are both black haired, your designer will need this information to choose the best models for your cover. Or if you want your children's book to feature the color green, it's important to let your designer know. Communication is key to receiving a cover design you'll be proud to share with the world. Speaking of which, if you have a specific deadline by which you need your book cover, share this information with your designer up front, as it may affect whether they're able to work with you and or whether they will charge you an extra fee for a rush on the commission. Where can you source your cover design? So in a few moments, I'm going to share with you the book cover design companies and marketplaces that allow authors to connect with freelance designers. These companies and marketplaces are well trusted within the indie author community. However, please be aware that I haven't had personal experience with all of them at this time. In today's episode transcript at well-draid.com slash cover, I have also included a brief description of each of these cover design companies and marketplaces and links to learn more about them. But for the sake of this format here on the podcast, I am just going to list the companies I've included for you now. So here goes Demonsa, ebook launch, Readsie, 99 Designs, Kingwood creations, Butte ebook, Author Packages, and Mibblart. These are just a few of the most popular book cover design options available for independent authors. Some writers have had success with premade or custom covers offered by designers through Etsy, while others have had fantastic experiences working with freelance designers they've connected with via social media or discovered elsewhere online. If you aren't feeling confident that any of the options I just listed are right for you, don't hesitate to ask fellow writers about where they've sourced their book cover designs. In my experience, authors in the online writing community are more than willing to share insights from their journey through the book publication process. What cover design option did I choose? When seeking a cover for Build Your Best Writing Life, I chose to create a 99 Designs contest. Originally, I'd reached out to a popular book cover design company, but after receiving drafts that I felt were irreconcilable to my vision, which is a reality I genuinely believe to be a fluke, given how many other authors have had fantastic experiences with this company, I was hesitant to commit to a single designer again. So for me, 99 Designs proved to be the perfect solution. They offer design contests where you can receive dozens of submissions for a single design brief from designers worldwide. You can then work with those designers over the coming days after launching your contest to tweak their design ideas before choosing one winner. So within 48 hours of launching my design contest on 99 Designs, I received over 50 entries. Admittedly, many of them were low quality or failed to match the brief that I'd included. However, several designers submitted covers that excited me. Over the coming days, I worked with one designer in particular named Boja to create the perfect cover for Build Your Best Writing Life. In my brief, I asked for a minimalistic cover design that would reach the modern creative, and that featured a blue color scheme. Because Build Your Best Writing Life isn't a how to book on the craft, as much as it is a self development book for writers, I wanted to avoid the classic writing book design motifs, such as pens, computers, and typewriters. I made sure to make this clear in my brief as well. If you'd like to see this cover, make sure to check it out using the link I've included for you in today's episode description. I hope you love the cover as much as I do. If you're interested in learning more about Build Your Best Writing Life and subscribing to be the first to know when it's available, make sure to follow that same link in today's episode description. Are you ready to commission a fantastic book cover design of your own? I hope you found today's episode helpful with all of its insights into the book production process. Don't forget to head on over to today's episode transcript to check out the design companies and marketplaces where you can source a cover design that is going to help your book reach readers and sell. Thank you for listening to today's episode of the podcast writer. I hope you found it helpful to your writing journey. If so, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode and to give the podcast a quick rating and review. Doing so goes a long way toward helping the podcast reach new writers and lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm creating. You can also give me a shout out directly on Twitter at christen underscore keeper. For additional guidance as you work to craft sensational novels and build your best writing life, be sure to head on over to www.well-storied.com where I share blog posts, workbooks, e-courses, and other helpful resources for writers. Again, that's W-E-L-L-S-T-O-R-I-E-D dot com. Thank you again for tuning into today's episode my friend. Until next time, happy writing!