Book Cover Design Prices in 2024

Wondering what are the book cover design prices for self-publishing authors in 2024? This post is an overview of current pricing ranges for Custom Book Covers and Premade Book Covers and why there are different price tiers. This post is not about telling you how much to spend on a cover though, it’s just for education and awareness of different options.

Let’s dive in!

Price Ranges for Custom Covers (Photomanipulation, Non-Illustrated book cover)

Book cover design services currently range from $5 to$4000! Again, not talking about custom Illustrated covers (prices are higher for those in general).

Yes, some of these prices are nuts! Both extreme sides of it, are not what average indie authors should concern themselves with – low-end is the designers who don’t care about copyrights (like Fiverr) and high-end is for the big NYC Publishing companies.

The Super-Low-End of Fiverr

First, unrealistically cheap covers are coming from Fiverr marketplace. Often the Fiverr designer’s portfolios feature work from other designers online. Some are blatantly stealing designs to show in their own portfolios (had my designs stolen like that).

A lot of them also use questionable stock images (free ones that get overused) or it’s not clear where they get the image from at all. So from a copyright perspective, if you work with Fiverr designers, be sure to request proof of where they get their stock photos and the terms that apply to them.

Amazon themselves are asking for proof of copyright ownership with AI-generated covers being a new player in town. And that brings a whole new can of worms with how their models were trained.

The Low-end that can work

$50-200 per Cover.

That’s the lower end for freelance designers who are actually taking this craft seriously and not as a part-time hobby.

The catch is that the designers here are either still quite new and just starting to build up their portfolio and experience or designers who are stuck at intermediate skill level (warning: design skills don’t necessarily improve proportionately to time spent in the industry – 10 years in design does not mean the designer is better than Intermediate level).

Sometimes you can get lucky here and find a good designer who is just starting and just wants work but their skills are already World Class. That’s a Steal! Rare and won’t last long (as the designer will be raising prices as time goes on).

The Middle 

$200-600 (often includes print cover version too, but often the price is for ebook first)

This is the range where the best value-for-price seems to be. It’s the place where the designer can charge a rate that pays their bills while doing something they love, and where indie authors don’t have to overpay inflated rates.

There are also quite a few designers here so competition keeps prices similar, without driving them up. The most common range seems to be $200-500. Print cover versions can be an additional $50-150 (so if ebook cover costs $299, print+ebook would be $349 or $449).

Now, $600 for a book cover is expensive. For indies, it’s considered Premium. Not many indies should spend that much on the first book and most won’t benefit much from that. But this is not to take away from designers. It just takes longer to get a Return on Investment for the average author.

In general, some awesome designers can be hired here (like Bookfly Design who I would personally call currently the best designer for indies at the moment). They could easily be making covers for big Publishers and make 2-4x but choose to work with Indies. So lower price than $1000 per cover makes sense for designers who want more creative freedom and no interference.

Highest-End (and some crazy prices)

This is where covers cost $700-$2000+. That’s a common rate for cover designers working with bigger Publishing companies. It can be argued that it makes little difference from the previous tier design-wise, but there are some designers who are definitely worth that (and for books with a big promotional budget, cover quality makes an even bigger impact on ROI since they spend more on ads which means cover has bigger impact).

Not many indies go this route. Not an easy thing to afford.

Some good and well-known designers here would be Chip Kidd and Isaac Tobin.

The Hard Part – Choosing the Right Designer

Choosing between designers might be the hardest thing!

It’s hard to tell design skill levels as authors have not been equipped to judge designer’s skills. Lack of education is the main culprit here.

You can’t always just tell the designer’s skill level by just their service price.

To pick a designer look at their strongest genres, articles on the blog, and social media to see their personality, and even ask questions in emails, as those give you more personal context on how it would be to work with them.

Also, pay attention to differences in what is offered for each price, some designers have a lower price but deliver less initial concepts of design or limit the use of stock photos (only one per cover, etc). Others have a higher price and seem more expensive but they work faster (first concepts in 3 days instead of 14 days etc). Some add bonuses, some don’t. I add a 3D mockup cover for free, others don’t. Some charge more for a print version, some less. For more on hiring the right book cover design read these tips.

So the cheap price may not be so cheap once you add it all up, or the expensive one may not be as expensive as it seems at first sight. 

Other Considerations

Refunds and Kill Fees

The most common thing is to offer a 100% refund. Terms may vary, but it’s rare for Indie designers to have Kill Fees (think of it like a Deposit that doesn’t get paid back, the designer gets paid for some work, but not all of it). Check if the designer you want has any Kill Fees before you hire.

Premade Book Covers

A more recent option for indies has been Premade Book Covers. They are cheaper than custom-made covers, and often as good if the designer has a high skill level. 

Why are they cheaper? Because we designers can make them easier, faster and with complete freedom creatively so there is less work hours-wise.

Some Premades are cover concepts that were not used when the cover was being designed for a custom order.

There are some designers who specifically focus on Premades and only make whatever covers they want to match the needed genre. This is a great freedom to have, thus an attractive option for us designers.

Price range for premade book covers is currently around $40-150 (per ebook/front cover) but the whole range is from $15 to $250. It can get to 300-600 dollar prices for covers that have more digital illustration and the designer puts in much more hours with painting details that make the cover cooler (common in genres like YA, Urban Fantasy, or Sci-Fi).

Just as with Custom Covers, extremes are not what’s most used. Very expensive covers are hard to make money back on if you’re a new author. Super cheap Premades can come from amateur designers for who this is the easiest way to start a career and build up a portfolio so their work is weak.

But in any case, Premades are a good option!

Conclusion

This article is not meant to say, you must pay X rate for a book cover. This is an overview, something to know and use as context when judging cover designers. Some pay more, some pay less. Some people boast about getting the cheapest deal, and others about buying Premium etc. It’s personal preference and we live in a great age for self-publishing, where anyone can find a designer for their budget. 

P.S. Briefing your cover designer correctly is a way to save time and money so read this article on how to create the best book cover design brief.