Premade vs Custom Book Covers: Which is Better?

Your book’s cover is its first impression – a single glance that can capture a potential reader’s attention or send them scrolling by. If you’re a self-published author, you know how critical your cover is. But here’s one question many indie authors face: Should you go with a premade book cover or invest in a custom book cover design?

Premade Vs Custom Book Covers at a Glance:

Premade covers are inexpensive ($40–$200) and available quickly, making them ideal for debut authors or tight deadlines. Custom covers, priced roughly $200–$1,000+, require weeks of collaboration but deliver a one-of-a-kind design perfectly matched to your story and brand.

• Cost – Premade $40–$200(majority of the time); custom $200–$600 for indie authors, Publishers pay more
• Speed – Premade covers are ready within 24-48 hrs; custom takes 2-5 weeks
• Uniqueness – Premades mostly follow familiar genre tropes; custom covers are built only for your book
• Series branding – Premades don’t come serialised often (needs additional fee to be serialised); custom ensures a cohesive look
• Creative control & rights – Premades allow limited tweaks; custom offers full input and complete freedom
• Cross-Genre covers – Customs have the advantage here. The weirder the story the less likely there to be a premade cover matching it.

Why Premade Covers Are a Great Option

If you’re just beginning your self-publishing journey, premade covers might be the perfect fit. Why? Two big reasons: they’re cheaper and faster.

1. Affordable for New Authors

When starting, making your money back on a book can feel like an uphill climb. Premade book covers are a budget-friendly option. They typically cost anywhere from $40 to $200 – far less than a custom design. This affordability makes them an ideal choice while you test the waters of self-publishing. If you’re worried about your investment paying off, a premade cover gives you less financial pressure.

It’s also great if you’re testing a new genre for your writing.

2. Quick and Easy

Premade covers are ready to go. Designers often create these to fit popular genres and tropes—think dark shadows and broken glass for a thriller, or soft pastels and illustrated fonts for a cozy romance. You just choose a design, email the designer your title and author name, and voila – you get a preview of how the cover would look! If it works, you buy it!

This is particularly great if you’re on a tight publishing deadline or don’t want to spend weeks (or months) in the design process.

3. Genre Recognition

Because premades often follow established genre trends, they can still look professional and relevant. As long as you pick the right genre cover to buy, there won’t be a mismatch between the cover and the book.

4. Premades Are Original

One thing not to confuse is that premade covers aren’t the same as templates. This is a fear some authors have, but it’s not true – templates are covers that are made once and sold to many. AND you also have to do the editing and adapt the cover yourself. Premades are original and only sold once. And the designer is the one doing the tweaking.

But while premade covers are quick, easy, and inexpensive, they’re not without limitations.

Drawbacks of Premade Covers

1. They often are best for those who seek recognisable tropes on their covers, not completely different/unique story ideas. Designers have to make covers that sell to make a living, so we have to find a balance between unique (less likely to fit the author’s book) and genre tropes (easier to recognize instantly).
2. Changes to them are often limited. While you can often ask for changes to font, general colors, and small details, bigger changes can be hard or expensive.
3. They use stock photos and not exclusively licensed images (99% of the time). Often, those are common images, so some can be repetitive in a particular genre (very common with guys on romance covers, some models have been used for a decade, for example).
   
   P.S AI is coming, and there will be more unique elements in premades eventually, but prompting still takes too long to be worth it.
4. Cross-genre covers can be harder to find. It’s riskier for designers to make them, or even know which genres to combine, so it’s less common.
   

Why Custom Covers Are a Great Option

When you’re further along in your author career – or if you’re publishing a truly unique, cross-genre story – custom covers become your best friend. Why? Because they’re designed specifically for your book.

1. Completely Tailored to Your Story

Unlike premades, a custom cover is a designer’s guess of what could work. Instead, your designer can focus on capturing the unique essence of your story. Is your fantasy novel about a fire-breathing dragon whose scales are made of gold? You don’t have to settle for a generic sword and castle image. Then the designer can bring your specific vision to life.

This tailored approach is ideal for series branding, too. Need all three books in your trilogy to have a cohesive look? A custom cover designer can easily ensure consistency across multiple titles, helping you create a recognizable author brand.

2. More Unique Styles and Options

While premades often stick to popular tropes for maximum appeal, with custom covers, you can hire someone with a more distinct or unique style. For example, some illustrators have very unique styles that only fit certain a genre and they work on commission for different projects, not just covers. They don’t have time to risk and make premade covers that might not sell ever. So hiring them for custom covers is a chance to work with who you want directly.

3. More Time and Effort Invested

With a custom cover, designers can spend more time perfecting every detail because they’re creating it specifically for you. Think tailored typography, intricate artwork, or a flawless vibe that screams “this book is something special.” With premade covers, we can’t take too long to work on them, so the time is limited.

4. More Tailored Choice for You

Most custom cover designers send at least a few concepts, most often. That’s a plus. They all are more tailored to the story, and while picking from many, many general premades is nice, they aren’t as specific to your story.

Drawbacks of Custom Covers

1. Custom covers come at a price – they’re often 3 to 10 times more expensive than premades, with prices starting around $200 and climbing to $1,000 or more.
2. The timing is much longer. With custom covers, you usually get at least a few cover concepts, which means more time spent working on them. Intricacy also takes time.

The Verdict?

Depends on your budget and timing mostly. Nothing wrong with either option. A killer cover is a worthy investment, but start where you’re comfortable and grow as your career blossoms if needed. Custom covers are always nicer and more custom but it’s not a must.

Regardless of which option you choose, make sure you know how to pick a good book cover, though, and read this article to get better at it: