It's important to understand how the process works, from beginning to end, and we want to ensure that none of our clients are left in the dark at any stage prior to, or after undertaking our services. This set of frequently asked questions should help answer any queries you may have.
Take a look at our various cover design packages to see which one suits you best and whether you want any additional services, such as formatting and/or Facebook/Twitter banner design. Fill out the order form, including as much detail as you can in the briefing sections. This will enable us to build up a good idea of what direction to take your design in. Once you have completed the form, we’ll get in touch to discuss your requirements in more detail, get an idea of what you’d like to see, what your genre expects, and what sort of personality the cover should convey. We’ll then pitch some concepts to you and work to turn that into your cover.
Once we have received your form and your deposit, we will set to work on your design. We may contact you for additional information or to clarify any areas or notes in your briefing form. We’ll then discuss concepts with you to see what will and won’t work from your own ideas. If several work, we’ll pitch our own thoughts on which direction to take and move forward based on your decision. If only one works and it’s one that we know you were originally happy to entertain, we’ll go ahead with that draft using comp images. If you don’t have an idea of your own, we’ll ask questions of you until such times as we understand the best way forward for your cover and pitch a concept of our own. If you’re happy, we’ll go ahead. If not, we’ll work with you until both sides are happy to proceed.
Ideally, we’d prefer to know about a printed hardcover or a dust jacket from the outset. It’s not necessary, and it wouldn’t hold us back, but it would be less expensive for you if we knew in advance as the process for designing a hardcover or dust jacket is very different from paperback – there is a much larger area to cover with hardcover, and more still with a dust jacket. If we design a paperback cover first, without knowing that a hardcover version will be required, then it’ll involve a lot more work to create your larger cover. If we know from the outset, however, then we will design your cover while taking the additional room at the top, bottom, and either side into consideration. Retrofitting a paperback cover into a hardcover version requires considerably more work than it would if both were being designed at the same time. This is why we charge an additional 50% fee on top of the listed price if you come back for a hardcover or dust jacket after everything has been completed.
It may seem odd, especially considering a dust jacket covers a much larger area than a hardcover, but the process is very different. A dust jacket means including areas at the left and right for the foldover flaps at the beginning and end of the book, and they don’t necessarily have to include any of the actual cover artwork. In fact, most dust jacket flaps will be a solid colour and feature a detailed synopsis or further information on the front flap and an author bio on the rear flap. A hardcover, however, includes a full wraparound area of the artwork where it is glued to the end boards and, as such, the cover art has to continue beyond the edges of the front/back cover for almost an extra inch. So, this is not only why we charge more to create them, but we charge an additional fee if we have to create them after the initial paperback cover design has reached completion. If you want to save money, just tell us at the start and we’ll design the cover to suit all formats.
As we work on a concept-pitch basis, more than 99% of our clients will accept the first draft as we don’t begin work on a cover until both parties have agreed as to what the artwork should entail. In a perfect world, we would be able to achieve this without any back and forth, but we know that this might not happen. If you’d like to make changes to the draft such as colouring or object placement, we’d be happy to do that. Ultimately, we’re here to work with you to give you something that you can be proud of. We don’t operate on an IKIWISI (I’ll Know it When I See it) basis, however, and cannot provide cover drafts for one concept and shelf them if you decide you’ve changed your mind.
Even the most talented and intuitive designers are unlikely to absolutely know what their client wants and nail it on the first attempt. We don’t expect that to happen, and would hope that if the first draft doesn’t immediately set fireworks off then you’d be able to explain what you do and don’t like about it, making it easier for us to produce other concepts. If, after a certain period of time, neither party feels as though we are getting anywhere, we will gladly refund your deposit in full. It’s important to note, however, that this refund prohibits any of our concepts from being used.
Sadly not, no. There are two main reasons for this – the first is that our experience has shown that outside influence can take a professional-looking cover and turn it into the type of cover you see where an author with no design background has attempted to make their own. When a professional designer creates a cover in a certain way, they do it for very specific reasons and the opinions of laymen will tend to taint the concept, often to the point where it not only bears no resemblance to the original cover but can also harm the cover’s ability to convey the correct message. We’ve not only had clients who have reached completion with their project, perfectly happy with everything, and then been urged to make countless changes by friends, family, and even strangers within groups, and ultimately shelved the entire project as they didn’t know which way to turn. Other clients have had the cover designed to their exact requirements, been over the moon with them, and then had everything turned upside down by an outside influence and ended up with a cover that we’ve had to distance ourselves from because it’s been so bad. The other, less important but more legal, reason is that until the project has been paid for, the author has no right to any of the imagery used and is therefore not permitted to publish it to any public or private group. It’s a simple question of publication rights – it’s not yet their image to publish anywhere. If you have concerns with anything… talk to us about it!
Once you are happy with your design, we will invoice you the remaining 50% balance. Once paid, you will be sent your final files, ready to use. For print covers, you will receive a print-ready PDF file, and for eBook covers, you will receive a high resolution JPEG image. If your choice of package includes them, you will also receive your 3D book mock-ups and poster files.
No. Your design fee is for one cover design only. If you wish to use early or discarded drafts, then a reduced fee can be arranged.
No, sorry. We only offer bespoke book-cover design.
No. We are not artists and character creation can be a complex thing. We recommend that if you have someone very specific in mind, then you hire an artist or illustrator to provide you with the character you require before commissioning a cover design.
It depends on your package, but all cover design services include print-ready/high resolution files, no stock image fees, and swift professional service. Please see our separate FAQ on the inclusion of free stock images.
Only as far as books go. If you wish to utilise your design on merchandise that will be sold, then a different license will be required for the images used in the creation of your design. We can advise you of these costs and make arrangements for you, should you require, just get in touch.
The stock images that we include in the price account for more than 99% of what is used. If your cover design requires specialist elements that cannot be obtained from subscription-based stock libraries, such as specific character types from NeoStock, there will be an additional fee, but there will be no mark-up and you will only pay whatever it actually costs to use those images. It’s important to know, however, that only two covers thus far have required paid-for elements and you will be asked beforehand if you would like to go ahead – we won’t make assumptions and spend your money without discussing it.
We can do, if necessary. Normally, we would go as far as formatting your book for you and it would be up to you to upload the files to the various print-on-demand and distribution centres (which isn’t a difficult task), but we also have a handholding service available to existing clients where we will take care of this aspect for them. At the time of publishing this particular FAQ, our handholding service is £75 GBP. This includes uploading of your eBook and print book to KDP and Ingram Spark.
When we design an eBook cover for you, we will only provide you with what is necessary to have it used as a cover for an eBook. If you want that cover to be used on a print book, you would need to get back in contact with us to arrange for a print cover to be produced using that cover design. You wouldn’t be charged the separate fee for the print cover though; we would simply charge the difference between what you paid for the standalone eBook cover and the price for the eBook and print cover design bundle. We don’t believe in milking our clients. That said, we also don’t want you to take our initial design and pass it on to someone else to produce a print cover for you – we keep our prices low enough that you don’t need to cut corners, so that you always have a professional product.
Nothing. Granted, time is perhaps our greatest commodity, and we should therefore be paid for whatever time has been taken up, but let’s be realistic… if you ask us to add a review to the back covers of your CreateSpace and IngramSpark wraps, it’s not exactly going to eat into our schedule. If you wanted to change the actual design, then that’s a different story altogether, but we’re not going down the route of charging our clients for something that’s going to take a few minutes. If it gets to the point where we’re doing it on a weekly basis, and having to move things around on the cover to make room, then we’ll talk, but until that point it’s free.
Your existing cover will be fine, but it’ll need to be rebuilt using whatever dimensions KDP/Ingram provide to suit your new spine width. Our fee to complete this is £100 GBP. For that fee, you will have your cover restructured using the new templates. You’ll be provided with new PDF files and new marketing images with the correct spine width. We will move all of your existing files into an archive on your private Dropbox so that you still have them to refer to, and will provide you with a new completion email with updated links to files. Please note: If you’re making significant changes to your manuscript, you will also need new ISBNs as this will be classed as a new revision. The only time you won’t need a new ISBN is if the content only changes briefly (typos being fixed, or you’ve altered the interior formatting, and this has affected the page count).
You can make changes to text right up until the point of the final rebuild with the correct spine dimensions (after we’ve been told the final page count), and it won’t cost anything to do so. If, however, you’re making changes to the artwork itself after the go-ahead has been given, then you’ll be quoted in advance so you know how much you’d be paying for the changes. There would be a standard £100 GBP fee (our fee for making considerable changes to previously approved cover art) as well as fees for any stock images we’ve purchased that are no longer being used within the artwork. Depending on how long it takes to source additional assets, there may also be a fee to find replacements. This is why we ask clients to ensure everything is to their satisfaction before giving the go-ahead on artwork – once we’ve been told to go ahead, we’ll purchase all the necessary licensed images and spend the time rebuilding, blending, and adjusting colour grading. Any changes thereafter would be subject to the aforementioned fees, but we’d prefer it not come to that and would ask that clients be certain before going ahead.
While it’s entirely unlikely, as we want to ensure that our clients are happy and that we’re also happy in our work, there may come a time where we (or the client) feels as though things can’t continue. Potential scenarios would be where the client is unsure of what they want and has an “IKIWISI” (I’ll know it when I see it) approach to design where they’ll ask to see a certain cover; then, if they don’t like it, they’ll ask for another, and this could end up going on for weeks or even months. In this case, it wouldn’t make sense for either party to continue because it’s clear we’re just not a good fit for each other. Another scenario would be that the conversations become barbed and unpleasant for whatever reason. It makes for a tough relationship overall, especially if attempts have been made to diffuse the situation and it hasn’t worked.
In cases such as these, we are happy to walk away and take a hit for whatever work was done and however much time was spent on the project until that point. The most important thing for us is that the client loves our work and we love working with the client; creative projects are much smoother when all parties involved are happy, and there’s no tension or antagonism, so when this harmony breaks down there comes a point where the only solution is to dissolve the relationship.
Whatever money has been paid up until that point will be refunded in full, unless any work has been completed. If the client has gone beyond the point where stock images were purchased and the cover has already been rebuilt with licensed stock images (whether we have the final page count or not), we’d not be able to refund as we’ve completed that part of the project and have purchased items on the client’s behalf. If this is the case, the client could end the project early and take whatever has been paid for up until that point. However, this is with the agreement that anything provided by us up until that point (artwork, concepts that were our own, formatting, and any edited work) outwith this is not used for anything in the future. If the client wishes to use anything that has been supplied up until that point, payment in full will be necessary in order to release the required files to be used freely by the client in perpetuity.
Yes, you can. As we don’t use stock templates for our marketing mockups, and everything is created from scratch using 3D wireframe objects to your book’s exact specifications, we would charge an additional £25 GBP for every additional set of images (one transparent background image plus three with various backgrounds). This fee is for if we already have the wireframe object and scenes archived and ready to be re-used where it would involve moving the virtual camera, the virtual lighting, and angling the book to your desired layout. If you haven’t taken our full bundle and don’t have that specific product already available as a wireframe object, there would be an additional £25 fee.
Of course, yes. Because of the nature of the 3D software, it’s not possible to copy and paste between environments so we have to therefore create an entirely new scene with virtual camera, virtual lighting, and 3D wireframe objects for each of the books you’d like to feature. We therefore charge £25 per book to set this scene up (two books would be £50, three would be £75, and so forth) but there would be no further setup fees for the scene. The setup includes one set of images (a transparent background scene plus three various backgrounds) by default. If you require multiple scenes using these newly created wireframe books, there would be a single fee of £25 per display. For example:
The total amount invoiced would be £125, broken down as £75 setup with initial set of images, £25 to change the scene and the next set of spine-out images, and £25 to change the scene again with images of the books lying flat.
All of our work, from cover design to formatting, is taken care of in-house. We don’t believe in employing outside parties to take care of anything for us, as that will give us less control over quality and would be disingenuous to offer our clients a close-contact service if we don’t handle everything ourselves. The only time there will ever be anyone else involved is if you bring your own artwork to us that has been specially commissioned to an illustrator. Other than that, we produce all work ourselves.
If we begin work on your project and you fall into a state of dormancy, we’ll allow you a period of twelve months (365 days from commencement) before we bring your project to a close and draw a line under it. If, after this time, you come back and wish to bring it to completion, you’ll be subject to the full fee again.
Unfortunately, that’s not really something we can answer, as PayPal will determine the actual amount themselves based on the current rate of exchange. When we list our prices, we do so in Pounds Sterling (GBP). This is because we’re based in the UK and will therefore be billing out in Sterling. We do also include an approximate value in US Dollars, but that value may be very different from what you will actually pay, as our approximations aren’t checked against current exchange rates. If you would like to know an exact value for our services in your own currency, we would advise either calling your own bank or using an online currency exchange site such as xe.com, but please remember that their rates won’t be the same as PayPal. Regardless, if our price is shown as £200 GBP, then we will invoice you for exactly £200 GBP.
Sorry, at this time, we only offer PayPal. This not only protects us against non-payment, but also provides you with a safe and secure payment environment as well as the ability to follow up any grievances with PayPal.
