Greg Strandberg - Design Your Book: 75 eBook Cover Design Sites That Increase Amazon Sales

Design Your Book

75 eBook Cover Design Sites

That Increase Amazon Sales

Greg Strandberg

Big Sky Words, Missoula

Copyright 2013 by Big Sky Words

D2D Edition, 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Connect with Greg Strandberg

www.bigskywords.com

Also by Greg Strandberg

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Please Say Something! 25 Proven Ways to Get Through an Hour of ESL Teaching

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Teaching Abroad: Making the Move To and From ESL Teaching

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Teaching English: 10 Proven Ways to Make Shy Students Talk Now

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Braves and Businessmen: A History of Montana, Volume Three

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Keeping Sane: English Teaching Strategies for ESL Teachers

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D ont judge a book by its cover is an old English idiom thats been around for ages. Unfortunately, thats what all too many Amazon shoppers do. And thats why I decided to write this book.

If youre looking for sites that provide you with eBook covers then youve found a wonderful resource. Heres what this book will give you:

7 sites for under $50;

27 sites between $50 and $100;

25 sites between $100 and $200;

3 sites between $200 and $300;

6 sites between $300 and $400;

3 sites between $400 and $500;

4 sites between $500 and $1,000;

50+ additional design and artist sites.

Thats more than 125 sites that will you a great eBook cover that gets noticed on Amazon and increases your sales.

What Ive tried to do with this book is list the eBook design sites according to their custom cover prices. Nearly all the sites in this book offer some form of premade cover. Most need them to show you samples of what theyve done, and if they can make a few bucks off em thats great. But can you imagine living in a world thats only got premade covers? Every book would look beautiful, but hardly any would give you an accurate idea of what lies inside.

Thats why all the sites in the book are listed according to the starting cost of their custom covers. I know that makes the book a little harder to navigate for some people looking for cheaper deals, and Im sorry; I wanted to create a book that would be valuable to both successful, established authors and those just starting out and without a dime in their pocket. I think a reasonable balance has been struck.

One of the things that youll find with this book is that the categories are a bit off. What I mean by this is that not all design sites are offering services that can easily be plugged into a $100 to $200 category, for instance. Many sites offer covers ranging from $99 to $250. Some sites start at $350 and go up to $550 and beyond!

So what Im trying to say is, dont be surprised if some sites in the cheaper, er, more competitive price ranges have higher prices on some services. And the same goes for the expensive sites; many have great premade cover prices in-line with most of the other premade sites.

I contacted dozens of designers and sites for this book, and many of them got back to me promptly. If I emailed a site and they didnt get back to me at all, I didnt include them in the main part of the book, although I give the links to many of them in the back of the book.

B y far the vast majority of the sites in this book cater to one genre: romance. Hey, its a popular genre! If youre writing those kinds of books youll literally have thousands of choices for your books cover. If youre not, well, youll still have thousands of choices. Ive pointed out sites that specialize in other genres, and there are a lot, but there just werent that many of them compared to romance.

Remember though, just because a sites samples show mainly romantic themes, it doesnt mean thats all they can do. In fact, I bet that many designers would love to break out of those same old boring templates and have a go at something out of this world, far under it, on its back streets, or even something I cant think of! What you need to think of is whether that designer will be any good in your genre or not.

Thats where samples (primarily shown using premade covers), author testimonials, and social media connections come into play. Price alone cannot guarantee you a good book cover, however odd that may sound. Youd think the more money you spend the better your cover would be right?

Well, the sad truth is that many high-priced designers get upstaged each and every day by hungry startups looking to make a name for themselves. And therein lies opportunity for you. Many of the samples I saw on the cheaper sites were just as good as those I saw on more expensive sites. And all sites throw out bad covers from time to time as well.

This is art, folks, not a science. Premier designers will use templates but theyll also go with how they feel. Some will use your story as a model, perhaps even reading your book. Many will go at your book assembly-line fashion, churning it out quickly so they can get on to the next one. And still many others will give you something completely unexpected, and perhaps something magical will happen as a result.

Just as self-publishing has become a business unto itself with amazing fortunes made and everyone and his dog trying to get into the game, so too has design taken off. A whole new cottage-industry has sprung up catering to nothing other than self-published authors. Its a big business, just like self-publishing, with top designers pulling in tens of thousands of dollars each month, maybe more! But when you can find one that gets you and what your book is about, you could have a long and fruitful relationship for some time to come.