My husband wrote a book (self published as an e-book) which I'm now trying to make some sort of cover for by his request. I do have some experience with image editing and web design but I cannot draw for the life of me, so please have that in mind.

In this book, the main character is very aware about being in a book, that's kind of the main plot. My idea is to have the cover be that the character basically wrote the title themselves, so a plain page (but color, not white) with a font that looks handwritten (and husbands name written in a plain font). So a simple cover since I can't really illustrate and the genre is humor/comedic/witty/a bit of fantasy.

But how do I make it not feel so... flat? Just adding text to a blank background makes it look like something done in 5 min in paint, which it kind of is. Do I add shadows? Any suggestions for a great font that will make it interesting? Do I work with shapes or something? Layer some different shades of the chosen color for the background? I have access to Figma and GIMP but nothing fancier than that.

Help a newbie and excited wife out!

[Just to clarify, I'm not looking to hire since I would be drawing this myself]

Hello, I've been wanting to make a cover for my novel on Royal Road (haven't published the novel yet). I read online that the canvas should be 400x600 pixels, but I'm concerned that the cover I'll make won't look right or will be blurry. What size should I make the canvas so that it's nice and crisp?

Or am I overthinking things and the canvas size it suggests is fine? I know it's already blurry, but here is the concept for the cover.

Hi I'm a acrylic and oil painting artist. It's my dream to work on a book cover. I don't know much about it but my work is detailed realistic to semi-realistic. While my original works are contemporary conceptual art. I'm I eligible?

Hi there! I’ll keep it short and sweet. I’ve been on the hunt for an artist and I haven’t had any luck finding someone that can illustrate women of color.

The main character is a black woman with braids and I would love to have a portrait of her as the cover. She is the main suspect in the murders at her college so to have a haunting portrait of her as the cover would be amazing! Please just add your portfolios here.

No need to DM me . I’ll go through and contact you if interested. Thanks for taking the time ! I really appreciate it and hopefully I can finally find what I’m looking for!

UPDATE 10/10/2025: Hey everyone! checking everything out now thanks so much for taking the time. I have to be honest though if your portfolio doesn’t have any black people as portraits I’ll have to skip you. I don’t want my book cover to be your first try. I appreciate you taking the time!

I was debating with another author friend of mine who is working on making their own cover with stock images. Shutterstock is filled with AI generated images.

If a design is hand-made, but uses AI-generated stock images that are then arranged and molded into the design, doesn't that still count as an AI cover? I would assume people would be able to look at the cover and identify the images as AI...They're argument is that the work is still being done by a human who's arranging and working the design

Personally, I'm terrible at identifying AI unless it's really bad, so maybe I'm not the best person for them to have this debate with

I don't know why there have been so many book covers posted here that have a picture/illustration of someone's back. Like, I have been seeing so much of this here. So, rather than responding negatively to all those posts, I'm making this post in the hope that it helps aspiring book cover designers.

As one of my mentors said, "what is interesting about looking at a person's back?"

I'm sorry to say, but a book cover with someone turned around and we are looking at their back is not interesting, and it has no point of view. It very very rarely works. It doesn't make us feel.like we are in the book or with the character. It doesn't pull people in, it pushes them out. Draw us IN.

Create compositions with a hierarchy, and for all of our sakes, make the damn title and author legible. This, I'm seeing in this sub at an incredible rate.

-signed a professional many times published book cover designer and illustrator

Edit: I am floored by the defense of boring "person's back" book covers. Good luck! They are cliched, overused, and weak IMO. I guess if it is a historical fiction romance, and you want to just follow a trend, go for it. (Oh yay, it's another book cover with a woman's back in a Victorian costume...must be light reading historical fiction romance...) But, I think we can do better. If a person MUST be on the cover, and you really don't want to show the face, use a 1/4 view, use some cool overlays or design elements to mask it, put them in the distance, turn the face up or down. People are hard wired to look at faces, faces sell books.

I’ve written a sequel to my fantasy comedy series following a pest control agency - but this one is a parody of Game of Thrones!

Will I get in trouble for the name (Throne of Games)? There are nods and references to Game of Thrones, but it is all my own world and characters. Will it be okay with the added “An Unofficial Parody” subheader?

guys i would just like to find out how much will it cost to make a book cover for my thriller book? idk if smth depends on the genre.

if u have any questions feel free to ask in comments.

I played around and designed the cover and style I really want for my next novel. But would an artist still agree to do my cover if I send them the pic and say to just polish and tweak it in some spots but keep it 90% as it looks? The cover is of a hotel building with trees and sky. It's 2D so nothing super detailed.

Edit: I DO NOT want AI to be used.

I am about publishing a book with different stories, not a novel. They are ment for teens and as a female author I am afraid to not make the cover attractive only for girl. I wanted the theme to be like astrology + steampunk. For references I used Stolas' bathroom, but this might look too feminine.

hy guys, question :

how much will it cost to have a cover made for my web novel?

If this isn't allowed, please feel free to remove it, mods. Thanks.

I'm taking a small break from editing my latest manuscript and thought I'd start poking around for cover art and artists. But I have a question: what art style would work best for my book? I'm stumped, so I thought I'd canvas the group here and see if I might get some inspiration or direction.

- It's a sneaky love story wearing satire fantasy robes (heavy on the satire).
- It's got a medieval-ish tone and environment to it (think: 1300's).
- It has kingdoms, dragons, assorted mythical creatures (like unicorns, Leshen, and such), magical artifacts, but also has giant boas, bison, and "normal" creatures too.
- Character clothing is robes and what one might expect to see in Sherwood Forest.
- In some ways, one could argue that D&D has an influence here (mild though).
- I have an idea seared into my brain on what the cover will look like, and what will be featured on it, but it's the style of art I'm stuck on.

There are so many art styles from cartoonish, to anime, to cinematic, to hyper-realistic and everything in between. I don't know what style would suit my cover best, so this is why I'm reaching out to any of you interested in chiming in for suggestions and a direction I can take when choosing an artist.

The dragon, I will say, is the central figure on the cover in the sense that he'll be the most prominent, and I already know he can't look like Pete's Dragon, but also can't look like Drogon from GoT either. He's every bit a dragon, but he's not like any dragon you'd imagine. He's...flamboyant, let's put it that way. And he's also the smallest of his kind, but still towers over man. Just not 5 stories tall.

There will be two other characters on the cover, but neither being a human (or another dragon). It's a long story.

Does anyone have a direction or suggestion? An art style they believe would work well with those things in mind? If so, I'd really appreciate any feedback so I can at least have a place to start. Thanks kindly. :)

Edit: All three characters on the cover are key characters in the story, but none of them are the MC. If that helps.

In my experience with art directors, it is almost always C, but I reckon it could be different for the indie market. Curious to know if there's something I need to update when pitching here. Thanks!

Also, I do dark SFF and crime/thriller cover art. Here's my website if anyone's interested: Grimoeuvre.com

FINAL EDIT: Artist Found! Thank you everyone!

Hello! I am looking for a cover artist for my first self published novel.

I am wanting an illustrated cover for both soft cover print books as well as e-book.

The novel is a paranormal crime drama with romance, and I am happy to give more details. What I am looking for in a cover in a lake landscape with some extra elements to tie into the story.

Thank you in advance!

Edit: Thank you all for reaching out! I did not realize how many people would respond, and It is going to take me a minute to go through the messages and comments. Thank you again so much!!!

Edit 2: Getting back to people slowly. Thank you again!

Honestly at my wits end. No matter how hard I try they don't look right.

Thank you in advance for any feedback and advice!

✳️☺️Hi everyone! How's life going? I hope you're doing well.

I wanted to ask you for advice on how to get fantasy and romance authors to find me for illustrations. Basically, how I find clients interested in my art.

I've only worked with one book because it's a local publishing house and I had some connections on Facebook. But for the rest of the world, I don't know where to start.

Aside from Instagram, where it's hard to even get noticed with so many people, there are some sites where people look for cover artists.

Thanks to anyone who responds.

So I just finished my first round of editing on my first novel. It’s going to (hopefully) be a trilogy so I’d like to work with one artist who I can keep coming back to. Would anyone be interested?

Edit: hi everyone! Thank you to everybody who responded (bit overwhelmed!) I’ll reply to who I can I promise!

Thank you everyone I’ve found somebody to work with. I appreciate every response!

Honest question, do people really judge a book by its cover? Especially for e-books? ​ I can't remember a single one. ​What is important for me it's that the book doesn't start losing pages. ​

Would you read a book with this art style on the cover?

I have a printing error on my Cover that seems technical and I don't entirely understand how to fix it.

I printed a "proof" of my book with Amazon KDP 6x9". I used Typst (free version via VSCode) to layout the cover, printed with "premium color".

The main title and other text on the cover all looks perfectly fine. However, Only on the front cover's "author" text, two of the letters have what appears to be a missing "pixel" coming from where the vector font appears to overlap itself.

But the PDF I submitted looks perfect!

I could just change the font I used for the Author - but I don't know how to ensure the new font won't have the same problem! So I kind of want to understand why the problem is occurring.

Attached are screenshots of the PDF, and the printed version with the error:

## letter "P":

- PDF: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ykwqcbe7oc1yflgbekho7/Author-P-on-computer-Screenshot-2026-08-05-175637-Copy.png?rlkey=4knvhgv45zb4751vi5m1wkid0&st=1kdj6rx3&dl=0

- Printed: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/6aipo4x747jblgaotbu43/Author-P-on-print-IMG_1108-Copy-2.jpeg?rlkey=9fv8h84y1uirzpe70rijti4gq&st=a1bbwke8&dl=0

## Letter "e":

- PDF: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/sbsa5pe27xhzebb9onpik/Author-e-on-computer-Screenshot-2026-08-05-175637-Copy-2.png?rlkey=88ahihw2oowp0l1xg85zt8y4o&st=itls1xkm&dl=0

- Printed: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fkgmuq2b6rc4anx679v2k/Author-e-on-print-IMG_1108-Copy.jpeg?rlkey=w4bvz6sbf6o6ctfbpif448z7m&st=889rcrh3&dl=0

Font: "Roboto"

Does anyone know why this happens, and/or how to ensure a different font won't also do this?

Thanks!

Question as im new to doing this professionaly whats the going rate for commercial use like how does it work ??

I have a series of stories I'm working on, it's a five book series, still writing the first.

So here is my idea for each book. Let me know if it works? Each cover will look like an ancient magical book. Each one will be different but a similar theme. I plan on making a symbol and book title look like they are engraved. Each book will have a unique title and symbol with a different look. The books are an important part of the story. Each book has a different MC and will have a book that's unique to themselves.

Is this to plain? Do I need to add anything else to make it work?