Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
The problem with cover as I understood it have been for old book were the publisher did not have the rights to electronically publish the cover.
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This is often the case--which means for backlist the author (or publisher) has to commission a new cover.
Even using photoshop images to get a pro to do the overall artwork (select photo, pay for it and make any changes, put in decent fonts that don't look like they were slapped on) costs at least 100 dollars. There are some artists who will do it for 35 to 50--but they generally have clauses of "no changes." So you tell them what you want, you pay and if you don't like it, too bad. They do this to protect against us authors who change our minds or to just keep the noise level down 'I don't like that font!" For me, that won't ever work because art, like writing, is...well, it probably will require tweaks. I can buy a photo myself (those start at about 30 dollars) or photo elements and fonts--and I'd rather do it myself than be held to 'no changes.' If I want to use more than one piece of clipart...a cover is still going to run me about 100 dollars.
To get decent drawn artwork it starts at 100-150 (and that's if you're finding someone really, really generous) and goes up to about 1500 or so. I don't know of but maybe one writer who has paid in the 1500 range.