Originally Posted by Hitch
Well, I've been reading your thread here. Here's my standard spiel, which no author asks for, and I give anway. It's usually sploken, but, it goes something like this:
Every author envisions the cover of their book somewhat like an IMAX screen. They see the saga of their novel, flowing across it--eons, generations, or the events of the tale, moving across it 3 stories high. They see the heroine, her hair, her gowns, the ribbons that her lover gave her, and her little dog, too. They see the burning of her home, the dash for freedom he made, evading captors...they see all these things.
But the reality is, 99.99% of all prospective purchasers will see your cover at 100x150px or maybe, wowz, 200x250 px. That's all that they'll see. Nothing more, nothing larger.
Thus, when you tell some poor cover designer that "there's a man in the mouth of a cave. He's wearing animal skins, but he's also wearing a brocade jacket, and he's carrying a bow and arrows, a sword, and, oh yes, he has a SCEPTER, too. And a crown. And in that cave is a bear. Outside the cave is a hawk, no, a bat flying in the sky, trees, sunshine, and OMG, I nearly forgot, a sabre-tooth tiger. An' a DRAGON!"
(Yes: that's a REAL COVER. I sh*t thee not. It was terrible. I have another story, about a hill, a driveway, a large house, a baby carriage, a rattle...)
The very best thing that you can do for a cover is think of ONE, yes, ONE, strong central element, a single graphic thing that can anchor the cover. Just one. Let your cover designer run with that. You'll be happier, and so will s/he. Busy is, as GMW already noted, the KOD (Kiss o'Death). And it's not worth doing, because from far away, or in small sizes, all you get is "clutter." Nothing more, nothing less, and people just slide on by.
For covers, in the "remotely affordable" category, I like both James Egan at Bookfly and Damon Za at Damonza. Now, that's for genre. I don't know how I feel about them for non-fic.
I do recommend that you make part of the bargain that your cover designer HAS TO put the cover up at covercritics.com, and work through any major glitches or comments. Everybody there donates their time, and it ranges from the likes of yours truly (obviously, a brilliant design mind, (snort, chuckle, wheeze, LOL)) to real designers to graphic artists and so on. It's worth more than you pay for it. Check it out, and if you like it, great. If you don't, do it anyway. ;-)
I wouldn't consider hiring a graphic artist if I couldn't see at least 50 covers from him/her. A handful is too few. Anyone can get lucky a few times. Also, I wouldn't expect to pay under $150, for an eBook cover, not for anyone with some actual talent and experience. The two guys I mentioned above have packages that include wraparounds--so obviously, more work by far than just an ebook cover--and I believe those start at $550 or $650.
I think that the average talent is charging in the $150-$250 range, for an ebook cover.
To be honest, and I'm not dissing anyone, most of the Fiverr covers I've seen look like $5 covers. I'm sure that there are some exceptions, but...
I also don't like the 99 Designs model, where a bunch of people design, and only one gets paid. Don't agree with it. Not saying it's immoral or wrong, but I wouldn't do it.
FWIW.
Hitch
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