Last updated May 2026

Finding Book Covers

If you've chosen to be a self-published author—or indie author—part of your book creation process will be securing a cover for your book. There are three basic ways you can do this.

If you want art tailored to your needs and desires, you can hire an illustrator who will create a cover to your specifications. The advantages of a commissioned cover include your being able to incorporate your visual ideas, represent highly specific aspects of your manuscript, and control the entire look. A well-done custom cover typically costs around $500-$1,000+, depending in part on the complexity and detail you're requesting. Another major factor is the level of skill and experience of the illustrator; some high-end artists charge $2,000 and up.

Alternatively, you can buy a pre-made, which is a cover an artist created independently but just might happen to be an excellent fit for your book. Artists who are starting out will do pre-mades to showcase what they're capable of creating. However, even veteran illustrators enjoy doing pre-mades because they allow the artist to explore personal creative visions, as opposed to bringing someone else's list of requirements to life and then making a series of adjustments to fully satisfy the client. Pre-mades are less expensive than customized covers, with quality ones typically around $200-$400 and up—and also spare you from having to guess whether an artist will be able to deliver what you want, because you can see the cover upfront and decide whether it suits your needs.

Then again, you can opt for a middle ground approach by purchasing a pre-made from an artist who states in the description that he or she is willing to perform limited adjustments to make the cover more tailored to your vision.

The most crucial marketing tools for your book are its title and its cover. As a result, some authors will buy a pre-made, or a pre-made with limited customization, as a starting point and then write the story revolving around that cover. Along the same lines, some cover artists thrive because, in addition to their visual skills, they're great at dreaming up witty and compelling book titles.

Please note that cover artists selling to indie authors often include one or more selections from a stock image library (e.g., Shutterstock.com) to save themselves time and effort, which allows them to keep costs down. So before making a purchase, take care to ask about the licenses the artist has secured to ensure you have the right to use the cover in the ways you desire.

Please also note that the book cover field has been disrupted by the introduction of AI. You can now use AI to generate cover ideas, visual examples to pass along to a human cover artist, and even ready-to-use covers. Issues with the latter are AI covers can't be copyrighted, so you won't actually own them; an AI-generated cover often looks like many other AI-created covers, which could lose your book in the crowd; doing this risks turning off readers who don't approve of AI-generated artwork; and if you're not a cover artist yourself, you're likely to benefit from the judgment of a professional who's worked extensively in your genre, and can apply their skills and experience to help ensure your cover appeals to your target audience.

All that said, the following are notable websites and Facebook groups that will help you find cover artists and/or pre-made covers (with AI-generated covers typically banned) that are potentially great matches for your book. The sites 99designs.com, miblart.com, and Damonza.com are paid services for authors. The other online showcases below either charge nothing, or charge the artists a percentage of their sales to authors (e.g., TheBookCoverDesigner.com):

TheBookCoverDesigner.com: This go-to resource typically offers thousands of pre-made covers. A search box allows you to find covers whose tags match your keywords. Clicking any cover reveals its price, as well as a form for emailing the artist.

99Designs.com: This top book cover design site opens with the following: "Your words aren’t generic. Your book cover shouldn’t be, either. Whether you’ve written a page-turning thriller, a self-help sensation or the next great scientific tome, we make it easy for you to get a professionally designed book cover worthy of a bestseller. 100% money-back guarantee. Fixed-price packages to suit your budget."

miblart.com: This book cover design site says, "We help authors make book cover design their best marketing tool...Our team believes that book cover design can look professional without costing you a fortune. There are so many stories in this world worth telling. Let us make sure yours gets the attention it deserves."

Damonza.com: This book cover design site opens with the following: "With over 13,000 covers designed since 2012, no matter if you’re a debut author, a seasoned pro, or a small publisher, we’ll make sure your book stands proudly among the traditionally published bestsellers. And we should know—we design covers for them, too. 'Damonza's covers are slick, professional, and totally unique. Their covers have a personality. Their covers grab you. That's why I keep coming back to them again and again.—Lee Goldberg, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author & TV Producer'"

Book Cover Gallery (Facebook): One of the largest Facebook groups for book covers, describing itself as featuring "both pre-made covers and artists who will create customized covers for you. A place to connect designers and authors. We feature curated publishing content ideal for the market, including pre-made book covers, custom reveals, interior designs, maps, character illustrations, and more!" This is a free resource, but requires you to fill out a short form requesting membership.

Book Covers and Cover Artist (Facebook): A large Facebook group for book covers, describing itself as being for "authors, publishers, and cover artists to share their work. New covers and art are welcome. This is for book covers. No nude artwork is permitted." This is a free resource, but requires you to fill out a short form requesting membership.

Indie Cover Project (Facebook): A Facebook group that offers "real honest feedback for your book covers and blurbs."

Some things to keep in mind when planning your cover:

• Research the covers in your genre. Readers use covers as a visual shorthand that says, "Yes, I'm for you and your tastes" or "I'm not for you, stay away." Have Amazon list the bestselling books in your genre and study what their covers have in common, including dominant color schemes, imagery, form of images (photography vs. illustration), and font styles.

• Make sure your title is clearly readable, even when shrunk down to a thumbnail size. Unless you're famous, the legibility of your title is more important than that of your name.

• Be focused. Pick one striking image, scene, or motif that captures the genre, mood, and tone of your book. It's better to be clear than clever. Don't try to do too much or your cover will be a mess that fails to attract readers.

• Get feedback. If you're not sure whether a cover works, or which version of a cover is the best one, ask others. You can do this via social media or your email list; or you can use a service specifically designed for this purpose. A great example of the latter is PickFu.com, which will give you a 20% discount if you use code KINDLEPRENEUR at checkout.

Finally, to learn what to look for in a great book cover and how to work with a cover artist, consider turning to Cover Your Book: An Author's Guide to Working with a Designer to Maximize Your Sales by Rebekah Haskell. You can read this book for free if you subscribe to Amazon's "Kindle Unlimited" service.

Finding Children's Book Artists

If you're aiming to create a children's picture book, or some other children's book that requires an illustrator, how you proceed depends on your publishing path.

If you want to be traditionally published, and you're not an ace illustrator yourself, then you should write only the manuscript. If an acquisitions editor at a publishing house likes what you've done, that editor will use his or her skills and experience to match your words to the most appropriate illustrators available, and then then present you with a short list of top children's book artists to choose from.

If you want to self-publish, though, then you'll need to locate and hire an artist on your own. Respected organization The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) provides a free online gallery that lets you search for children's book illustrators based on such criteria as Art Style, Art Mediums, Region, and Availability for Self-Published Book at SCBWI.org/galleries.

In addition, you can opt to join SCBWI, which will allow you to hang out with members who are illustrators, as well as access the society's manual on the development process titled The Book: The Essential Guide to Publishing for Children.

Another fine resource is website ChildrensIllustrators.com. It provides a gallery of illustrators, searchable by alphabetical name order and country, at ChildrensIllustrators.com/portfolio-directory.

Lastly, there are numerous excellent guidebooks to help you on your journey. Two that focus on the visual are Writing Picture Books, Revised and Expanded: A Hands-On Guide From Story Creation to Publication by Anne Whitford Paul and Picture Writing: A New Approach to Writing for Children and Teens by Anastasia Suen.

Finding Graphic Novel Artists

If you want to create a graphic novel, there's no single clear path.

In some cases you might be better off sending your script to publishers and hoping one of them likes it enough to hire a team of artists to bring it to visual life.

Often, however, you'll first need to deliver proof of concept by producing comics pages—even if they're just short stories. In such cases, unless you're an illustrator yourself, you'll need to hire an artist, or team of artists, to create penciling, inking, lettering, coloring, etc.

A fine place to find comics pros is the popular discussion site Reddit.com. Among its many forums is r/ComicBookCollabs, where comics creators can find each other to team up; r/Comics, where you can post a description of your needs to a vibrant community of artists and writers; r/ComicWriting, where you can post questions to fellow writers; and r/ComicBookArt, where you can see work from a wide range of artists.

Finally, if you aren't intimately familiar with comic books or graphic novels, you might check out my book The Sandman Companion, which is an analysis and interview book with superstar writer Neil Gaiman about his landmark series The Sandman.

I hope this page ends up being of some help to you. If you spot any errors, or if you know of a resource that belongs here, please feel encouraged to email me at [email protected].

For help with any kind of book, please visit BookProposal.net.

Email: [email protected]