If you got here, you probably finished the writing of your book, or you’re almost there!
Writing a book isn’t easy; most of the time it’s a lonely and exhausting job, but also so satisfactory. But believe me: selling your book is way harder than writing it!
And one thing that helps you a lot to sell your book is a good book cover!
An interesting, striking and beautiful cover is what calls readers attention; it’s like a business card, a pretty showcase that will make a customer enter your shop — in this case, meet your book. The order of the events is this: the cover calls the reader, and the synopsis convinces him to buy it; and sometimes, the cover is the main reason that the reader would purchase your book!
(Been there, done that)
But in the indie publishing market, there are two options available so you can get your cover done: hiring a Custom Cover, or buying a Premade Cover.
And in this post, I’ll show the differences between this both services!
Price
Because it’s an extremely customized service and made by your preferences, personal requests and with the intention of matching your book’s particularities, the price of a Custom Cover usually starts at US$200.
On the other hand, because it’s already made and available for only text alterations, the Premade Cover has slightly low prices in comparison, usually starting at US$100, depending on the complexity of the cover, style and add-ons you may choose (only ebook, paperback, audiobook, hardcover, foiling…)
Deadline and delivery
If you have a tight deadline, maybe a Custom Cover won’t be the ideal option. Custom Cover takes a few weeks to get done, because it’s necessary to fill a briefing form — which you’ll give us all the information about your book and what you want or like or dislike for the cover —, research, sketches, approval and finishing. All this takes time, and it varies by each project complexity and turnaround time. We also always recommend that, in order for your book to have a custom cover before launch and without delays, you hire the service at least 3 months in advance. This ensures a safe production and delivery window without running the risk of having to change the schedule!
With a Premade Cover, it will only take a few hours or few days to get delivered, since it’s only necessary to update the cover texts. This is a great option if you have a tight deadline to publish your book, or just want to do it quickly!
Exclusivity
Both service options — Custom and Premade Cover — offers exclusivity, but in different ways:
A Custom Cover will be created specially for you, for your book, thinking and considering all the details of the story you want to tell and your preferences, being totally adjustable and customized.
A Premade Cover can be a bit generic sometimes, but it’s not sold to any more than one person. It means: from the moment your purchase a Premade Cover, it’s yours, and no other author can buy it! It’s like you have been acquiring a unique piece of art in the world before anyone else.
Continuations and Sequels
When a Custom Cover customer’s already inform us in the beginning of the service that the book belongs to a series, we made a specific research of materials and concepts that can be easily adapted to continuations — like, for example, a good catalogue of the same model with a great variation of poses or clothes —, creating an unique visual identity for this series, without giving the impression that each book from a series is a isolated story. It’s very satisfactory to see that all the books from a box or a series match between themselves!
But a Premade Cover may not have this freedom. Sometimes, the materials we use on a Premade Cover may not have a good and interesting variation options, like a photograph catalogue of the model in different positions or clothes, or the same object in different angles. Most of the time we create a Premade Cover with the possibility of continuation, but for some concepts this possibility is limited to the available material to work with.
Quality
A Premade Cover doesn’t have inferior quality in comparison to a Custom Cover — at least, not the ones made by GR Book Covers!
Both covers are made with professional quality, looking for a good design and harmony of all elements, market’s compatibility, a striking art that calls the readers, and always with responsibility, using licensed materials from reliable stocks and no use of Artificial Intelligence.
The only difference between them is that a Premade Cover don’t have an “owner” yet — a customer that paid for it and asked for each detail. On a Premade Cover, each element, detail, color and font was chosen by me, from my own ideas, for a book that don’t exist yet. Kinda beautiful, right?
Creating a Premade Cover is also a way that I can express and show more of my art capacity and what I can do, with diverse options that I haven’t had the opportunity to show at my previous custom works!
Do you have any questions? Ask in the comments or contact me by email!
I’ll be happy to help!
