Let's go in the order I received the covers. Which isn't outrageous or anything, but it's almost one-and-a-half times what I first figured. I won't make you do the math, that's an extra $12 over the expected $25. BUT, before you get too excited about the $5 option, like I did, you really should know that it's more like $75.įor my 5 contractors on Fiverr, I plunked down a total of $37 dollars for basic service. $75 when you include the initial $5 to create the image.Īgain, I think graphic designer time is really valuable, and $5 is probably way underpriced for what most offer. Really, for a full-wraparound, all-encompassing cover, I'm on the hook for $70. For many sellers, $5 is basically the price of admission, and what you really want goes up from there.įor example, here's a price list of "extras" from one contractor: So for $5 you get an image, but no real ability to use it. Some will even charge for the rights to the image. If you want to be able to ask for revisions, that can be an additional cost. But if you want a finished file, that's an additional $10. Lots of 5 dollar services advertised on Fiverr cost a lot more than 5 dollars.įor example, a lot of book cover artist will do a mock-up for $5. I ended up picking a total of 5 contractors who caught my eye or who, well, were actually in the neighborhood of $5. I couldn't find it, which leads me to believe it might be a title invented by the designer to demonstrate his abilities. You kinda have to contract with this person, right? Reverend Dumb? (note: in the process of writing this column, I tried to find Reverend Dumb online. And good on anyone who manages a cover with the subtitle "A Written Mix Tape." I don't even know what that means. Not 100% my jam, but I liked the use of color and the cleanliness. The good news is, I did find a few sellers making covers that looked a little closer to something I'd like. Because, eh, it's worth $5 to take the chance, right? Besides, I'm a big fan of chutzpah. In the end, I booked the person who listed these covers as samples anyway. But I think I'd have to be kinda stupid not to suspect, right?
I don't KNOW that this isn't a moonlighting thing. Okay, to be fair, I don't know for certain that the designer for Meg Cabot and Sophie Kinsella isn't offering book design services for $5. There weren't as many as I expected, and a lot put up "samples" on their seller page that were clearly books designed by other people. I rolled over to Fiverr, typed in "book cover" and swept through the potential designers. If it was even slightly better, then the experiment would be a success. If the cover I got wasn't better than one I could do, then it wasn't doing me a lot of good. I wanted a book cover that looked better than one I could do myself. How much could they possibly get done in $5 worth of time? 5 bucks of a graphic designer's time seemed almost worthless, to me. What I told myself while I wrote that, over and over, is that I was spending 5 bucks. That's more or less what I wrote out for potential designers. I'm open to pictures, drawings, or even words used as art. Here's the title ( Pete's Unsent Love Letters), here's the theme (Pete's unsent love letters), so something with letters or mail would be fine.
I wrote up a short description of what I wanted, which was required for most of the graphic designers on Fiverr. Which is why I need help to make my Kindle garbage pop. I've got a finished writing project that's just a hair better than trash, and I figured that maybe putting a little more effort into the cover would be a good idea.Įnter, a site that lets you contract with people around the world to do different gigs for $5 bucks.Īnd so, I embarked on a journey to see just what $5 is worth in the world of book covers.
While I've learned some things about writing trash, I haven't learned a lot about graphic design. A lousy (honest) cover will get you zero sales. A good cover might trick someone into thinking your book is legit.
#Five dolla booku money free
You can't write 3 Ninjas fanfic and feel like you're free of guilt there.īecause amateur idiots like myself have the same publishing access as the big boys, the need for a good cover matters more than ever. But I'll admit, some of that stigma is earned by people like me who crank out some weird, stupid garbage and slap it onto the Kindle store.
Self-publishing isn't the scarlet letter it once was.