Affordable Book Cover Design

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Affordable book cover design on Fiverr case study.

I’ve been harping about the importance of book cover design on this website for ten years! I used to be dead set against using Fiverr and for years, I would dissuade any author asking online in forums or Facebook Groups from using Fiverr to find a book cover designer. In the last year or so, I’ve changed my tune. I’ll share my thoughts on using Fiverr for book cover designs and offer a case study with actual book cover design examples I had created on Fiverr.

The Video Case Study

Fiverr. Really?

Before I get to the examples, and the video case study, let me explain my train of thought about using Fiverr for book covers over the years.

The logline on Fiverr as per Wikipedia:

Fiverr is a global online marketplace for freelance services. Fiverr’s platform connects freelancers (sellers) to people or businesses looking to hire (buyers).

They launched Fiverr in 2010. During that time, I was doing a lot of affiliate marketing and hanging out in digital marketing forums where Fiverr became very popular, right off the bat.

According to Wikipedia, Fiverr went live in February 2010. I opened my Fiverr account in May 2010… within three months, so I was an early adopter of the site!

When the first site started out, I viewed more sort of like a gag site where you could find silly gigs for just five bucks. Back then, all gigs were just $5, thus the name of the site, Fiverr.

Also, back then, as I recall, Fiverr didn’t seem to put much thought to things like copyright protection or keeping scammers off the site, so it kind of became a shady spot.

You also had to worry about a scammer claiming to have designed the cover for Stephen King and will do your cover for five bucks, only for them to send you a crap cover. Or they would rip off talented designers’ covers, and use unlicensed images to boot. It was a mess.

I didn’t take Fiverr too seriously. If I wanted a book cover design, I would go to E-lance or oDesk (both gone now having become Upwork) which is why I would tell anyone that asked not to use Fiverr for book covers.

But they’ve come a long way since those days. They ditched the five buck shtick which allowed its sellers to make more than just a buck or two after Fiverr and PayPal fees, which attracted more reputable and professional people to Fiverr.

Now you can find amazingly talented people on there and affordable prices. Podcast editors, marketing services, writers, formatters and, of course, book cover designers.

You can find a ton of book cover designers on Fiverr (hundreds if not thousands).

There are three that are my go-to ones that I’ve used in the past couple of years (you can find the links to their Fiverr page below).

These book cover designers I’ve hired from Fiverr create quality book covers and they only use licensed images, which goes without saying is of utmost importance, knowing you won’t run afoul of copyright laws over the images used in the covers.

You can even be more at ease by sending them your own royalty free stock images. But you will need to send them the license agreement you have. They will ask and they won’t use the image if you don’t have proof that you have the license to use it. A long way from 2010, Fiverr, in my opinion.

How Much?

Honestly, what first drove me to try Fiverr again for book cover design was the pricing. But, I would never choose them if they couldn’t deliver a genre-focused, gorgeous cover.

Book cover designers outside of Fiverr run the gamut from around $200 to well over a $1,000. And many of them get booked out for months in advance and the process can take a lot longer than expected.

Fiverr book cover designers usually turn around their covers in 2-3 days!

So how much? If you just need the ebook cover, the price is $5. After Fiverr’s fees, it’s around $7.

Most of the designers also offer a package that includes the ebook and paperback print version of the cover. As well as a premium package, which also includes the source file (a PSD Photoshop file).

Even though I don’t use Photoshop, it’s above my tech level, I select the premium package, anyway.

I like having the source file. I can always get someone to make tweaks if needed. And I can use it in Photopea if needed.

The premium package includes all the goods:

  • Ebook cover
  • Print cover for paperback
  • 3D cover graphic
  • PSD source file

All that for just $25. Note… ends up being around $28 after the Fiverr fee is added.

It truly is an affordable book cover design!

The Design Brief

The book cover design cost via Fiverr is so affordable, that when I was trying to decide which designer to hire for a cover rebrand project I was working on for my first thriller series, I hired three of them and see which style I liked best.

I put together my design brief.

Side note: I highly recommend you put together a tight design brief which I show you in the case study video below.

I was a business analyst in my previous life (I was Tom Smykowski from Office Space), so the more details I can provide to the tech people (cover designer in this case) the better!

Doing this ensures that the delivered cover is usually spot on. Maybe a single revision is needed for minor aesthetics.

Another bonus is these designers offer free revisions so you can get the book cover just right. But usually they nail it right off the boat because I’m very clear about what I want.

Check out the video case study on how I put the document with the design specifications together.

Affordable Book Cover Design from Three Fiverr Book Cover Designers

Like I mentioned above, I’m redesigning the covers for my three Pete Maddox thriller books.

The Asset | CIA Thriller by Alan Petersen
Original cover of 2013

I published THE ASSET in 2013, so it’s almost a ten-year-old cover!

I loved that cover. It was the first fiction book I ever published, so it was near to my heart. But book cover design styles change, big time. And the original covers just weren’t cutting it anymore. They needed an update. But I also didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars per cover, which is why I went to Fiverr.

I ordered three gigs from three different book cover designers, so I could see what they came up with and which one was the best.

In the end, I liked all three covers, but one was the winner in my book (pun). I’ll tell you which one I chose at the end of this post, but first the three designers and their covers.

Designer #1: dhananjayaeffec

This designer is based in Sri Lanka and wow, do they have talent!

This is the cover they designed for THE ASSET:

Affordable book cover design on Fiverr for The Asset (designer 1).

Designer #2: rebecacovers

I’ve them frequently, and other friends have used rebecacovers. I believe they’re one of the most popular book cover designers on Fiverr, with almost 19,000 reviews with a 4.9 average rating! They’re in the Ukraine.

They also did a banger job on the cover!

Affordable book cover design on Fiverr for The Asset (designer 2).

Designer #3: printok

They’re in Bahrain and did a nice job with bright, vibrant colors I was after.

Affordable book cover design on Fiverr for The Asset (designer 3).

Affordable Book Cover Design: The Winner

I liked all the three covers, so all three designers were winners in my book, but I had to pick one, and I went with Designer #1, dhananjayaeffec. They seemed to really nail the look and feel of the book cover comps I sent them of the bestselling books in the genre and Amazon categories I’m after.

Affordable book cover design on Fiverr is possible without sacrificing quality.

Affordable Book Cover Design on Fiverr

Affordable book cover design on Fiverr.
Affordable book cover design on Fiverr.
I'm a full-time Internet marketer and infopreneur and an aspiring fiction writer. Blogging about my fiction writing at Fictive Universe.

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