This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.
Recommended for: authors who have a strong understanding of their branding and design needs.
99 Designs is a platform with a very large community of designers across many disciplines including book cover design. There are two ways to find a book cover designer via 99Designs: Hire a designer directly or crowd source your design by hosting a contest.
Whether you decide to work directly with a designer or start a contest to crowd source your design the process is broken into three main steps:
-
- Brief—You will be prompted to fill out a design brief. Aside from asking for general information, title, author name etc. the brief helps narrow down design styles and colours that you are drawn to by asking you to click on existing covers that you admire. You will also be asked to choose a pricing category (bronze, silver, gold or platinum). The website automatically detects your location and will convert pricing to the currency of your country.
**This is perhaps the most crucial step. Be sure to take the time to outline a thorough brief. The clearer you can be with your expectations and preferences, the more likely you will be to find a suitable book cover.** - Connect—After reviewing portfolios you can either hire a designer directly or start a contest by asking multiple designers to submit their design proposals based on your brief.
- Collaborate—Work with your designer to iterate or make changes to the design until you are happy with the final result. Once you approve the design you can release the funds and the designer will be paid for their work.
- Brief—You will be prompted to fill out a design brief. Aside from asking for general information, title, author name etc. the brief helps narrow down design styles and colours that you are drawn to by asking you to click on existing covers that you admire. You will also be asked to choose a pricing category (bronze, silver, gold or platinum). The website automatically detects your location and will convert pricing to the currency of your country.
Pricing
99Designs offers a range of pricing options making it an accessible option for authors with different budgets. Prices typically range from $299-$1200. See table below for more information (prices may be subject to change). The website automatically detects your location and will give you a quote in your country’s currency.
Our Advice
99Designs could be the perfect solution to your book cover design needs, however, it is very important that you set your self up for success going into this particular design process. Many people have been let down with the final outcome despite receiving 30+ covers. To avoid falling into this category it is crucial that you keep in mind the following:
- Before you begin you need to have a clear understanding of your target audience and book cover standards/trends in this genre
- Review other book cover design options before jumping in with 99Designs. The perfect designer for you may not be on this platform.
- Fill out the entire brief in detail. Have a design style in mind and prepare examples of other similar covers ready to share for inspiration.
- Keeping in mind the above, try to be thorough with your brief without stifling your designers creativity. They may have superior ideas after-all!
- A 99Designs contest lasts up to seven days; be prepared to dedicate a large portion of your week to this process
- Be careful of plagiarism. Reverse google image search covers you’re thinking about moving forward with to ensure it hasn’t been stolen.
- Take full advantage of the “poll” option. Use your network to help narrow down your cover design options.
- Be appreciative of your designers. This kind of platform encourages designers to work without the guarantee of being paid.
Your Turn
Have you used with 99Designs? If so, please take a minute to leave a quick review below to help others with their decision.
