🔥 What cover would YOU choose? And, why? Are you new to self publishing and not sure where to start? Start here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/q51mgNBjsJuwnX0.html

The first design was fantastic, and cost effective for just $30.

First cover $30 for me on front, but liked the back cover of the $800. Would combine those two.

I am a typesetter. I really loved the first design. Great ideas! Following ideas were meh, and then came Marco. Holy s*it! It blew my mind off! So much attention to detail and great execution. And, over the top, cherry! Full media package! I am in awe!

Call me crazy, but I liked the whimsical side of the first book cover. Very creative. The bold and busy Marco is probably more eyecatching as a thumbnail and I did like the back cover better, but the front of his design was way too much for me. Almost like he is screaming at you! I guess that would get your attention too, but not in a good way. !!! Tough decision. Can't wait to see which you choose. Thanks for spending nearly $1000. to give us this info!

I chose Agneslena a couple of times for her different types of gigs. She has always been a pleasure to work with and as you say a real 'steal'. In my opinion her work was also the best one in this selection. Her cover was very clean and the others were too crowded. Not a great use of space at all, just way too much. Sometimes less is more. Great to see her in this video again!!

Found the first one captivating, The Pro had lots of great extra perks however, the cover was too busy. His style and flair for color and fonts were great but too much

Even for fiction, where the cover counts even more, paying $800 for a cover is beyond most people. They shouldn't go with homemade covers, but I've made lots of money with a $25 cover from Fiverr... An indie author who has been in the bestseller list since 2017 with the same five books had originally paid oodles of money as a beginner (before selling books at all) for especially commissioned fantasy illustrations -- and had to ditch them all as he wasn't selling. Bought illustrations of $10 from Shutterstock and had the design done in Fiverr for $15 each. Started selling like crazy. Indies can only pay a lot of money for covers when they're making a lot. There are really, really good people in Fiverr making covers that are among the bestsellers out there. The writers' forum is FULL of stories like that ...

I liked Agnes' front cover, but marmarko's back cover (plus all the extras). I suggest when deciding on a Fiverr person to handle your work, give them a small job to test out how it is to work with them. When I was selling my editing on Fiverr, I made authors do a manuscript critique with me before we did any work to make sure we were a good fit. And don't hesitate to ask for a custom quote on any service to get exactly what you want. Thanks for spending the money on these tests so we didn't have to. ;)

That's awesome!! Love the last cover. I was with you doing pomodoros when you wrote that book. It helped me get mine finished.

Dale this is probably the coolest video I've seen you do and man - you do awesome videos. I love the range and it also shows that while you can get a great cover (Agneslena I think was her name??) for a low cost, there is a difference when you bring on a true pro and it DOES show. WOW. Honestly don't think her covers will be $30 or $40 for long though. I also like how you walked through the elements and what made each cover better AND what the experience was like working with the cover designer. Great job!!

I thought your work, the work of the designers, and the commentary were all stellar. A great service to everyone, Dale.

Great informative video Dale! Angie with Pro EBook Covers was maybe my favorite design, but Marko did an ace job all around with the additional formats and details. Thanks for sharing!

I feel $800 is a lot for a book cover. I liked the very first one. Very pocket-friendly and perfect. A video like this is very much required on KZfaq. Thanks for doing this.

WOW! Marko really did a fantastic job. The details were phenomenal and to get the full set of media elements too? Your going to sell a ton based off of just the cover! Fabulous! I also liked that lock and key design too. Great vid and interesting topic.

Awesome video idea and that last design is great with all the bells and whistles. I love Fiverr, there are some really talented people there, but it is better not to pick the cheapest ones if you can afford it. I've been using Fiverr for a while now and I love the platform and you can find some gems in there, but you need to be picky and selective, don't just order from anybody. I wouldn't mind at all to read your book, Dale. That last cover rocks!

Dale, thank you so much for doing this - a very useful exercise, and proving that it isn’t necessarily the price band or seller level that is an indicator of quality. That said, the Marco cover and level of service would seem to be the top of the pile, and I think that Agneslena is a rising star and won’t be at the entry level for long. Interestingly I thought the others were perfectly serviceable covers but, with the greatest of respect to them, were a bit ordinary and I’m not sure how they’d stand out from a list of other books in that niche.

Loved this video. Couldn't stop watching until it was done :D Lots of great insights here!

Wow - a great walk-thru of the experience. Admittedly, for what I would normally spend, Agneslena would be the winner. Yes, the $800 design was indeed beautiful, but her design still rocked big time (and would have saved a bunch of cash to use to spend on editing, or marketing, etc - ie, maybe saving up some extra dollars to pay for the Amazon Advertising needed to actually sell on Amazon. ;)

Nice presentation on finding a cover designer. My favorite is the first one...I loved all the elements, especially the little cart and the key/lock! Very creative. While the $800 was nice, it was much too busy, in my opinion, but you did get a lot of items for the money. Still, the first cover would have caught my eye to possibly buy rather than the $800 one.

Speaking as a designer, obviously we try to provide as good a service as possible, but honestly it's not surprising that sometimes there needs to be a lot more communication to finish revisions like with that one cover. When you reach the design concept you intended and it's "done" apart from revisions, unless the client is very specific about changes it's tempting to make less bold changes because A) ideation faze is over B) at the end of a design every change is exponentially more time consuming because each change necessitates adjusting the rest of the design to fit. So unless there's a very specific change needed, you won't want to change too much and screw up the design, because they'd had positive feedback up to that point so you don't want too much to change.

Awesome Dale - very excited for you. I like 1, 4 and 5. If it were my book (which would be my first), I would go with 4. For you - Marco gets the nod - that design blows me away. LOVE the color scheme and background.

Nice range of services you covered! I'm impressed with the 800 one, you get lots for what you pay so it isn't "just a book cover" that you get

That Instagram set-up for the last service was amazing, I'll definitely be implementing that!

I'm sold on the last one. I love the word "keyword" in the search field. Beautifully done.

Superb Video - WOW how unbelievable interesting and what a great (useful) topic to discuss and the way you went about it, in getting a cross-section of designers - I was intrigued to the very end - just what KZfaq was made for! Captivating Comparisons !! And as always very enlightening from " The DR ".

I also kinda love you raving over basic text wrapping :) it's nice to remember how professional designer skills look from the outside.

Great video and you've given me some great ideas for my upcoming book! I've tried designing my own book cover on CANVA, and it's terrible! I'm impressed and amazed at how some of the lesser-priced gig providers did such amazing work! At the end of the day, you get what you pay for, and MARCO as the most expensive was also the one who provided more hands-on service and superb outcomes!

Hi, Dale, although the 5th Cover effort was stella, I liked the key and lock creative design - that design was best for me.

If we're going only for front cover, the cheapest gig is the best to me. The $800 one, this guy clearly did a lot of work for the money, though, and he delivered a full interactive service for you. Still, value for cost, $30 wins. You got almost an $800 cover for $30. Nothing beats that.

Awesome. Hard choice. I loved the 800 buck cover, but I personally liked Angie's with the graph graphics climbing upward. Seemed like a subliminal message that reading and putting into practice what's in the book will boost your sales. Hard, hard choice between the two, though.

I ranked them exactly as you did, Dale. Marco's design was fantastic. I loved your top 2 and 3, as well, but Marco's doesn't look like (in a big way) another one of those self-published "how-to" books. I love the subtlety of the "matrix" number design, the pointing finger usage and the joined front-to-back flow, as well! For limited budgets, though, 2 and 3 were great options! I would love to see this kind of experiment done with several different genres of fiction books -- thriller, paranormal, YA dystopia, romance, etc. (hint, hint) :D

So insightful! Thanks very much, Dale! You definitely get what you pay for. He's definitely gone above and beyond!

That Fiverr Pro cover is stellar. That said, you still got good quality covers from the other freelancers as well. I love how you covered the gambit when it comes to pricing. That's proof that you can still get good covers even if you don't have a lot of discretionary expense.

Oh, wow. Terrific vid, Dale. Thank you! I've battled for so long trying to find a decent cover creator on Fiverr. Really appreciate this.

Marco is absolutely worth the 800 dollars. In fact, I would work with him if he charged more. The covers I liked most were number one, number four, and Marco's. I didn't like the blue cover at all, I think that was the second one. That cover would not interest me and I wouldn't buy the book. But the other three, especially Marco's, I would buy that one. I also like Hubspot his cover, but I wouldn't work with him just because of the communication issues. But he's a good designer.

Awesome video. This was really fun. Thanks for sharing!

Marko, because his work is super clean and organized. He's a very analytical person. Maximizing all of the space to fit all of your information without it looking overloaded. I also liked Angie's book cover as well.

I loved this video and it was really helpful. I know it was posted in 2020 and I tried looking through the playlists on your channel but I was wondering if there was a video on what should be in a metadata folder in order for the designer to have the best idea of wants and needs for a book cover? Also is there a video on tips or red flags to look out for when choosing a freelancer on Fiverr?

I've used Angie for covers. She is great to work with! I loved her cover in this video.

Thank you for the comparisons. I agree with your order of designers. I have used pro_ebooks covers once. She is very easy to work with and delivered on time. Marco's cover is remarkable.

Tbh, my favorite ones were the third and the last! Loved this kind of video :)

I love all of this information, as being a new author, trying to navigate my self publishing adventure is a hard journey. These videos help so much. I will say my hear sank with the first few cost because I spent 900 for my cover that I will see in March, given it is a fantasy book that takes a little more artwork. But then the last one made me feel better being 800 that you paid. Thank you for this 😊

Just subscribed. You’re amazing!

I liked the first and third best. I liked the final one, however, I don't like that everything was in capital letters and I find it difficult to read white text on a dark background so I didn't like the back cover of Marko's. I think I'd choose the first one. Personally, I've had minimal luck with fiverr. Those I've hired never gave me what I asked for and since I can't get their email address, I can't have decent communication or stay in touch after the gig. I was recommended to a cover designer who did an amazing cover for me for $100 with infinite revisions!

Oh my god that's some great covers and after seeing the pro cover I was just stunned very valuable video Dale you nailed it. Next time I know whom to choose for good covers

I love the back for the pro cover but not the front. I like the simplicity of Angie's cover. The first cover was not bad. The pro front cover looks crowded but hey, glad you loved it.

The first and the last ones were my favs!!

Awesome. Just started working with Fiverr. Thanks for the comparisons and what to look for in a great cover.

I have been waffling between using a Fiverr gig or finding someone on social to do a cover. This video is really helping me make a more informed choice. Thanks again Dale^^

I’ve been waiting for this video excited to see what is most worth it

I think that’s $800 WELL INVESTED! The other designs weren’t bad but they weren’t as dynamic. I think if I’m hiring a pro I don’t want it to look like something I created or could create. I love those that really lean into the project vs fast and lackluster. Plus, the extra stuff that came in the $800 gig are other assets you’d pay for hiring out elsewhere or burn time trying to make yourself.

Goals before: Make it big on KDP Goals now: Make enough from your day job and KDP to afford the 800 dollar cover and make good use of the social media stuff

Epic video man and loved the breakdown. Awesomem to see the $800 product. I'd definitely say that is worth the product you got.

wow! wow!! wow!!! I am really impressed after looking this video. I am a learner for book cover design. Thank you sir.

The additional stuff from the pro designer are cool.

Thanks for a great video Dale. I would have picked the cover from Marko... also love the Social media add-ons :-)

I really liked the 1st cover

It would have been interesting to judge the covers without knowing the price/artist. Bias starts to creep in when we're privy to information irrelevant to the pure aesthetic of the design.

The one that catches my eye the most is ProEbookcover’s. If I’m spelling it right! But they all are good really!

My vote is Agneselena. I was attracted to the clean design.

Totally worth, great video!

Fantastic! Marco was off the chain! Angie would be my 2nd!

Amazing. How did you get the pictures. Did you take a picture with the book or did he impose it in

I have seen the light! Book covers really make a difference. But... My book cover doesn't look the same on the Amazon search page, on its own book page, in the original picture and in the print form. It's enough to drive me crazy! My book cover also looks different when it's a sponsored link... it looks more blurry.

The first one is eye-catching and has a simple but effective elegance in its design. And at the other end of the scale, the $800 cover is superb.

I already know what I want my cover to be and have created a generic example. Do you suggest Fiverr still or is there another site you recommend?

Cool and very interesting...thank you.

Awesome. I like them all first I think is what I liked but the Last one was the most value

I loved the first cover design. Hands down, better than any of the rest (not even taking into account the price - I would have paid the most for that one) but the back cover of the last one is great

EXTRAordinary Scenes!

When I looked for cover designers for my fantasy novels, the first one that was introduced to me did absolutely nothing I have requested of him. Good thing i haven't paid a single cent. In the end I had to look for myself and found one who did the first two covers for my books. He was the cheapest one I found that had an art style I like. 400USD. However, he was great to work with and kept you up-to date about the progress so that anything I didn't like, could be fixed before he finalized the cover. And now since my book is on tour, many people comment how great the covers look.

I like the first one and the orange one with the computer. They look the best and they are the least expensive.

I’m dealing with covers now. How different do the book versions need to be to upload with a different cover?

I am currently experiencing frustration, again, with Fiverr.com! I used to use one guy who produced reasonable covers - until the last time that I used him, for quite a simple design. He took longer than usual, before producing something that looked as if he'd dashed it off in about 5 minutes. I requested a revision, but it was no better (I ended up making my own cover). This week, I wanted to revise another book cover, with just a couple of basic amendments, and I picked a guy who had excellent feedback. Three days after the due delivery date, I still don't have a paperback cover that I can really use. The front is fine... but, for some strange reason, no matter how much I explain it, the back looks terrible! I have even done a mock-up on Amazon cover creator, using the ebook cover, showing how the layout of the blurb on the back needs to look (not all bunched up in the top half of the page)... and I am still waiting. My own effort isn't always good enough, hence me paying someone to do it for me. And this is certainly not the first time that this kind of thing has happened. It steals so much time and energy, and results in lost sales. There are two potential answers: learn how to do it properly and consistently myself, or, pay a much higher price (though, in my experience, even that hasn't always been a guarantee of a good quality service). It is such a hit-and-miss experience. I will, in future, try one of your recommendations. Sorry, rant over!

I have published print advertising for two decades. Always be very specific on what you want with a graphic designer. Otherwise, most likely it's Forrest Gump and the chocolate box theory! "You never know what you are going to get." I have worked with some wonderful graphic designers. And some that wear space helmets because they are in orbit.

800 DOLLARS? Damn, you can get a 20k to 25k word book with that on ghost writing companies.

thanks, this was great and I liked your video and subscribed to your chanel can you please make a video on book cover design mistakes

I don't use Fiverr anymore. I've researched many editors and graphic designers but wasn't happy with their work. During my search I found Deranged Doctor Design. This January they're designing my thriller cover. They also do other genres.

The Pro backcover was the best. The front cover, I can see it getting attention. I believe you'll make the most sales with that. Not sure it's $800 good, but it was good. On the cheaper side, Angie's was better. Did not like the backcover part of it though. Wasn't a fan of the rest. The key and magnifying glass was imaginative, but the color schemes they used... I just found them dull.

Do you have a template you use for filling out the details. How do you know what to say to designer to give as much detail about your vision for the cover. I’ve hired for a cover several times and they always ask for an example. Usually I’m given something that looks slightly different than the example which came from Amazon. So that would be copying. Then after a revision it’s just down hill from there even for several attempts.

Thanks for sharing. The cover that I like was agneslena.

I can understand why the last guy commands the price he does, however, the first one was absolutely my favorite and that would have made it a bit for me

General note before critiquing the actual examples: The title and front cover copy provided are maybe not specific (from a consumer perspective) enough if I was scrolling by online or in a store, but might work for me if I was specifically looking for that kind of book, depending on the competition available. Agneslena: Simple, clean, maybe too much space. But for the price, I would be really happy with that. It would certainly catch my eye. I also like the solid-color back (I can't really tell a gradient in the video). Agnesam: What I like about this one is that it's forward-thinking. The color choice and inclusion of "Book 1" at the top immediately suggest to me that this could be part 1 of a series, with each book having the same design in different colors. Really clean. Maybe a little too generic or corporate-looking for my own tastes. The back cover is a little less compelling than the front, all things being equal. Hubspot_pro: The blue and yellow option looks like an author's inspiration mock-up to Agneslena's final design. The blue-on-blue cover doesn't do anything for me. I might be willing to pay that rate for that product, but I probably wouldn't be a returning customer, certainly if there was a communication breakdown. And with clearly superior options for even less, definitely not the best choice for anyone. Pro_ebookcovers: It's eye-catching, and I generally like the colors, but I'm not big on the graphics. It's too generic and busy for my taste. I also don't really like how the blue bars hit the spine and don't wrap symmetrically (obviously, they wouldn't have to wrap around, but seeing it laid out like that brings all my attention to the blank spine first and that the blue bars are all different sizes second). Marmarko78: Very well-composed. I like the way the orange wraps around. It's detailed without being too busy and distracting. The variety of social media assets is huge. Unless my marketing budget was substantial, I probably wouldn't consider spending that, but that's not to suggest it's not worth the price tag. Seeing all that certainly opens that possibility for me. Definitely a heavy-hitter and hard to resist. My ranking: 1. Agnesam - for the price, really hard to beat, especially for that type of book and if I have the series planned out. I'd maybe request a few tweaks. Ultimately, price is the driving factor for this victory. I also like that this first book uses the channel colors, and I think that the light blue looks better than the darker blue covers. 2. Marmarko78 - definitely forces me to consider spending the money. Awesome work and exciting assets. Would make me excited to promote my book. Super close second, with the price being the only obstacle. 3. Pro_ebookcovers - probably really a tie with Agneslena, this is a little better composed and is more eye-catching, which would probably be the most important factor for me in marketing a book like this. The difference between $30-40 and $70-75 is insignificant enough for me to allow this to take third. If I was strapped for cash to the point that I couldn't afford this cover, I would probably just take a day or two and design it myself. 4. Agneslena - a little too simple, but more than attractive enough for a mere $30-40 5. Hubspot_pro - these designs aren't as off-putting in retrospect as I thought upon first viewing, but they also do nothing for me. If I can get Agneslena's design, which is cute and has a bit of character, for half the price, or the Pro-ebookcovers' eye-popping cover in the same price range, I would probably not choose this design, especially if it took the amount of back-and-forth it took you to get it there. At the end of the day, I would probably be satisfied with any of these for the price, since in a real scenario I wouldn't know exactly what I'd be getting beforehand and I wouldn't be able to compare the options like this. Like, you, I think within the context of this comparison, I'm disappointed by Hubspot_pro. While it looks intentional, it does feel slightly unfinished, at least if we consider it professional work.

What I want to know is what program(s) they all use to make these. Just PhotoShop? No PhotoShop at all? I want to learn more about making covers.

I mean you definitely get your money's worth when you spent $800, I mean if I spent that much and got what you got, I'd go with that cover and additional assets because that was top level! Realistically though I think the first one was the best bang for your buck, if you don't have a lot of money to spend $30 for what you got was great! It was IMO the second best cover - obviously I like the $800 best but realistically i'd go with the first one because they were creative with the cover seemed like quality service and only $30!

Hi Dale! I really liked the 1st cover, 3rd and of course the Pro cover. The colors I really liked. I don't care for the blue as much. Great video showing examples. Thank you for all you do, Love the passion!

Nice experiment! The covers are among the most important aspects. But it doesn't end there! Dale, do you suggest to pay a proofreader and a paperback formatter or you do it yourself??

The last one is Awesome! The first one is cute.. I like it!

Cool video Dale! The $800 appeared to be well worth it. Loved what he came up with.

Really tough choice the $30 is great value but the $800 my favourite, Marco’s SoMe assets did it for me I need a cover designer and they are both now on my list 👍

What is the difference between audiobook, ebook cover etc. Just the size?

Great videos on covers. I would have liked to have seen the front covers side by side, unless of course I missed it. 😀 I liked the first cover with the play in the letters, the key and keyhole. Very clever. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of products you got for the 800$ gig. As for the cover of the last one, I love the little details, such as the subtle background matrix design, however I find the front cover too busy. Love the back design, though I also think that there could have been a little more breathing room space. I get that perhaps for these kinds of books, you want to put as much info, and make use of retail space to “sell” it. I also get that you want the visual to show up in thumbnail size. Great creative use of photo and logos! I’d love to learn a little more about keywords. My marketing/selling skills are lacking in an organized manner, so I will look into this ebook of yours. 😊 Thank you for this informative video. @ccsullivan_writer (IG). Will be checking out your other videos.

Hi I have subscribed. How do I get a copy of your book?

Been a Graphic Designer for over 20 years.... You get what you pay for.

how do you add your fiverr book cover to your story?.i'm asking because, I order a fiverr book cover for my story as well Thanks. Toi.

A couple of them were kind of busy. I like the simplicity better of I think the first and third

I love and use Angie!!!

I am learning and trying to do this all right. So if you are kdp select, you can still use lulu and such to get hard back books?

I love Agneslena cover 1, I do like Marmarko78 cover also, those two would be my favorite and really couldn't go wrong with either. I think I might pop over to check out these designers. I need a couple of book covers so it be worth looking at.