TO
GALLERY
We love designing
book covers as much as we love writing and editing
books! Below are thumbnails of a few of the covers
we've done. Watch this page for an expanded gallery
with links to larger pictures, including
back-to-front views, as well as information about the
books.
Our normal cover
design fee is $1,500.00 US (50% deposit; 50% upon
completion).
This
includes not only design -- artwork and typography --
but also scanning, sizing and placement of author
photo as needed; writing of all promotional copy on
front and back; generation and placement of barcode;
and preparation of files to the specifications of
your printer or book manufacturer.
On occasion,
we have clients who have all or most of the desired
elements for their covers (e.g., cover graphics and
illustration, exact text desired, etc.) but just need
us to do the "finishing"— the final
placement and preparation of the file for production.
Even this often entails considerably more work than
the client may have estimated, since we usually have
to do a lot of adjusting and tweaking. However, our
fee is generally less than it is for our "from
scratch" cover designs. How much less depends
upon the amont of work required, which we can
determine after speaking with the client and taking a
careful look at the existing material. Don't be
afraid to ask. We're willing to consider working on
covers at just about any stage of design.
If you
desire a custom illustration for your cover, or an
existing piece of artwork for which a royalty payment
is required, that adds to the
cost of the design. However, we are able to produce
an incredible variety of original designs without
these "extras." We have a large library of
stock photos, photo objects and vector art that we
can manipulate in wonderfully creative ways to
produce a great looking, professional cover. We are
not fine artists and do not pretend to be, but then
again, a book cover does not require fine art in
order to be a "selling" cover! What's
important is that the cover looks good and stands out
in a bookstore or other retail outlet — enough
to grab the attention of even the casual browser
— and that it stands out on a website such as
Amazon.com and other online shopping sites.
Color
separations and color proof MAY incur an extra
charge on our end... Usually, however,
this is not the case. If your printer or book
manufacturer cannot read CorelDRAW files, we will
have the color separations and color proof
produced locally, and will add the cost to our
cover design. Generally it will not exceed
$300.00. But most printers these days do handle
Corel files with no problem, and they add the
cost of separations and proof to the total print
bid.
If your book
is a hardcover with a dust jacket, we also write the
copy for the front and back flap of the dust jacket,
and, depending upon the requirements of the printer
or book manufacturer, we create the artwork for foil
stamping / embossing on the binding. (Note: Some
clients choose to publish their book simultaneously
in paperback and hardcover. Since this involves more
than one complete cover design, we normally add an
extra $500.00 to our fee.)
When
designing a book cover, we don't just throw a bunch
of elements together and call it a cover, and, unlike
many Print On Demand services that offer cover
design, we don't work from templates. Instead we use
all the imagination and creativity at our disposal to
fashion a completely original cover just for you. We
present several different original designs from which
you can choose, and we work with you every step of
the way from conception to production.
And don't
forget we also do page design and layout, as well as
editing, rewriting or ghostwriting. In fact, we
edited and/or laid out many of the books whose covers
appear below. We have also added a page
design gallery to this site, to
showcase some of our interior work. (By the way, if
you're planning to self-publish and you hire us for
ghostwriting or substantial editing of your
manuscript, we offer an attractive "package
deal" for cover design and page layout.)
In
short...from the outside in or the inside out, we
bring books to life!
If you'd like
more information send us an e-mail at moonshad@swbell.net, or give us a call at
(713) 463-9263.
Also
see our page
layout & design samples.
