The Best Premade Cover Designers for Indie Authors

In this day and age, there’s no reason to have a bad book cover. Though there are more tools available to make your own book cover, that doesn’t mean you should, as designing a book cover takes as much finesse as any creative art, so if you all you can draw are stick figures, you have no business getting into graphic design.

This is especially true because the cost of book cover design has come down a lot in recent years, while the quality has gone up. This is true as well for premade book covers. You supply the title and author name and you’re done. Yes, these aren’t as unique as a custom cover designed with your input, but they’re miles above some of the bad book covers you can find online.

Call this post a public service announcement so that there is never a poor book cover again. At the very, very least, purchase a premade template.

The Top Premade Cover Designers

This list was culled with a certain criteria in mind:

General interest – there are a lot of premade cover designers aimed at the romance writers, and while there are romance book covers posted by these designers, there are also covers for most every other genre as well.
Covers are taken offline once purchased. Though premade, this doesn’t mean the cover has to be un-unique. When you purchase a cover, it’s taken off for sale, so there won’t be another book with the same cover/different title.
Reasonably priced. If you can’t afford $50, you probably shouldn’t be self-publishing.

GoOnWrite

I’m the guy that makes all the book cover designs and runs this site. I’ve been a freelance graphic designer for the last twenty-years (yes I’m getting long in the tooth), and I’ve been designing book covers for the last couple of years, much to my own amusement.

He’s being modest, as he’s one of the most successful cover designers for self-publishers.

eBook Launch

The spark was ignited in 2009 when John helped his father with book cover design and print book formatting. Since then, they’ve worked with thousands of authors from around the world from their home offices in Western Canada. They keep their business small, so they can deliver the kind of service their loyal clients have come to expect.

The quality of eBook Launch’s covers is incredible – especially their custom covers, which are indistinguishable from traditional publishers, and often better.

The Cover Collection

Our commitment to you doesn’t end when your cover design is complete. We actively promote all authors who choose us for their book cover design via both Facebook and Twitter.

That’s enough to convince most indie authors.

Book Cover Zone

For over 20 years our studio has created covers for a variety of self-published and genre authors throughout the world. Currently our collection houses over 5000 pre-made book covers and it’s expanding day by day.

With 5000 covers, you’re virtually guaranteed to find a high-quality cover in your genre.

Paper and Sage

Christa has worked in the design industry since 2007, in a variety of media, including traditional printing (business cards, flyers, brochures, etc.), photography and t-shirts.

In 2013, she saw a golden opportunity to combine her love of literature and design: with the self-publishing market growing and the need for professional covers, she could help bring other’s stories to life… or at least help make a good first impression.

Pro covers that are mostly geared towards women’s fiction.

Covermint

Dan has been doing both personal and commercial digital design for over 20 years. He’s an author himself, and will work with you to make sure your cover is both creative and commercial.

A good choice for men’s-oriented science fiction, fantasy, and thriller.

Kingwood Creations

An exclusive premade book cover shop where you can choose from over one hundred carefully crafted, ready made covers. We have designed covers for almost all genres and more are being created daily, so make sure to check back soon to find out what’s new.

On the pricier side, compared to the others listed here, but good quality in varied genres.

Honorable Mentions

These designers don’t quite make the above list. Some of their covers are on par with the designers above, but some fall short. If you can’t find what you’re looking for with the above designers, it’s helpful to have many options.

Miscellaneous

SelfPubBookCovers – though on balance these covers aren’t great, it’s an interesting site for having a number of different cover designers all under one roof.

Facebook Groups – There is a treasure trove of groups listing premade covers for sale. That deserves a post of its own, but the link provides a good place to start.

Finally, check out this post from The Write Practice for tips on selecting a designer. For example:

It’s worth carrying out an image search for the cover preview. If you see the image show up on a preexisting book which is actually being sold, that’s a huge red flag.

Depending on how different you want your cover to be, you can also consider the individual cover elements. If there is a prominent image on the cover, try searching around stock image sites to see how easily it crops up. While your cover as a whole may be unique, in practical terms, it isn’t so individual if prominent images from it show up elsewhere.