Hello! I am looking for someone who would be interested in designing the cover for my self-published fantasy/dystopian novel. I am searching for an artist who places an emphasis on character design, colors, and shading, and uses NO AI in their work. My budget is around 1,000-1,500 dollars for a completed piece.
Please send me your recommendations for artists and/or a link to your portfolio if you have existing pieces.
Hi! I'm an Indie author, and this is the current final cover for my debut high fantasy novel. I've been tinkering with so many different ideas and designs for months, and this is by far the best cover I've made for it. I will most likely print it on gloss to give the silver texts a real shine to them. The FMC is a floral fairy, and thistles are a major theme in the book. It's book 1 of a trilogy.
What do you guys think?
Not sure if this is where I should post this.
I went to getcovers to get a cover for a men’s harem fantasy book. The prices looked ok, I’ve never ordered custom art before but I had a very specific character and scene I wanted. The general style for the genre tends to be anime or anime adjacent.
I provided an AI mock-up of what I wanted with the general features of the character. There are some story relevant features so I just wanted to give a rough starting point for things like haircut, tattoo, that kind of stuff.
Now the cost from my initial ask is ballooning from less than $100 to $300+ if I don’t want hyper realistic art which is exactly what I said I didn’t want when I initially reached out.
Is this normal? I didn’t use fiverr because I heard it was a lot of AI, which I want to avoid in the final version.
Can I get some advice. Is getcovers a scam?
I drew this cover for a mash-up of two literary works. Solitary people in nature are the usual covers for said books, so I'm mimicking that while having the overall aesthetic of a classic novel. My art skills aren't the best, so is this good enough, or should I hire a professional?
Hi everyone!
I would like to share with you the covers I designed for my portfolio.
I'm an illustrator and I really enjoy K-dramas and series in general, which is why these examples have that theme.
I'd like to explore more cover illustration work for novels (SFW).
I have a versatile style that can adapt to various themes.
I'd love to hear your opinion on these images! (They’re not commissioned covers)
Thanks for taking a look! 💚
I'm looking for an experienced fantasy illustrator/painter to create the final painted artwork for a full-wrap book cover. I'm needing a traditional-looking digital painting.
I already have a detailed composition sketch that has been approved by the publisher. The composition is established, so I'm looking for an artist who can work from the existing sketch rather than redesigning the cover.
The art style I am looking for comes from the original book covers of Thieves World (see attached). The first six novels had a similar art style that I am looking for. Painted by Walter Velez.
Classic painted fantasy — naturalistic, dimensional, richly painted artwork with a traditional/old-school fantasy illustration feel. High-key, high-value colors, grounded in natural colors. Dark like Thieves World but also bright, sun-drenched vintage look that feels optimistic, with thin lines.
The scene is quite complex (see attached composition sketch) and includes:
- multiple characters
- a Hollywood movie-studio setting
- 1920s/old-Hollywood elements
- ghosts/supernatural characters (which will be see-through)
- cars and motorcycles
- architecture and street scenery
- Hollywood Hills/Hollywood Sign
- a dragon from an old film
- a very small separate group of a few ghosts I'll put as an overlay on the title
It's meant to be one continuous image. In the attached composition sketch, there should be a wall in between the left and ride side connecting them (the space is where the book spine goes but the publisher wants the painting to continue on the spine).
No AI-generated final artwork. The publisher specifically requires human-created artwork.
I will provide:
- the approved composition sketch (see attached)
- visual references for the painting direction from the publisher
- character/reference information
- any additional references needed for the individual elements
I'm looking for someone who is comfortable painting over/working from an existing composition sketch and preserving the established placement of the major elements. Also someone that has a good eye for color—specifically, executing the artwork with high color saturation and rich, low black points to capture that heavy, dramatic, and theatrical pulp vibe.
Budget: $500 USD
Rights: Work-for-Hire / Full Commercial Buyout. Because the artist will be rendering an existing, approved composition sketch and utilizing established character IP, the publisher will retain full copyright and ownership of the final image. The artist may not sell prints or monetize the image, but absolutely retains the right to showcase the final painting in their personal portfolios and on social media.
Timeline: approximately 2-3 weeks, so availability to start soon is important. Timing is important as the publication date of the book is nearing, but at the same time we do not want to rush the artist as the quality of the artwork is of most importance.
No book layout is required (that's already done on my end and I'll share it with you so you have a good idea of what it will look like finished).
Please comment with your portfolio and examples of full-scene fantasy/narrative painting, particularly work involving multiple characters and environments. I'm especially interested in artists who have experience with traditional-looking digital painting or painted book-cover illustration.
Please comment with your portfolio rather than sending a generic DM. I'd like to look through the work first.
The publisher will have other books coming up in the future to work on in a similar style, and it's very possible to contract the artist again if we find the right artist.
Looking for a book cover for a YA MF hockey romance. 5 book series.
Where do I start looking for an artist? Point me in the right direction.
Budget flexible pending work $100-$500
These are the few pieces that I've done, some is commissions others personal, and they usually fit well in as a cover whether it is for books or etc. Pricing can be discussed but a good point of reference is from 250+ usd for portraits, and 750+ for covers depending on details and level of completion.
Hi guys!! I'm coming up on publishing my second novel and I created a book cover for it! This is the first draft, so let me know what y'all think about the blurb, placement, colors, anything that stands out to you! Any feedback is appreciated
Illustration and design by myself. Be gentle, I’m new here lol
I made it on canva and its my first book cover
I dont have money to pay for an artist and didnt wanna use ai
So this is what i came up with
I think it still need some details
Would love to hear your thoughts!
Finally getting close to sharing the cover for Rael Sahala The Circle of Ambeleaf, Book One.
A story of magic, secrets, dangerous paths, and a world waiting to be discovered.
This is only the beginning.
More details and a release date coming soon.
What do you think of the cover?
Hi! I recently designed and illustrated this book cover and was graciously given the permission to share! Do check it out when it comes out!
It was so much fun to create a retro feeling cover and I hope I achieved the intended effect!!
I always have had substantial influence from Japanese authors growing up, NisiOisin, Murakami, and Morimi. Some of my all time favorites include First Person Singular and Tatami Galaxy. Even my prose and dialogue by some early beta readers say that the plot often has a feeling similar to contemporary YA but that the writing itself never feels like that genre, so I decided to finally embrace the influence and went with a more heavily anime inspired cover for a supernatural fiction piece. I find most YA covers to be dreadfully bland and minimalistic, so I wanted something popping with color and with a surreal, dreamy feel to it.
My main worry comes down to if it signals a story set in Japan or anything like that, since it’s still ultimately a western work ofc, with it taking place in America. Will be finishing the book soon and looking for local consignment deals at bookstores before I look at publishing, so I want to make sure the presentation is solid
I feel so stupid. I was talking with this lady for a few days before I submitted the order and she never mentioned she uses AI for her covers. Her other work looked amazing and the prices were very reasonable. She gave a believable reason for the price being a little on the lower end, so I trusted it. But now I just feel dumb…
I’m offering a completed ~99,000-word adult art-crime/conspiracy thriller, Velvet Forgery, for acquisition.
Asking price: $11,000 USD.
I’m primarily looking for a serious buyer interested in acquiring a completed fiction property rather than commissioning a manuscript from scratch. Depending on the buyer and intended use, the exact rights transferred can be discussed before an agreement is signed.
VELVET FORGERY
Adult Art-Crime Thriller / Mystery / Romantic Suspense
Approx. 99,000 words
16 chapters
Complete manuscript
Logline:
When art conservator Livia Sorrento discovers a pigment too modern for a supposedly priceless masterwork, she and the unnervingly perceptive Caspian Vale uncover a system in which museums, insurers, auction houses and private lenders have spent years allowing forged works to remain “authentic” because too much money depends on the lie. Buried beneath the fraud is something more personal: evidence left by Livia’s dead mother.
The story moves through conservation laboratories, auction houses, museum boardrooms, Paris pigment dealers, a Geneva freeport and Venetian archives as apparently isolated irregularities begin forming one financial system.
The central conspiracy is not simply about criminals selling fake paintings. The underlying mechanism is that authentication itself has become economically necessary: paintings are being used as collateral, and acknowledging that key works are fraudulent would jeopardize loans, valuations, insurance reserves and institutional reputations.
The manuscript combines:
Livia initially believes she is investigating one impossible pigment.
She eventually discovers that the real fraud is much larger: respected institutions have created a chain of mutually reinforcing authentication in which museums rely on insurers, insurers rely on catalogue opinions, lenders rely on all of them, and everyone has a financial reason not to ask whether the underlying artwork is genuine.
The conspiracy has survived because no participant needs to control the entire system.
By the final act, the investigation has moved from identifying a forged canvas to proving that the right fake only needs to be “real” in the right document at the right moment.
The emotional thread runs alongside the investigation. Livia discovers that her mother Elena was neither simply innocent nor simply responsible: she participated in parts of the system while secretly leaving physical witness marks beneath altered paintings so the fraud could someday be demonstrated.
I am looking for a buyer for the completed manuscript and an agreed rights package.
I am open to discussing structures such as:
I will not represent rights as transferred until we have a written agreement specifying exactly what the buyer is purchasing.
Asking price: $11,000 USD.
I’m willing to discuss reasonable offers from serious buyers, particularly publishers, fiction studios, content companies, book packagers, producers, established authors looking for an acquisition, or individuals with a concrete commercialization plan.
For serious inquiries I can provide:
Payment and transfer would be handled through a written agreement rather than an informal Reddit transaction.
If interested, DM me with who you are, what you intend to do with the manuscript, and which rights you would want to acquire.
I’m happy to answer substantive questions in the comments as well.