Blog Dis
To hire or not to hire a graphic designer...
2026-04-28
This is the question, whether it's wise to hire a graphic designer. Answer: Yes! It's not worth beating around the bush. It's as simple as that, when it comes to the final touches with regard to adding to your many years of hard work, penning your latest and greatest novel. Your cover can make or break your success, despite all of us authors understanding that success is often a crap-shoot, and why some authors become monster successes and why others don't, is often inexplicable. However, and when it comes to the cover, you more than anyone will have to look at it, admire it, promote it and run with the final cover going forward.
So, before you work with a graphic designer, anyone who has written a novel (non-fiction, fiction) will speak from experience, to know how hard it's been to jump through umpteen hoops to even reach the stage where a novel's interior is ready to be designed, which is to say the guts of the novel: what industry folks would refer to the serif font or book face, and how you'll have to consider the more popular classic choices for the guts of your book, what readers will stare at for the entirety of your novel. This is another blog, in of itself. For now I'm focusing this post on the nuts and bolts of a smashing cover design.
The value of hiring a graphic designer, to wow your readers with an awesome cover image cannot be understated. It's a vital stage. At the outset, let me stress how not all graphic designers are created equal. Some are independent, without having to answer to a design house, while others are represented by design firms, many of which can also be website firms with a dedicated graphic designer and in some cases an entire graphic design team. There are associations too that represent graphic designers. In Canada, the name of one better known association is RGD: Association of Registered Graphic Designers. You can of course shell out a great deal of money to hire a design firm, in possession of a brick and mortar location, nearby where you live, who actively operates online, and who'll be able to handle a lot of elements of your final book publishing stage. I've gone this route, too, in the past. I've had what I'd call a tooth pulling experience; struggling to get what I had paid for, which isn't always guaranteed.
By the time nine years had passed, in completing my seventh novel, I had already started my hunt five years prior, to keep my eyes peeled for potential covers. And, because I have online profiles on a number of social media networks (X, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads and Instagram) I kept my cover search mostly to X and Facebook, as well as to keep my ear to the ground, for other author recommendations, as well as to monitor one FB page called Indie Book Cover Project, where fledging authors and would-be designers will take it upon themselves to design their own cover. There's nothing wrong with this, especially if you're already a graphic designer yourself, who is now writing your first book. I've also gone down this road too, after which I posted my proposed cover design to the Indie Book Cover page on FB, only to discover that a Patricia pile-on was brutal and uncomfortable, from the vitriol of hatred being expressed for my amateur design. Ha! In the end, I assimilated all their comments, and then reached out to another graphic designer who had helped to tweak the cover. This little project of mine wasn't for a new novel release, but rather for an eBook compendium release of my first series of six novels. Each trilogy received the same cover with the designation of Trilogy One and Trilogy Two. All in all, it was an excellent learning experience for me, and one I won't forget.
The best lesson for authors is to understand that you're not a graphic designer.
Allow me to return to the subject at hand. In the end,
@fantasy_art_z
was the ultimate winner, whose brilliant work I had used as the cover for my seventh novel. I'd been watching her work for years, and periodically visiting her personal website (accessible through her bio on X) to scan through her array of fantasy images, broken down into categories like fantasy prints, book covers, T-shirts, music covers and the like until I landed on one image that struck a chord. I saw the face and it instantly made me think of the main character in my seventh novel, Lady Tundra Arctica. I requested only minor changes with regard to the font and my graphic designer ended up taking it upon herself to make additional tweaks, such as the headdress as well as the helmet, all to coordinate with my story.
Below, I present to you the final wrap-around, which includes the write-up on the back of the jacket, written by a local author in Ottawa, who wasn't aware at the time that her review would be used on my book cover. This was to my preference, because I didn't want to influence her opinion in any way. I had wanted an honest take on my very large book of 770-pages of romping, rollicking fantasy fun with some dark and twisted moments. And despite the trend for novels these days, wherein there is no back-cover write-up, to allow potential readers to get some idea on the story, I went the old-fashioned route, to provide the write-up. Each and every time I sell my novels at fantasy exhibitions, the first thing people do is pick up the novel, and flip it over to read the plot.
My cover journey all began with the original image of the face, found on the website for https://fantasy-art-z.com someone who isn't based in my country of Canada. This is what's so awesome in this modern age, that we as authors are able to develop working relationships with other professionals who can deliver the goods. I didn't necessarily feel compelled to work with a local graphic designer. Design ideas have to reach into you, to make some connection with your sensibility, rather than for them to pitch to you their covers.
Graphic designers these days are expected to handle a lot, to be able to take on new commission requests, to design a cover from scratch, or to be able to present to you a gallery of covers as potential options with the proviso that your requests for changes can be implemented to suit your story. Additionally, a graphic designer worth their salt should be able to deliver to you the final images in 300 dpi and PNG format, to enable you to use the image to print up large banners, posters and other marketing material, as well as to handle the full jacket; what will be used for the final print job.
And it goes beyond this now, given that many authors utilize online publishing sites like Amazon Kindle Direct Publish (Amazon KDP), or IngramSpark and Draft2Digital — all of whom also provide a vehicle to finalize your cover but their options are not quite the same as hiring an independent graphic designer, who can provide one-stop shopping.
In my case, my graphic designer
@fantasy_art_z
had delivered these items:
* JPEG/PNG files of the front facing cover
* JPEG/PNG files of the full-wrap (spine included)
* Media banner (for social networks)
* Stand-up banner (6' x 4'), as per VistaPrint guidelines
* Formatted full-wrap for Amazon KDP specifications
* Animated front cover for social networks
Authors are known to be argumentative. Ha! We argue with ourselves all the time. I am grateful that when I suggest changes to a potential cover design, that my graphic designer isn't afraid to push back, to tell me when I'm wrong. This happened literally weeks back when she had passed on to me a tweaked version of a new cover I'm running with for novel eight (the novel as yet to be finished). I keep the image open on my Desktop every time I work on my newest novel for inspiration. When I had suggested a minor change, having used a filter myself to demonstrate what I was looking for, she came back to disagree with me, from a graphic design perspective and I had to acknowledge immediately that she was right. I'm still waiting for the right time to release a sneak peek of this new cover. It's freaking gorgeous.
Lately, I've read posts by some authors who are afraid to pass on feedback on what they've learned as a fledgling author, because of pushback and criticism. Know that I don't give a tinker's damn what anyone thinks of my opinions, if they choose to behave like a wanker, just for the heck of it. When it comes to my years of experience working with graphic designers, I've learned a lot, and I've paid for my mistakes. Having found one now, at this stage of my writing career, is like discovering a pot of gold, which I don't want to lose.
Last year in 2025, while I was selling my novels at an Anime convention in Ottawa, two local graphic designers came up to my table, mesmerized by my banner. They were scrutinizing the image, and then proceeded to explain to me in graphic designer-ese why my image wasn't made by AI, and why it didn't have AI elements. I wish now that I'd have recorded the discussion, with their permission, because then I wouldn't have forgotten all the salient points. One of them was that the shading on the face wasn't uniform because according to them, this is how AI views generated faces, that they are symmetrical, which we know in the real world isn't the case.
I hope this wee post is of some help to you, to put some pointers on your radar. Bottom line is that it's worth your money to do your research, to understand what you're asking for, or in this case you can always visit the website of my graphic designer to check out her covers. I'm sure you'll find something of interest or you might treat yourself to a special commission. Bear in mind too that whenever you're viewing a novel cover from your desktop computer, the image is backlit, so when you finally see a hardcopy of your novel, printed on paper, the cover may appear slightly darker. Keep this in mind, rather than do what I did, to suggest that the proposed graphic design idea for novel eight might look better with a dark filter. HaHaHa. It didn't! Silly me. 😆
If it's a brilliant cover you're looking to purchase, then it should follow that you need to hire a brilliant graphic designer with mad skills, someone who continues to polish their craft, which is just like writing. Every new book we write, our writing ability gets better. I feel the same applies to covers.
Good luck!
So, before you work with a graphic designer, anyone who has written a novel (non-fiction, fiction) will speak from experience, to know how hard it's been to jump through umpteen hoops to even reach the stage where a novel's interior is ready to be designed, which is to say the guts of the novel: what industry folks would refer to the serif font or book face, and how you'll have to consider the more popular classic choices for the guts of your book, what readers will stare at for the entirety of your novel. This is another blog, in of itself. For now I'm focusing this post on the nuts and bolts of a smashing cover design.
The value of hiring a graphic designer, to wow your readers with an awesome cover image cannot be understated. It's a vital stage. At the outset, let me stress how not all graphic designers are created equal. Some are independent, without having to answer to a design house, while others are represented by design firms, many of which can also be website firms with a dedicated graphic designer and in some cases an entire graphic design team. There are associations too that represent graphic designers. In Canada, the name of one better known association is RGD: Association of Registered Graphic Designers. You can of course shell out a great deal of money to hire a design firm, in possession of a brick and mortar location, nearby where you live, who actively operates online, and who'll be able to handle a lot of elements of your final book publishing stage. I've gone this route, too, in the past. I've had what I'd call a tooth pulling experience; struggling to get what I had paid for, which isn't always guaranteed.
By the time nine years had passed, in completing my seventh novel, I had already started my hunt five years prior, to keep my eyes peeled for potential covers. And, because I have online profiles on a number of social media networks (X, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads and Instagram) I kept my cover search mostly to X and Facebook, as well as to keep my ear to the ground, for other author recommendations, as well as to monitor one FB page called Indie Book Cover Project, where fledging authors and would-be designers will take it upon themselves to design their own cover. There's nothing wrong with this, especially if you're already a graphic designer yourself, who is now writing your first book. I've also gone down this road too, after which I posted my proposed cover design to the Indie Book Cover page on FB, only to discover that a Patricia pile-on was brutal and uncomfortable, from the vitriol of hatred being expressed for my amateur design. Ha! In the end, I assimilated all their comments, and then reached out to another graphic designer who had helped to tweak the cover. This little project of mine wasn't for a new novel release, but rather for an eBook compendium release of my first series of six novels. Each trilogy received the same cover with the designation of Trilogy One and Trilogy Two. All in all, it was an excellent learning experience for me, and one I won't forget.
The best lesson for authors is to understand that you're not a graphic designer.
Allow me to return to the subject at hand. In the end,
@fantasy_art_z
was the ultimate winner, whose brilliant work I had used as the cover for my seventh novel. I'd been watching her work for years, and periodically visiting her personal website (accessible through her bio on X) to scan through her array of fantasy images, broken down into categories like fantasy prints, book covers, T-shirts, music covers and the like until I landed on one image that struck a chord. I saw the face and it instantly made me think of the main character in my seventh novel, Lady Tundra Arctica. I requested only minor changes with regard to the font and my graphic designer ended up taking it upon herself to make additional tweaks, such as the headdress as well as the helmet, all to coordinate with my story.
Below, I present to you the final wrap-around, which includes the write-up on the back of the jacket, written by a local author in Ottawa, who wasn't aware at the time that her review would be used on my book cover. This was to my preference, because I didn't want to influence her opinion in any way. I had wanted an honest take on my very large book of 770-pages of romping, rollicking fantasy fun with some dark and twisted moments. And despite the trend for novels these days, wherein there is no back-cover write-up, to allow potential readers to get some idea on the story, I went the old-fashioned route, to provide the write-up. Each and every time I sell my novels at fantasy exhibitions, the first thing people do is pick up the novel, and flip it over to read the plot.
My cover journey all began with the original image of the face, found on the website for https://fantasy-art-z.com someone who isn't based in my country of Canada. This is what's so awesome in this modern age, that we as authors are able to develop working relationships with other professionals who can deliver the goods. I didn't necessarily feel compelled to work with a local graphic designer. Design ideas have to reach into you, to make some connection with your sensibility, rather than for them to pitch to you their covers.
Graphic designers these days are expected to handle a lot, to be able to take on new commission requests, to design a cover from scratch, or to be able to present to you a gallery of covers as potential options with the proviso that your requests for changes can be implemented to suit your story. Additionally, a graphic designer worth their salt should be able to deliver to you the final images in 300 dpi and PNG format, to enable you to use the image to print up large banners, posters and other marketing material, as well as to handle the full jacket; what will be used for the final print job.
And it goes beyond this now, given that many authors utilize online publishing sites like Amazon Kindle Direct Publish (Amazon KDP), or IngramSpark and Draft2Digital — all of whom also provide a vehicle to finalize your cover but their options are not quite the same as hiring an independent graphic designer, who can provide one-stop shopping.
In my case, my graphic designer
@fantasy_art_z
had delivered these items:
* JPEG/PNG files of the front facing cover
* JPEG/PNG files of the full-wrap (spine included)
* Media banner (for social networks)
* Stand-up banner (6' x 4'), as per VistaPrint guidelines
* Formatted full-wrap for Amazon KDP specifications
* Animated front cover for social networks
Authors are known to be argumentative. Ha! We argue with ourselves all the time. I am grateful that when I suggest changes to a potential cover design, that my graphic designer isn't afraid to push back, to tell me when I'm wrong. This happened literally weeks back when she had passed on to me a tweaked version of a new cover I'm running with for novel eight (the novel as yet to be finished). I keep the image open on my Desktop every time I work on my newest novel for inspiration. When I had suggested a minor change, having used a filter myself to demonstrate what I was looking for, she came back to disagree with me, from a graphic design perspective and I had to acknowledge immediately that she was right. I'm still waiting for the right time to release a sneak peek of this new cover. It's freaking gorgeous.
Lately, I've read posts by some authors who are afraid to pass on feedback on what they've learned as a fledgling author, because of pushback and criticism. Know that I don't give a tinker's damn what anyone thinks of my opinions, if they choose to behave like a wanker, just for the heck of it. When it comes to my years of experience working with graphic designers, I've learned a lot, and I've paid for my mistakes. Having found one now, at this stage of my writing career, is like discovering a pot of gold, which I don't want to lose.
Last year in 2025, while I was selling my novels at an Anime convention in Ottawa, two local graphic designers came up to my table, mesmerized by my banner. They were scrutinizing the image, and then proceeded to explain to me in graphic designer-ese why my image wasn't made by AI, and why it didn't have AI elements. I wish now that I'd have recorded the discussion, with their permission, because then I wouldn't have forgotten all the salient points. One of them was that the shading on the face wasn't uniform because according to them, this is how AI views generated faces, that they are symmetrical, which we know in the real world isn't the case.
I hope this wee post is of some help to you, to put some pointers on your radar. Bottom line is that it's worth your money to do your research, to understand what you're asking for, or in this case you can always visit the website of my graphic designer to check out her covers. I'm sure you'll find something of interest or you might treat yourself to a special commission. Bear in mind too that whenever you're viewing a novel cover from your desktop computer, the image is backlit, so when you finally see a hardcopy of your novel, printed on paper, the cover may appear slightly darker. Keep this in mind, rather than do what I did, to suggest that the proposed graphic design idea for novel eight might look better with a dark filter. HaHaHa. It didn't! Silly me. 😆
If it's a brilliant cover you're looking to purchase, then it should follow that you need to hire a brilliant graphic designer with mad skills, someone who continues to polish their craft, which is just like writing. Every new book we write, our writing ability gets better. I feel the same applies to covers.
Good luck!
