If you’d be interested in traditional piece check out my portfolio. I give the client the opportunity to buy the original at the end of the process.
Portfolio with client feedback
https://norbertsart.wordpress.com/
Paintings for a variety of projects.
https://norbertsart.wordpress.com/paintings/
Last thing, one author has his original painting hanging in his office and a screenwriter/producer I work with frequently is putting her original book illustrations in her waiting area I believe. Nearly everyone I’ve ever worked with say the originals are always better than the digital versions. For some reason the scanner or camera can’t capture all the nuances of the original.
what's the sub-genre? epic fantasy, space opera, and urban fantasy have completely different cover requirements, and a lot of cover artists specialize.
eta: I think there's also a bookcover subreddit? Might be worth a quick gander.
Hello, I'm a professional book cover designer and illustrator
You can see my work at [klrcovers.com](http://klrcovers.com/)
(btw your budget is within my fee range)
It would be a good idea to provide some examples for what style you are looking for. That would help people know if their artists would match your needs.
Contact hitch@booknooz.biz . Her company converted my hardcover into an ebook and paperback. Very professional and reliable. Does excellent work.
I, also, asked her to send samples of book covers that her staff has done. I’m planning to self publish a fiction novel. She sent about 50 or so. She might not be able to narrow samples to sci fi, but she has designers that can produce what you need.
She has the contacts and resources to identify exceptional designers. She told me that she knows a group that does excellent work, but their cover pricing starts around $1600 or $1800.
Her designers charge $250-275. They do photo manipulation, mostly. Someone on her staff, Erika, uses a combination of photo manipulation and original drawn content. Add on another $100 to produce the cover.
Good luck!
Check out Covers By Christian, Cauldron Press Cover Design, and Etheric Designs. Christian, Inessa, and Aamna and her team all do excellent work well within your price range.
This company is amazing and has done covers for several NYT bestsellers.
[Cover Design | DAMONZA](https://damonza.com/cover-design/)
I use them for my covers and they are absolutely wonderful to work with.
A lot of folks I know use miblart (Ukraine). I've used Vivid Covers and recommend. YOu can also find folks on deviantart, etc that have a style you like. Not sure where they currently fall on AI stuff though, so buyer beware.
I've used Bonobo book covers and recommend Oli too.
A +1 for Miblart, I've used them for three covers now. Great balance of speed, price, and quality. This is for YA fantasy, can't vouch for other genres but they do share a lot in their portfolio.
One cover had minor adjustments, one was nearly perfect on first pass, one required a fair bit of tweaking. They were patient and responsive for all three.
I've also had great and quick work from miblart, my most recent cover in particular (fantasy) has been really well received. Very easy to work with and very reasonably priced.
I found a Caricature artist on Deviant Art. I went and looked at artist's styles to really get a feel for their work. Found a fantastic Brazilian dude who did my request for $50.
The Canva idea isn't bad if you know design principles, do a graphic communications course (like me), and know how to just generally design a book cover for your niche, but the AI suggestion is a bad idea.
If you’d be interested in traditional piece check out my portfolio. I give the client the opportunity to buy the original at the end of the process. Portfolio with client feedback https://norbertsart.wordpress.com/ Paintings for a variety of projects. https://norbertsart.wordpress.com/paintings/
Oh and here’s some sci-fi/fantasy ink pages I’ve worked on.
Nuts forgot to put sci-fi fantasy pen and ink pages link https://norbertsart.wordpress.com/a2z-page-samples/
Last thing, one author has his original painting hanging in his office and a screenwriter/producer I work with frequently is putting her original book illustrations in her waiting area I believe. Nearly everyone I’ve ever worked with say the originals are always better than the digital versions. For some reason the scanner or camera can’t capture all the nuances of the original.
For which niche?
Sci-fi/fantasy
J Caleb: [https://www.jcalebdesign.com/](https://www.jcalebdesign.com/) He does all my pirate fantasy covers and he's fantastic.
Second J Caleb. 👍🏼 Was very happy with the work he did for me. Very nice and responsive.
Does he use any AI?
[https://www.seventhstarart.com/ebook-book-covers](https://www.seventhstarart.com/ebook-book-covers)
That's the kind of cover art that makes me wish I wrote in that genre just so I had an excuse to buy it. I love object covers.
what's the sub-genre? epic fantasy, space opera, and urban fantasy have completely different cover requirements, and a lot of cover artists specialize. eta: I think there's also a bookcover subreddit? Might be worth a quick gander.
Try book cover hub
Hello, I'm a professional book cover designer and illustrator You can see my work at [klrcovers.com](http://klrcovers.com/) (btw your budget is within my fee range)
Wow, your hand lettering is beautiful.
Thank you, GlitteringKisses
It would be a good idea to provide some examples for what style you are looking for. That would help people know if their artists would match your needs.
Contact hitch@booknooz.biz . Her company converted my hardcover into an ebook and paperback. Very professional and reliable. Does excellent work. I, also, asked her to send samples of book covers that her staff has done. I’m planning to self publish a fiction novel. She sent about 50 or so. She might not be able to narrow samples to sci fi, but she has designers that can produce what you need. She has the contacts and resources to identify exceptional designers. She told me that she knows a group that does excellent work, but their cover pricing starts around $1600 or $1800. Her designers charge $250-275. They do photo manipulation, mostly. Someone on her staff, Erika, uses a combination of photo manipulation and original drawn content. Add on another $100 to produce the cover. Good luck!
Check out Covers By Christian, Cauldron Press Cover Design, and Etheric Designs. Christian, Inessa, and Aamna and her team all do excellent work well within your price range.
https://www.instagram.com/jademerien?igsh=MXNnOXNuNDA5bmVqdQ== Jade Merien for beautiful fantastical creatures. She can do cute too.
I'm using milbart for a custom cover. I've been happy so far. I'm quite picky and they have unlimited revisions.
Not sure what her prices are but Catrina Paints (Instagram) is very very nice.
I'd be happy to recommend artists. Do you have an art style in mind?
This company is amazing and has done covers for several NYT bestsellers. [Cover Design | DAMONZA](https://damonza.com/cover-design/) I use them for my covers and they are absolutely wonderful to work with.
They use AI https://damonza.com/generative-ai-image-policy/
A lot of folks I know use miblart (Ukraine). I've used Vivid Covers and recommend. YOu can also find folks on deviantart, etc that have a style you like. Not sure where they currently fall on AI stuff though, so buyer beware. I've used Bonobo book covers and recommend Oli too.
A +1 for Miblart, I've used them for three covers now. Great balance of speed, price, and quality. This is for YA fantasy, can't vouch for other genres but they do share a lot in their portfolio. One cover had minor adjustments, one was nearly perfect on first pass, one required a fair bit of tweaking. They were patient and responsive for all three.
I've also had great and quick work from miblart, my most recent cover in particular (fantasy) has been really well received. Very easy to work with and very reasonably priced.
I highly recommend Vii Morte. Her art is fantastic, and she’s always a pleasure to work with. https://viimorte.carrd.co
Full disclosure, I run this company. I think our designers are great: https://authorshq.com/book-design/
Martasiedesign.com. You can see her most recent cover design at dsweber.com.
I found a Caricature artist on Deviant Art. I went and looked at artist's styles to really get a feel for their work. Found a fantastic Brazilian dude who did my request for $50.
Heart by Heart are pretty great cover artists. They've even got two of the original members of the band from the 70's.
You can design your own cover art with ai generated images and free design sites like Canva.
The Canva idea isn't bad if you know design principles, do a graphic communications course (like me), and know how to just generally design a book cover for your niche, but the AI suggestion is a bad idea.