#entrepreurial

“The novel contains scenes of violence, mostly involving shotguns. A tormented but attractive, dark-eyed young woman of Italian descent provides a romantic twist...”

“The cover should immediately inform any potential reader that the novel is serious literary fiction, but with strong commercial elements (suspense, violence, desire).”

“Underlying literary themes include dysfunctional family life, the challenges of a May-December marriage...”

“There is a narrow escape from an attacking bull.”

“The stunning new book by the author of Someone to Kill”

The reward, if my design won, would be $435.00.  I was surprised, no, amazed, by how numerous and labor-intensive the submissions were despite the low fee.  There was a lot of collage, mostly in Photoshop. Researching the photography alone would have taken a bit of time. Creating 4-6 versions even more so. Now, this is the obvious point in the post where I will tell you that the average fee for designing a book jacket ranges between $1400.00 and $2000.00. If there is artwork from an illustrator or photographer, the fees and rights are additional and are paid by the publisher (or the author if there is no publisher.) I own the copyright to most the book designs that I’ve made. I am paid when the designs are re-used in different editions or by foreigh publishers. I usually read the text for the books which means I work on roughly 45-55 books a year. A little quick math reveals that I make around 90,000.00 a year. If I were to “win” the same number of book cover design contests at 99designs, I would not make a living wage.

It is my strong belief that people value what they pay for.  On the descriptive copy of 99designs they say they are a service for “...savvy clients who need design projects completed in a timely fashion without the usual risk or cost associated with professional design.” Huh? I have had clients for 20-25 years. We have both benefited because we are equally invested in the goal and the outcome. Besides, these are not life or death matters. Design problems are usually solvable through conversations not exit strategies.