[RobScottNorton]

I'm planning the release of my next few books and am pricing up my cover designer.

The cover designer I like working with charges extra for paperbook covers and audio covers.

I'm at the early stages of my author career with only one book available so far, and few sales.

Do you think it's worth saving the money on cover design at this stage and just focus on ebooks?

 

[David J. Rollins]

I'm sure you will get many different answers here, but my suggestion would be to have only the E-book cover made, but with enough bleed to use it to make the front part of a CreateSpace cover. You can then make the back and spine yourself for free through the CreateSpace Cover Creator. That way you can limit your costs until you start making more money. The market seems like it is moving more and more toward E-books, particularly with new authors. 

That said, I do like to generate paperback versions via CreateSpace, since that allows me to reference the page count from that version on my Kindle listing. I'm not sure how Amazon auto-generates those page counts, but they always seem so low to me.

Good luck with your books.

 

[Eric T Knight]

Though I've been writing for a long time, I'm new to the promotional world and have very few sales so whatever I say you should probably take with a very large grain of salt. Anyway, I don't really feel like it's worth spending a lot of money on a cover. I feel like that was more of an issue back in the day when people shopped in bookstores but now for the most part when I look at a book for the first time I don't really look at the cover much. Mainly because it's pretty small. I'm much more interested in the blurb and what people who have reviewed the book have to say.

Anyway, my (inexperienced) approach is to spend my money promoting the book rather than on an expensive cover. That said, I don't want something that looks amateurish either. I buy a high quality picture off shutterstock that I feel is eye-catching and somewhat evokes the mood of the book. Then I make a complete cover, front and back, on Publisher and upload it to Create Space.

Best of luck with your writing!
Eric

 

[ShaneJeffery]

Definitely grab the paperback. I don't know anything about audio though...

The thing is, if you don't sell it seems like a waste of money. Maybe your next seven novels don't sell.

Obviously, that's your fault and you're doing something wrong. This isn't a luck game as much as you might believe.

But the thing is if you do start selling, you'll want those paperbacks there. In future. If you're hard up on money, sure, you can put it off. But that doesn't mean NEVER doing it. Maybe you can't afford it this month. Maybe you can afford it down the road. It should still be done if you believe your books will sell one day.

 

[Rick Gualtieri]

I'd say go for the paperback cover as well.  In the past I went with the front facing ebook covers only and have lived to regret it because 1) the cover creator in Createspace is simply no match for a professionally designed spine and back and 2) My own meager photoshop skills were okay in trying to make up the difference but ultimately don't compare to what a competent designer can do.

The difference between all the above is simple: It's the difference between looking at a so-so spine on your book shelf vs. something that wouldn't look out of place if you saw it on the shelf of a major bookstore.

 

[Gina Black]

I buy the whole cover (front and back) when I buy a cover. Unfortunately my paperback sales haven't justified my having done so, but I do the interior myself (so it doesn't cost anything). I really like having the print copies to sell locally or give away.

 

[Melody Simmons]

The professionally designed double-spread covers always look more aesthetically pleasing but if you want to save a few bucks you can use the free online cover generator that Createspace offers.  You upload the ebook cover and add in the back text online.