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a polite but firm intervention
Your cousin does graphic design for a credit union. Your cousin should not be designing your novel cover.
Cover design is a genre-fluent specialty. A great branding designer might still be wrong for a novel because the rules are different. We talk about when free is the most expensive choice, what a professional cover designer actually does, and the budget tier-list for indie authors who need to look like they meant it. Spending $250-800 on a cover is one of the highest-ROI investments an indie author makes. The cousin discount costs you sales for years.
Cover designer budget tier-list
| Tier | Budget | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-made | $50-150 | Genre fiction with common tropes |
| Custom indie pro | $300-800 | Series, established voice |
| Premium custom | $1000+ | Trad-curious, prestige projects |
| Cousin free | $0 | Never. Truly never. |
How to hire the right cover designer
- Ask for genre-specific portfolio examples.
- Verify their covers rank in the genre.
- Read their FAQ. Skip anyone who isn't transparent about process.
- Get a contract. Specify rights, revisions, deadline.
- Pay in milestones. Half down, half on delivery.
- Trust their genre fluency over your taste.
The cousin discount costs you sales for the life of the book. The professional design pays for itself in the first quarter. The math has never been close.
— L.A. Walton, The Book Maven
From the Maven Catalog
- Master Course — Hiring Cover Designers
- eBook — Free Is Not Cheap
- Toolkit — Cover Vendor Toolkit
- Planner — Cover Project Planner
Hire the genre-fluent pro. Pay the rate. Trust the process. Your cousin still loves you. They're just not your cover designer. Important distinction.