Book Cover Design Services - The Best Choice for KDP Authors

Book Cover Design Services - The Best Choice for KDP Authors

Are you an Amazon KDP author looking for book cover design services? This post goes over the 3 major types of services available to you and recommends one based on key factors.

Book Cover Design Services - Your Best Option

Today, the best type of cover design service for Amazon KDP authors is AI cover design. You can get a custom, bestseller-quality cover in just seconds, for a very affordable price, without needing any graphic-design experience.

​Though several AI tools for cover design are available, the best is Book Leopard, since its AI is specialized for book marketing. You can learn more and try the the software here: 

Visit Book Leopard

Book Cover Design Services - 3 Major Types

As mentioned, your best option for a cover nowadays is an AI cover generator. The 2 other major kinds of book cover design services are book cover templates and hired graphic design - either from freelancers or hybrid-publishing companies.

Here's how the 3 major service types compare to each other across key aspects:  

Cover Aspect	Cover Template	Hired Graphic Design	AI Cover
Uniqueness	A lot of templates are available to anyone, meaning many books can have a cover almost identical to yours, which is bad	Fully unique, unless the designer happens to be using a template, which can happen	Fully unique
Drag-and-drop work	You have to update the design template for your book, which can require quite a lot of work via drag and drop	None - but if you want changes, you'll have to wait days to weeks to get them	None - if you want changes to your AI cover, just type them and get a new version in seconds
Customization	You can modify your template, but only somewhat, limiting your ability to customize your design	Fully customizable - but changes can take days to weeks	Fully customizable - tell the tool exactly what to change and it'll do it in seconds
Series Consistency	Series covers should be unique, yet have a similar overall look as each other, which is very hard to do with a bunch of different templates	Yes - but this might add time to your project	Yes - just upload an existing series cover and your new cover will be given the same overall look, with a unique concept
Speed	Though cover templates already exist, updating them can take up to a half hour, maybe more	Covers typically take several days to several weeks, with more days to weeks for each revision request	Create a cover image in just seconds
Cost	Typically, you need to pay for a monthly subscription to a design service to access its templates, which can cost over $100/year, or you can purchase an exclusive template for about $100	Services that can create a cover of bestseller quality can cost at least $500, with very few available for less than $300	No subscription necessary - just pay a one-time fee of $49 to use AI cover design, plus a lot of other book-marketing features
Quality	Certain templates can be high quality, but many aren't, requiring you  to spend a lot of time evaluating options	Bestseller quality is possible, but typically for at least several hundred dollars	Bestseller quality

Book Cover Design Services - Cover Templates - Summary

Book cover templates are more affordable than hired graphic design, however, a good, exclusive template is still about $100. Within a half hour, you should be able to finalize your template, however, you may have to do some work, dragging and dropping image layers, plus, your level of customization is extremely limited.

To learn more, see how Book Leopard is a Canva cover design alternative, Adobe Express cover design alternative, and Book Brush alternative, three tools that use cover templates. 

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Book Cover Design Services - Hired Graphic Design - Summary

A low-cost option with this service can take several days to weeks, plus lead to a cover you don't like, requiring you to spend much more time on revisions. A higher-cost option can lead to a good cover, but you'll have to spend at least $300, sometimes over $500, and you'll still need to wait several days to weeks for each round of design.

To learn more, see how Book Leopard compares to the freelance directory Reedsy and the hybrid-publishing company BookBaby.

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Book Cover Design Services - AI Cover Generator - Summary

This is clearly your best option for creating a book cover. With Book Leopard, you can generate a cover of bestseller quality in just seconds, for only $49. The image is fully customizable - any changes you request appear in just seconds.

Plus, unlike with your purchase of a cover template or a hired design service, your Book Leopard purchase will get you a lot more features for book marketing, such as AI generators for a description, KDP categories, and KDP keywords. 

How to Use Book Leopard for Your Cover and More

​To create an excellent cover, and a lot more marketing material, with Book Leopard, just follow these steps:

1. Visit Book Leopard and sign up
2. Tell the tool what your book is about (either type/paste in a description or upload your manuscript) 
3. Unlock all premium features by buying a $49 premium credit
4. Have a look at the custom cover concepts the site recommends - choose one or request updates
5. Confirm the text you'd like to go on your cover, and whether you'd like to give it a series design
6. Get a custom cover image from the book cover design software in just seconds - download it or request updates - plus a description, KDP categories, BISAC categories, KDP keywords, a subtitle, Amazon Ads text, and Amazon Ads targeting entries for categories, keywords, and ASINs

 
Your downloadable cover will be a JPG file, automatically formatted for direct upload to Amazon KDP and other platforms. Easily copy and paste your other marketing material into KDP and other platforms.