There are four ways that I'm aware of to get a book cover, each with a progressively higher risk of turning potential readers away.

1. Hire a professional artist or designer

This is the gold standard. You work with a legitimate artist who listens to your feedback, offers concepts, and ultimately creates a cover that feels intentional and exciting—something worthy of wrapping around your words.

2. Buy a pre-made cover

Pre-made covers are designed in advance and sold to authors as-is. You add your title and author name, and you’re ready for booksellers. This option is more affordable and convenient, but it can feel less personal or distinctive.

3. Design the cover yourself 

This is where things start to get risky. A homemade cover is more likely to turn readers away than a bad review. Most writers aren’t trained designers, and even those who are often struggle because they’re too close to the material to create a cover that sells rather than simply represents the story.

4. Use AI-generated art

This is where things truly fall apart. Many artists consider AI-generated covers unethical, arguing that AI is trained on existing artwork without consent and cannot genuinely create from nothing. Instead, it synthesizes millions of references, raising serious concerns about originality, authorship, and trust.

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For lack of money and, arguably, good sense... our journey begins with Option #3: The Self-Designed Cover.

Circa 2019, armed with Canva and an expiring Photoshop subscription from a former job, I attempted to create what I thought was a simple but respectable book cover for my very first self-published, digital-only book: Xandon and the King’s Scepter.

The Covers

2019

I had a concept image: a scepter, the title, and a red-and-gold color palette... simple and, admittedly, a bit ugly. It’s worth noting that the scepter itself was a drawing I did, based directly on the description from within the pages of the book.

The second concept leaned heavily on altered clipart: an iconic X for Xandon from a sword and scepter crossed, and the font I immediately fell in love with and that I’d go on to use. It worked, but the final result felt too clean. Too simple. 

Enter Photoshop: a vast tool of amazing abilities that I had absolutely no idea how to use. Say hello to the painted effect… (-_-)

In my mind, the cover art now looked created rather than cobbled together from spare parts in Canva.

And that was it. That was my cover for a few years—the digital-only release of Xandon and the King’s Scepter on Kindle. I knew it wasn’t perfect, and I knew I’d have to revisit it for a wider paperback release. What I really wanted was an image of a young hero on the cover—but I didn’t trust my own artistic abilities enough to attempt it on my own.

2024

At first, I tried doing a few sketches, all of which turned out terrible. Then I found a stock photo of a young boy holding up a sword and thought the pose was pretty good. I copied it into a silhouette using an iPad and Apple Pencil in Procreate.

I moved this silhouette into Canva, added some borders and a tag line. 

It was better. I kept the same color palette and font and tried to add a bit of magical flair, but it still wasn’t quite there. I knew that to get what I really wanted, I was going to have to draw it myself and not trace a stock photo...

2025

The major problem I kept running into was drawing a body that felt age-appropriate for the main character, Xandon, who is twelve years old in the story. Most of my sketches looked like young men’s bodies, not a young boy.

2026

Finally, after a lot of trial and error, feedback from a friend, and a few drawing tutorials, I was able to visualize Xandon the way I’d always wanted him to appear on the cover.

So here’s a sneak preview of the upcoming wide-release cover for Xandon and the King’s Scepter.

The flavor text and blurb aren’t finalized yet, but the artwork is.

Keep in mind, this is the sad journey of a self-published writer making his own covers. 

~ Without a doubt, a paid artist could have created something amazing far faster and with far fewer failures than I have here. ~

Still, I think we can normalize failure as part of the process of making something better, while also acknowledging the lack of resources I had at the time—limitations that, ironically, still came with more tools than most authors had even ten years ago.

I’m really looking forward to designing Book Two’s cover... and by looking forward to, I mean absolutely terrified.  (ㆆ _ ㆆ)

Thanks for joining me on this misadventure.

* * * 

Be on the lookout for Xandon and the King’s Scepter, returning this year in a wider release, including paperback.

And if you’re a fan of YA horror, keep an eye out for The Briqueville Manor Girl, also coming out this year.

I hope you're enjoying my blog! :)

See you again soon!