🖼️ Getting the artwork

Where the picture comes from: AI art that does not look like AI art, stock images and what their licenses allow, resolution that survives print, and when to hire someone.

AI cover art that does not look like AI cover art

Readers have learned the tells, and nearly all of them come from shipping the first result. Here is what gives a generated cover away, and how to use the image as raw art instead of as a finished cover.

Stock images: what the license actually lets you do

Royalty-free does not mean free, and it does not mean unrestricted. Here is what the license on a stock image actually permits, which restrictions catch authors out, and what to keep on file.

Resolution: why a good-looking image prints badly

Pixels are not a size, they are a supply. An image is big enough only in relation to the inches it has to fill, which is why a picture that looks perfect on a screen can come back soft from the printer.

Hire a cover designer, or do it yourself?

Both answers are right for somebody. The decision turns on your genre, your visual confidence and whether the book is one of a series — not on how much software you own.

Pairing typefaces on a cover

Most covers need one typeface, some need two, almost none need three. How to tell which you are, how to pick a second face that earns its place, and how to set both so they hold up at thumbnail size.

Ready to build the cover?

The Cover Maker lays out your front, spine and back at your real trim size and page count, and exports a print-ready PDF for KDP, IngramSpark, Lulu or B&N Press. Start your cover →