Using Crowdsourcing for Book Covers?

[Erron]

Not sure crowdsourcing is quite the right term for it,  but I have in the past used outfits like https://bookcover.designcrowd.com/ for logos and website headers. That worked really well, so I'm just wondering if anyone has experience of using them or similar (99 Designs and the like) for book covers? If so, what was your experience? Do they supply everything you need to publish through Amazon, Ingram's etc.?

[A. N. Onymous]

I have purchased a couple of pre-mades for two of my books through this mob...https://thebookcoverdesigner.com
They have plenty to choose from at reasonable prices and once you order one you can communicate directly with the designer to add paperback covers, banners or ads for extra $. Look at the cover designers we have here before you go there. I know we have some pretty great designers here already.

[Erron]

I have purchased a couple of pre-mades for two of my books through this mob...https://thebookcoverdesigner.com
They have plenty to choose from at reasonable prices and once you order one you can communicate directly with the designer to add paperback covers, banners or ads for extra $. Look at the cover designers we have here before you go there. I know we have some pretty great designers here already.

Thanks Phoenix. I'm not after pre-mades, but I'll do a bit of digging for the designers in the forum.

[ashleycapes]

On a different forum I saw a writer ask for feedback on some artists he'd found via 99designs:

https://99designs.ca/book-cover-design/contests/scifi-fantasy-book-cover-649796/poll/gkxt9l/vote?utm_source=voting_app&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=voting

Can't recall the pricing etc but he seemed pretty happy (I'm fairly certain he ended up choosing the first design btw).

[ragdoll]

The 99 designs process can give some amazing results (caveat, only what I have seen when people were asking for feedback on which design to choose). But understanding how the pricing works is still a maze that keeps me from considering it for my own covers. You don't just pay the person you select, as a sort of understand it, you pay the next two some sort of "also ran" money. And I think you kind of double pay the person you select.

See...maze!
If you decide to pursue that option, just really really really make sure you understand the payment structure before you start.
The upside, however, is that you get some great options without being on an equally good artist's waiting list to get a cover done (not uncommon for them to be booked up to a year out).




 

[Melody Simmons]

From a designer point of view Crowdsourcing is unethical - only one artist gets paid in the end after hours of work.  Also what happens on 99 Designs is that once someone posts a cover that gets a lot of votes, other designers quickly jump in and make variations of the same thing - and often the guy who originally came up with the idea gets nothing whilst one of the imitators wins. 

Anyhow there are some designers who seem to be into that sort of thing, otherwise the site would not exist...some authors have been happy with the results they got, others not.  I guess it all depends on who responds to your job.  A bit risky in that way.

[ragdoll]

From a designer point of view Crowdsourcing is unethical - only one artist gets paid in the end after hours of work.  Also what happens on 99 Designs is that once someone posts a cover that gets a lot of votes, other designers quickly jump in and make variations of the same thing - and often the guy who originally came up with the idea gets nothing whilst one of the imitators wins. 

Anyhow there are some designers who seem to be into that sort of thing, otherwise the site would not exist...some authors have been happy with the results they got, others not.  I guess it all depends on who responds to your job.  A bit risky in that way.

Can you confirm or otherwise clarify: "a bit risky" because you are committed to paying something even if none of the designs work for you?

[Erron]

I've used DesignCrowd in the past and been happy with them, but haven't used them for book covers. On the basic level you don't pay unless you're happy to select on of the offered designs. In theory you get more if you commit to spending money at the project start. And yes, it is hard on individual designers, but the brutal reality is we have all been commoditized in this Globalized world.