I posted on here about two weeks ago after starting a design for my book. I went with Getcovers because I'm in no rush and even the pricier $35 option is dirt cheap. I even added the $5 hardcover addon. Probably didn't need it but no matter. I wanted something official-looking that I could print a few copies for friends/family before I decide to publish. Many people I know hate reading on a tablet/computer/phone. They enjoy only physical books. I also wanted to give some information on the process and what to expect.

As a disclaimer, I have aphantasia. I can't picture things in my head the way normal people can. I have a very hard time describing what I want because I'm just not a creative person physically. I can create a fantasy in a book (and what I hope is a wonderful story) because I use memories/found information to do my world-building. It's probably why my first book is an urban fantasy, which made world-building much easier. Just about everything in my book is based on an inspiration of something. Characters, especially.

What to expect

This can be a lengthy process. Each revision took 3-4 days unless they were minor/small. Small revisions took around 1-2 days. All in all, I placed my order on January 15th and finalized my cover today. To be honest, it's not exactly what I expected but it's much better than what I initially started with. At one point after 3 days they got back to me saying they couldn't find a suitable option for what I was looking for and gave me a small list of photos that did not work for me. I found one on my own which became my final cover model. The guys are not artists in the traditional sense. They do not design their own work. They work solely off stock photos from either depositphotos or shutterstock. These guys are Photoshop manipulators.

Quality

The quality of the work is going to vary from artist to artist. I gave mine the benefit of the doubt after the atrocious first cover he did, and he slowly improved so I didn't ask for a different artist. I would put the quality somewhere between amateur and moderate in quality. I think some get lucky and get an artist near the end of their tenure and they have much more professional looking work. I heard those guys move on to their parent company, Miblart. Mine was obviously not incredibly experienced. Though his work was decent enough. At the end, I feel I got my money's worth and then some. It just took about 5 revisions.

Things you need to know before you go with GetCovers

1. You need to know exactly what you want. The more complicated the cover, the less likely to get what you want. Do NOT ask them to design something without any direction simply based on a description of your book. I HIGHLY suggest minimalistic type of covers, which they definitely seem to do better at. But if you are looking to have a bunch of models and such with intricate designs, the cover can easily go off the deep end. I highly suggest not using a person as a main focus on the cover unless you find a photo that just screams perfect.
2. Be patient and ask for revisions. Their entire premise is offering unlimited revisions. And they do. It can take quite a few to get something youre happy with. In the end, I was satisfied with the cover. My initial thought was, "it looks like what I asked for, but not what I thought it would be" if that makes sense. They tend to have a very literal design perspective and don't have an artists eye so they don't take many design liberties (at least in the right direction). YOU need to be the artist, for which I certainly am not.
3. Give them as much direction as possible. Get on MSPaint and make some shitty stick figure design to give them a better direction. I swear it will make all of the difference. I spent 20mins on Paint showing a change I wanted and it took the designer 1 day to get back to me.
4. When you're filling out the form, fill out everything. They're just going to ask you to answer them anyway even though the form says it's optional.
5. You're going to do most of the legwork in the design process. You're going to hunt down photos, find photos for a revision, and design stuff in paint or make notes in paint and send back to them. This isnt a "heres what I want, make me something pretty" like you would with an artist.
6. I cant express this enough, but you will save a lot of time if you don't use people unless they are simple silhouettes or background characters.
7. This is a foreign company. The person you communicate with translates your request to the designer. Because of this, things may get lost in translation as you dont communicate directly with the designer. It's one of the reasons you get unlimited revisions.

Rating

• Quality 5/10
• Speed 2/10
• Experience 7/10
• Satisfaction 7/10
• Price 9/10
• Overall 6/10

I think they are exactly what you expect for the price. You'll get a decent book cover as long as you are patient and take advantage of their free revisions. If you keep the cover to a more minimalistic tone, you may fare much better. Using models gets tricky unless you find the perfect one. If you need a lot of manipulations/changes to the model it can go off the rails. I find the work they do with manipulating the models head, arms, hands, etc, tends to be awkward and not well done. I highly suggest them if you have the time and patience, and generally know exactly what you want. I also suggest heading to those two stock photo websites and finding exactly what you want before you even contact them. I think they are a great option if you're looking for a cheap and easy cover, but I would steer clear if you're looking for something unique, complicated, and professional.

If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them.