Don’t judge a book by its cover? Yeah, right.

The difference between a sale and a fail is the front of your book. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered—literally. The power of storytelling mixed with the beauty of art: that’s stunning book cover design. Whether it’s cookbook or crime thriller, our design community will create a brilliant cover that stands out on Amazon or the shelves of your local bookshop.
 
Get all this with your book cover design:

Multiple designers (who find you)

Our entire global design community will have access to your contest and will send you all sorts of creative design ideas, unique to your book.
Everything you need feature highlighted
by Cross the Lime

Ready-to-go files and total freedom

Your book cover design comes with production-ready files that you can hand off to a printer or e-book publisher. Plus, the copyright is all yours.
10+ designers feature highlighted
by Martis Lupus

Satisfaction, guaranteed

We’ve got your back every step of the way. Don’t like your cover design options? You get 100% of your money back. It’s that simple.
100% money-back guarantee feature highlighted
by pmo

How a book cover design contest works

Create a design brief.

1. Tell us what you want

Our interactive creative brief makes it simple to describe your design challenge and set your budget.

Pick your winning design.

2. Get dozens of book cover designs

Our global community of professional designers present their ideas. You provide feedback.

Get dozens of designs.

3. Pick your favorite

Seven days later, choose your winning book cover. It's like picking your favorite child.

Mystery to memoir, we’ve covered ‘em all.

US$749
Age: over 25, any gender or location. Audience is anyone who has lost someone who loved them, positively influenced the
25
entries
10
designers
US$529
Ages 25+, both Male and Female, Any location
63
entries
10
designers
US$1,799
Young people facing obstacles in their lives and finding themselves struggling. My story is intended to motivate those w
117
entries
22
designers
US$499
Un libro de reflexion sobre la urgente necesidad que tiene el ser humano de superarse asimismo con base en el cumplim...
100
entries
24
designers
US$329
Personas entre 25-55 años, que viven en América Latina y España, que quieren mejorar sus finanzas personales de forma co
201
entries
35
designers
US$1,799
Those that have lost a spouse
83
entries
27
designers
We saved a spot for your Book Cover Contest.
Get started now
US$529
- Parents/family members of people who plan to attend college - High school students - College students - Non-traditi
85
entries
13
designers
US$199
Adults, both men and women
63
entries
21
designers
US$799
Christian’s
81
entries
15
designers
US$199
- Geography: US & UK - Age: 20-35 - Profession: Job where they have to present their results regularly (e.g. project
75
entries
17
designers
US$199
Black women, all ages
38
entries
17
designers
US$1,319
Baby Boomers of both sexes. This is a Boston book through and through, so the regional flavor will have a local audience
207
entries
33
designers
Olivia Wildenstein book cover design
The Masterpieces book cover design
by creativesoul31
I want my designs framed!
I had no clue what I wanted and that was one of the reasons I used 99designs: I wanted ideas! The quality of designs far exceeded my expectations.

101
entries
24
designers
Check out our Book cover customer reviews (4.9 average from 743 ratings)

Bad-ass book cover design, no matter your budget.

We read your mind, and we’ve got the perfect book cover package for you. Whatever you need, we’ve got you covered with fast, high-quality design. Prices exclude Sales Tax.

Bronze
US$299
Silver
US$499
Gold
US$799
Platinum
US$1,199
Design concepts (approx.)
Design concepts (approx.)
30
60
90
60
100% money-back guarantee
100% money-back guarantee
Full copyright ownership
Full copyright ownership
Mid & Top Level designers only
Mid & Top Level designers only
Top Level designers only
Top Level designers only
Dedicated manager
Dedicated manager
Prioritized support
Prioritized support

Need complete cover-to-cover design? We got it.

We can design your entire book from front to back. Get custom covers, interior book design, illustration, publishing tools and more!
design by Iva23

Your book cover design FAQs, answered.

Everything you need to move to production. Your cover design will be uploaded in the correct formats to send to a printer or be submitted to an online publishing platform (or both). 

Specifically, your winning designer will deliver a production-ready Adobe Illustrator file, Adobe Photoshop file, PDF file or EPS file. They will also supply visual mockups in PNG or JPG format for use on the web.
 
Plus, you’ll get the full legal copyright, so the design will be all yours.
Yes. If you have any specific photography or images that need to be included on your book cover design, please submit them to designers with your brief.

Unless you request otherwise, your designer may also use stock images (purchased from a third party) in your design. If a designer uses stock art in a design, they’ll tell you which images they are and use watermarked versions of them in their entries. Once you choose the winning design, you’ll need to purchase the stock art and provide it to the winning designer so they can complete the design.
A lot of author’s publish their ebooks for Amazon kindle, Apple ibooks, Google books or Book baby. You’ll be asked to choose an ebook publisher as part of the brief building process so designers know what specifications to work from. If you don’t know which one you’re using upfront, you can always add more detail to your brief later.
Title, author’s name, subtitle, tagline, imagery and a quote all typically appear on the front cover of a paperback book.
Publisher’s typically offer spine width calculators on their websites for self-publishers to use. If you know which publisher you’re using, we recommend heading to their website to learn more.
Typesetting—sometimes called book layout—describes how text and images are arranged on the interior pages of a book. It includes all of the headers, footers and main content of each page.

If you are interested in typesetting for your book, we recommend that you choose a professional designer from our expert designer list and ask for them to work on your project.
On 99designs, designers agree to upload only original artwork, so each designer owns the rights to their design submissions until you choose your contest’s winner. During the cover design handover stage, the designer agrees to transfer the rights, and you become the owner of the copyright of your winning book cover design.
Choose “Make your contest private” from the Contest options section before you launch your book cover design contest. This will prohibit designers from using their designs elsewhere, and your contest will be un-searchable on the web.

This will automatically attach a standard NDA template to your contest. If you prefer, you can also upload your own NDA.
Lots of ideas! If you’re looking for inspiration, explore 99designs for fantastic examples of product labels created by our design community.

Bring as many specifics as you can, too, like book cover dimensions, printing requirements and the information that needs to go on the front and back covers of your book.

For the front cover this usually includes: title, author’s name, subtitle, tagline, imagery and a quote. For the back cover you may need an ISBN number, blurb, author’s biography and a quote.

The more you give the designers, the better they can design for you!
Yup! You can have a physical book cover designed, an ebook cover page designed or both. Be sure to let us know in the brief.
Absolutely. Our talented designers know how to produce book cover designs for all of the popular publishing services. Make sure you include this in your brief so designers know what specifications to work from. If you don’t know which one you’re using upfront, you can always add it into your brief later.
Blurb, author’s biography and a quote typically appear on the back cover of a paperback book.
Absolutely (and we love it when that happens)! When your book cover design contest has finished, you can start a 1-to-1 project with your winning designer.
Yes! We have designers who are professionally skilled in typesetting and book interiors. We recommend that you run a design contest to get your book cover designed first. Then, choose a skilled designer from our interior book design list and request for them to work on your project.
We guarantee that you’ll get a great book cover design at any pricing level, but our higher-priced packages give you more design options and better support.

Here’s how it works: When you pay more, the prize for the winning designer is bigger, too. More experienced designers participate in your contest, so you get more high-quality designs to choose from. More options means additional time that's needed to review your designs. That’s why our Gold and Platinum packages offer dedicated managers to help streamline that process by writing creative briefs and giving your designers feedback.

When selecting your book cover contest package, think about how much time you’ll have and what experience you have writing briefs and working with designers. If you're still unsure, contact us for a design consultation.
We offer a 100% money-back guarantee within 60 days of payment on all Book Cover Design Contests, except those with a guaranteed prize and those that have entered the Final Round. You can also call us anytime to help you rewrite your brief, reopen your project to ensure you get a good result and help you pick a winning design. Remember, if we refund your contest, you aren’t legally entitled to use any of the designs submitted to your contest.

Let’s talk!

Our kind, happy and humble customer support team would love to answer your questions. Send us an email or call to speak with an actual human.