Frequently Asked – Indie Publishing and Cover Design

• Care for your dream: We are committed to fulfilling your cover or character art vision with care, creativity, and dedication.
• Grant you access to files: We will provide you access to our Dropbox folder where you can view all design proofs and final files.
• Timely communication: During business hours, we will respond to your emails within 24 hours. While time zones can be tricky, you can expect to wake up to updates in your inbox if you’re on a different schedule.
• Deliver files in booked formats: All graphic files will be provided to you in the agreed-upon formats based on your booking.
• Provide revisions: Your booked package includes a set number of revisions. We’ll ensure these revisions are delivered promptly to meet your expectations.
• Respect deadlines: We are committed to delivering your project on time, provided feedback and responses are shared promptly. If any unforeseen delays occur at our end, we will promptly communicate with you.
• Copyright: Once the final files are delivered and payment is complete, you will have the right to use the cover design or artwork to sell your book for however long you want. As the creators of the work, we retain copyright to the artwork. If you sell your book to a publisher etc., we will happily work with them to provide cover files. Fees will apply.
• Celebrate our collaboration: We will only showcase the work in our portfolio and social media after you’ve made it public. Let us know your release date so we can share promptly!

• Share your brief in advance: Your project brief must be shared at least one week before your scheduled booking time. This ensures we’re fully prepared and aligned with your vision.
• Be available during your booked timeframe: Please ensure you’re available to answer emails and provide feedback during the scheduled project timeframe.
• Provide clear and polite feedback: Feedback should be polite, concise, and structured. While we love storytelling, feedback is best when it’s straightforward and actionable.
• Stick to feedback deadlines: Prompt feedback is essential to help us meet the agreed delivery timeline. Delays in communication may result in adjustments to the final delivery date. If any unforeseen delays occur at your end, please promptly communicate with us.
• Understand scope of revisions: Revisions are included as per your package. Additional revisions outside of the agreed scope may incur extra charges.
• Respect our work after sign-off: If something isn’t right with the design, please let us know—we’re happy to make amendments and often do so at no extra charge. However, if you choose to alter our work after sign-off, please refrain from tagging Yummy Book Covers as the creator, as the final product will no longer reflect our original design.
• For custom cover: the second 50% payment is promptly paid once the ebook design is approved. Paperbacks are often delayed in delivery due to authors not ready to supply back blurbs.

We specialise in romantic comedy, romance, chick lit, women’s fiction, and select non-fiction, plus some cozy mystery. See our portfolio and this genre explainer: RomCom Cover Design Demystified.

• Custom Vector Illustration – fully editable, merch-ready

• Raster Digital Painting – painterly, but harder to tweak

• Stock-Photo Manipulation – fastest, lowest cost, least unique

• AI-Generated Art – cheap, murky copyright, mixed reader trust
  Our comparison table (see above) scores each method on cost, scalability, series continuity, and reader perception to help you choose.

  Need a deeper dive? Jump to the “Three Elements That Never Change” section or skim the colour-psychology quick-ref table for instant palette picks.

Premade = speed & budget: professional art you can lightly customise now. Great for testing a new series or launching fast. Explore Premade Character Illustrations.

Custom = built-for-you branding: specific characters, settings, and series look. Best when you want unforgettable shelf presence. See Custom Illustrated Book Cover Design.

Your cover is the first conversion lever. Most readers skim thumbnails and decide in seconds. If your cover misses sub-genre cues or fails the 100px test, clicks drop. We build covers to win the thumbnail and the product page. Read our guide: RomCom Cover Design Demystified.

Yes. Choose from our Premade Characters and we’ll customise them for your story—or add our Premade Character Cover package for a ready-to-upload ebook/print cover. Join the mailing list for new drops.

Vector art is drawn with curves (not pixels), so it scales infinitely without losing quality. That means crisp thumbnails, clean print wraps, and easy reuse on banners, stickers, and other merch. We work in layers, so refinements are fast and precise.

Our booking calendar for custom designs usually fills up 2-4 months in advance. You can see the booking calendar on the website.
With premade character covers, we can offer a quicker turnaround.

 Writing in a series? By doing 3 or more covers at once you get a discount. You need to have all the cover specs ready to go as these will be designed back to back during a 2-week slot.

To book a slot, simply send us a brief through the Premade Character Illustrations or Custom Book Cover Design pages. If you just have a question, use the contact form on our home page — we’ll reply within one business day.

For premade characters, your slot is secured once payment is received. For custom covers, we require a 50% deposit to confirm your booking.

Yes. Many authors order additional illustrations for book promo graphics, Amazon A+ content, or special edition merch. We also help with author branding and design for stickers, pull-up banners, and even websites. Everything is tailored to match your book and brand style.

As long as your requested edits are clear, premade characters are usually delivered within 2–3 days. Even during busy times, we have a 10-day guarantee, or your money back. If you’re on a tight deadline, let us know and we’ll do our best to fast-track your order.

As long as your brief is clear and we have time in our calendar, premade character covers are usually delivered within 10 business days. This is our guarantee. If you’re in a hurry, let us know, we’ll do our best to fast-track your order.

We generally book one week for one cover, especially a brand-new design. Sometimes, a series of covers can be done a bit faster. You can expect the first drafts by the end of your booked week. This usually means Friday (New Zealand time, which may be still Thursday elsewhere). If there are any delays, I might work over the weekend but will keep you updated.

When planning your publishing schedule, please take into account the revisions that are possibly needed, the time it takes to create the paperback cover, and the interior layout (whether this is done by you or us). It is possible to get everything wrapped up within your allocated week, but it’s usually safest to allow yourself a couple if weeks after your design week to get things wrapped up.

You can request up to 3 changes per character or up to 6 changes for couples. If you need more customisation, we recommend booking a full custom project.

Yes, we offer three rounds of revisions to ensure that you are completely satisfied with the final product. If you’re worried about needing more revisions, talk to us. I’ve found that with a good brief and clear direction, I can get very close to what the author has in mind and we hardly ever need to do more than 1-2 rounds of amends. This makes the process rather painless for both of us.

The ebook cover is delivered as a high-res JPG file, optimized for Amazon (and suitable for other platforms). The paperback cover and interior layouts are delivered as print-ready PDFs.

Upon request (for a fee), we can also offer the native Adobe Illustrator files.

Yes.

Yes, you can find these as add-ons when placing your order.

Absolutely! Your final illustrations can be used for promo graphics, ads, merch, and more — as long as you follow our usage terms.

As per international copyright law, the creator owns the copyright and you have a licence to use anything created for you, including any characters that don’t end up in the final book cover. We don’t require you to relicense after a time period. Use your cover for as long as it’s working for you!

Since there are no 3rd party images (photos or stock illustrations) involved, you can use the illustrations for any promo material in any medium without clearing rights and relicensing. You cannot resell the illustrations.

Rom-com and spicy-romance lists are now dominated by full-face illustrated covers packed with micro-detail and saturated colour layers. KindleTrends data (July 2025) shows a 60 % rise in these “expressive character” jackets vs 2023, while muted palettes are carving a niche for more mature women’s-fiction. See our Trend Snapshot table above for the six biggest shifts—and why merch-ready art is now part of the brief.

I’ve had clients who’ve used Facebook ads to test cover options. You can do this to decide between the old and new or two new cover options. As a cover designer, I’ll provide you with two cover files and you set up an ad to A/B test where everything else is identical, but the cover changes. If you’re targeting the right audience (who reads the kind of books you write), this will tell you, in very clear terms, which book cover will generate more interest. It’s best that you lead traffic to an existing book listing, either a preorder page or a published book. That way, you’re not only paying to collect data but might actually get some sales. You’re also not disappointing potential readers by leading them into a dead end.

Yes! We offer premium and free Canva book cover templates designed specifically for indie authors. They’re easy to edit, genre-appropriate.

Yes—reveals build awareness, wishlists, and preorders before launch. Aim for 4–8 weeks out, ideally with a preorder link. Tease details, coordinate shares, and give your helpers easy assets (clean cover, 3D mockups). Use our cover-reveal playbook and templates to make it painless.

Yes.

Sorry, no. We draw from photographic references, and the research required for explicit scenes is not something we’re comfortable with.

A+ Content adds branded image modules to your Amazon detail page—think character art, series order, and trope cues. Used well, it can lift conversion and cross-sell a series. We design A+ on spec and reuse your cover elements for cohesion. Start once your cover and blurb are final. See our A+ Content guide and promo templates.

Consider how well the books are selling. If you’re seeing a dip, and notice the cover trends changing in your Amazon category, it might be time for a refresh. There’s no exact time limit to when covers become ineffective, but it’s good to review your book cover every 5-6 years to assess if a change might help bring in new readers.

If it’s not attracting the right readers or doesn’t match the tone of your story — absolutely. A fresh, genre-fitting cover can breathe new life into your backlist and increase conversions.

Yes. Upload the new eBook/PDF in KDP and Amazon updates in ~72 hrs; paperbacks need a fresh cover file and may trigger a new ISBN if trim size changes. On Goodreads, use the “edit details → cover upload” tool or ask a Goodreads librarian to swap it. Tip: keep the old JPEG handy for A/B tests.