The Real Value of Pre-made Book Covers

We look at pre-made book covers and how they’ve shaped self-publishing, becoming an avatar for the seedier parts of a rapidly growing industry.

Self-publishing is bigger than ever. Every year, it only grows and, with it, the services that operate within. In 2019, Bowker suggested the industry is expanding at an alarming rate. With “[the] combined total of self-published print book and ebooks with registered ISBNs [growing] from almost 1.2 million in 2017 to more than 1.6 million in 2018… [showing] no signs of slowing down.”

With most of us kept at home throughout 2020, the number of authors seeking to self-publish only grew more. In recent years, romance has been experiencing a “steady decline” but Kirsten McLean notes the pandemic “helped to lift the category’s ebook sales” by 17% in the first half of 2020. Many of us laughed at Kissing the Coronavirus, but it still tapped into an immensely popular genre within self-publishing that has seen further “steady growth” over the summer.

The standards of design in pre-made book covers are rarely up to anything close to a professional level.

Alongside this rapid expansion, book design has also experienced growth. With so many…