First time here? Watch this video! • Designers! Important changes have been made to the Jobs Board. Learn about these changes now • Authors! Need a book interior? Visit INeedABookInterior.com • For publishing tips, visit our Blog
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For Designers

For Designers

This page is set up to provide site information for all book cover designers–those who are already listed on the Directory and those who are curious about membership.

The Designer Directory

Designers featured on the Directory have been invited based on their professional experience and portfolio strength. The Directory mainly highlights designers who have professional experience designing books for the world’s biggest publishing houses.

If you’d like to be considered for a future invitation, you’re welcome to send a brief email introduction to ineedabookcover.assistant@gmail.com. While we may not be able to respond to every message, we genuinely appreciate your interest!

Engagement

Profiles with no engagement will be hidden from the main Directory page. If a designer does not upload a new cover within four months, their profile will be hidden. Designers will still be credited for their work and profiles will remain linked to individual cover images, but their full profiles will no longer appear on the public Directory page.

To reactivate a profile, simply upload one new cover. This will restore the profile to the main Directory for another four months.

Membership

We now offer three tiers of membership to join the Directory: The Starter, The Standard, and The Spotlight profile. Each tier offers members a different level of visibility and added features, with accessible pricing for designers at various stages in their careers. If you’re invited to join the Directory, you’ll receive full details about each membership tier, including pricing and what’s included.

Submitting Cover Designs

Whether you’re listed on the directory or not, we invite you to add your cover work to the site! To get started, click the button below:

Designers who are a part of The Standard and The Spotlight profiles may upload 4 covers per month as a part of their memberships. Please note that those 4 allotted covers do not carry over from month to month (meaning, if you upload 0 covers one month, you are not able to upload 8 covers the next month). This helps us space out submissions and avoid being overwhelmed by too many uploads in a single month.

All other cover uploads cost $10 per design. This fee is applied to all members of The Starter profile. This fee is also applied to any member from The Standard and The Spotlight memberships who upload more than 4 covers in a given month.

Book Parameters

All covers which adhere to the specifications below will be added to the site

  • INABC specifically celebrates covers from Adult genres such as fiction, literary fiction, nonfiction, self-help, memoirs & biographies, food, poetry, fantasy, etc.
  • We are highly selective about posting a Young Adult (YA) book cover, sharing those with a cover design that straddles the adult look.
  • This site focuses on trade books rather than mass-market editions.

The following submissions will not be posted:

  • We do not showcase Children’s Books.
  • We do not showcase Graphic Novels.
  • The covers featured here are mostly from the twenty-first century

If a cover design is submitted and paid for that does not align with the parameters listed above, your fee will be refunded and your cover will not be uploaded.

Earn free cover uploads!

Our goal is to provide design credits for every cover we add to this site, but we need your help to achieve that goal! Look for books that are missing design credits. Write to ineedabookcover.assistant@gmail.com and provide us with the design credits for 3 books. As a thank you, we will post a cover of your choosing for free!

The Blog: Guest Posts and 10Questions

As has been our policy from the start, anyone is welcome (encouraged!) to contribute a guest post to the blog—whether you’re listed in the Directory or not. If you have insights, experiences, or advice to share with fellow designers and authors, we’d love to hear from you!

Designers who are part of the Standard and Spotlight membership tiers are automatically invited to be featured in the 10 Questions interview series.

The Jobs Board

Members of our thriving Jobs Board are given access to our weekly Book Cover Jobs, which are posted and shared as they become available. Each Creative Brief is password-protected. Designers must apply to gain access to these high-value opportunities. Once approved, you’ll receive the passwords for each job via email. Each brief has a unique password. *Please note that membership to the Jobs Board is separate from being included in the Designer Directory. The requirements for joining the Directory differ from those for accessing the Jobs Board, and not all Jobs Board members automatically receive a profile in the Directory. Our clients post projects with average budgets of $1,500. If you’re selected to work on a project, you’ll have full autonomy working with the client. That means you’ll receive the full payment offered, with no cut taken by INABC. The Jobs Board is designed to connect talented designers with serious clients—plain and simple. Our role is to facilitate that initial connection. From there, it’s up to you to manage the project professionally and independently. We trust our designers to communicate clearly, to set fair terms, and to deliver great work. If you’re ready for that level of responsibility (and reward), we’d love to see your application! Want to know if you’re aligned with the other designers on our list? Read our Designer Requirements before you apply. There is a one-time $50 fee to apply to The Jobs Board listserv.
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Designer Requirements

Only a carefully curated group of designers are given access to the creative briefs posted on the INABC Jobs Board. This system ensures that clients receive top-notch, focused proposals from professionals whose talents have been vetted

All designers who will be bidding on your cover design have applied to receive job notifications and have been approved by the INABC admin team. Our approved designers:

  • Are professional book cover designers, not simply generalist graphic designers.
  • Have been working in the industry for a minimum of 3 years, usually more.
  • Must demonstrate a contemporary aesthetic, creating work that feels current and relevant to today’s book design market. We seek professionals who stay informed on industry trends while pushing boundaries with innovative, forward-thinking designs. Our designers know that our clients are not looking for designs that feel “dated.”
  • Work on multiple book cover projects in any given month
  • Are committed to delivering high-quality, original designs tailored to each client’s unique vision. 
  • Do NOT sell or offer book cover premades. At INABC, we do not condone the offering of pre-made book covers. We are fans of highly bespoke cover work.
  • Do NOT use AI-generated imagery in their commercial work.
  • Have accessible online portfolios showcasing book cover work that are easy for anyone to review.
  • Have extensive experience working with self-publishing authors AND commercial presses.
  • Are available and excited to receive these weekly briefs.

If you are contacted by a designer that doesn’t align with the requirements described above, we ask that you please contact the INABC admin team at ineedabookcover.assistant@gmail.com.

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