99Designs: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
My experience using 99Designs to create my book cover
It’s true what they say, people do judge a book by its cover, that’s why it’s essential to have your cover created by someone who knows what they’re doing. For most authors, that’s not you.
Let’s be brutally honest. Unless you’re a cover designer, you shouldn’t try to design your own cover, no more than a designer should try to write his own book. Unless, of course, you’re one of those prodigies who’s an author and a designer.
So, I’ve decided to share my book cover design experience (the good, the bad, and the ugly) in the hopes it will help others who are about to embark on this journey.
Let’s start from the beginning.
MY PREVIOUS BOOK COVERS WERE LACKING
Of my first three book covers, I used of a friend to create one of them, and employed designers from Fiverr for the other two.
These were the results:
Not satisfied with the results of my past covers (and with a new book on its way in 2020) I decided to go a different route.
HELLO 99DESIGNS
After seeing an impressive book cover that had been created by an artist on 99Designs, I decided that was the way to go.
What kept me from trying 99Designs earlier was its cost prohibitive price of $400 for a book cover. But I put so much time and effort into the contents of my book, I wanted a cover that would reflect that quality. So, in September of 2020, I bit the bullet and jumped in head first.
THE GOOD
Unlike my past book cover experiences, where only one designer was involved in each process, 99Designs works by allowing multiple artists to work on designing covers for your book (called a “contest”), which means you get a variety of designs to choose from. This is a fantastic approach because you’re not stuck with one designer’s tastes, talents, and perspective.
Here were the results:
Some of these designer submissions were so good, it made it incredibly difficult to choose the best one, but after much consideration (and voting that involved friends, family, and my email subscribers) I chose this cover for my book:
THE BAD
Fast forward a couple years. After the release of my book, The Man Who Thought He Could Fly, my son was in a thrift store when he found a book titled The Man Who Would’t Die. He sent me a picture of the book and my heart sank.
I immediately checked Amazon and discovered this book was published more than a year before mine.
There was no way this could have been a coincidence, and my original cover designer was (not surprisingly) no longer on 99Designs. So, not wanting to continue using a cover design that was too similar to a cover that was published before mine, I contacted 99Designs, hoping they could fix the issue.
No problem. Right?
THE UGLY
Here was my request to 99Designs:
A couple years ago I was seeking a book cover design and opened a contest on 99 Designs for my book The Man Who Thought He Could Fly. By the end of the contest I selected the featured cover design and have been happy with it since.
However, it was recently brought to my attention that this design is strikingly similar to a cover already in existence. Upon seeing this other book cover I was shocked at the similarities.
I provided 99Designs with a link to where they could find the other book for comparison, and then I added:
It's my impression that The Man Who Wouldn’t Die was the inspiration for the artist/creator who designed my book cover.
I understand there can be similarities between book cover designs, but the similarities between The Man Who Wouldn’t Die and my book are way too close to be considered an accident or coincidence. The artist who designed my cover even placed the city (that's on the back of my cover) upside down like on the front cover of The Man Who Wouldn’t Die.
At this point I feel the best course of action is to redo my entire book cover, not because I want to, but because I fear there could be potential legal issues in the future if I don't. This is why I'm reaching out to you for assistance in this matter, seeking a course of action to remedy this situation.
I then asked what I considered to be a reasonable request:
Is it possible for me to receive a reimbursement in the form of a credit to be used exclusively on 99Designs (that I would redeem immediately) so that I can have the cover remade?
Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.
I appreciated how 99Designs was prompt in their response to look into the matter, but their response was that my cover was “not a copy” of The Man Who Would’t Die. They went on to say:
It's an obvious concept for a book with a similar name. The silhouette of the man / skyline / font is different. There will be no issues in the future.
With regards to the credit that you are asking for, we do apologize but we could not apply this to your account. We can only give you a free powerpack upgrade once you have launch [sic] a new contest which will boost contest submissions.
I learned the hard way that even when using a reputable outfit like 99Designs, authors seeking a cover designer still need to be aware they could run into an issue like I did (the bad), and be stuck having to pay for a new cover (the ugly).
TAKING THE BULL BY THE HORNS
There was light at the end of the tunnel, though.
Since 99Designs wasn’t going to remedy the issue, I took it upon myself to reach out to the cover designer who came in second place in my original design contest: Ivan of Cakamura Designs. The cover was still available and I was able to purchase it from him.
CONCLUSION
Although I had a bad experience (and an ugly experience ) with 99Designs, the final product ended up being worth it.
In fact, Ivan of Cakamura Designs was so gracious and easy to work with (and the quality of his design was so good), I commissioned him to design the cover for my latest book, The Monster In The Well, and secured him for my next book cover for 2024.
If you’re looking for a quality book cover designer, I can’t recommend Cakamura Designs enough. You can check out Ivan’s portfolio here.
And if you’re reading this, Ivan, thank you!
J.L. Pattison is a freelance writer and author of the books Saving Kennedy, The Island, The Man Who Thought He Could Fly, and The Monster In The Well. Find out more at JLPattison.com.
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After a few changes my covers were edited beautifully by the publisher. Happy to not have to deal with it TBH. But I did whine a bit about the first ones. The final products are superb.