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Design and production

Book cover design services, built to work at thumbnail size

Your designer reads the manuscript before sketching anything. You see concepts, choose one, and get every file you need for print, ebook and audio.

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A reader absorbed in a novel under the warm glow of a desk lamp

What it is

A cover is a sales tool that has to work 180 pixels wide

Most readers meet your cover as a thumbnail in a list of forty others. If it does not read at that size, nothing else about it matters.

So we design at thumbnail size first and scale up, which is the opposite of how it feels natural to work. A title that looks elegant on a 300mm screen often turns to mud at 20mm, and the only way to know is to test it there before the artwork is finished.

Genre matters as much as taste. A reader scanning for their next romance is looking for signals, and a cover that ignores them reads as amateur even when the artwork is beautiful. We will tell you what your genre expects and where it is worth breaking the pattern. There is more in our guide to what makes a book cover sell, and on how we approach romance publishing if that is your category.

  • The manuscript read before the first sketch
  • Two or three distinct concepts, not three versions of one
  • Two rounds of revisions on the concept you choose
  • Print, ebook and audiobook files, plus the layered source

What's included

What a cover project includes

Four things in every quote, whatever the genre.

  • A manuscript read

    Your designer reads the book, or a substantial sample, before sketching anything.

  • Distinct concepts

    Two or three genuinely different directions, each tested at thumbnail size.

  • Every file format

    Print wraparound sized to your page count, ebook square, audiobook square.

  • Licences and source files

    Commercial licences for every asset, plus the layered working file.

How it works

How a cover gets designed

Five stages, three to four weeks, running alongside your edit.

  1. 01

    Brief and read

    Week 1

    You fill in a short brief — genre, comparable titles, what you do and do not want — and your designer reads the manuscript.

    Your part: The brief, and three covers you wish were yours.

  2. 02

    Concepts

    Week 2

    Two or three different directions, shown at full size and as thumbnails side by side with the competition in your category.

    Your part: Choose one direction. Mixing two usually produces a worse cover than either.

  3. 03

    Development

    Week 3

    The chosen concept is refined: typography, colour, the spine and the back cover, plus your blurb and barcode area set properly.

    Your part: Blurb, author bio and any series or imprint details.

  4. 04

    Revisions

    Week 3–4

    Two rounds included. We will tell you when a change you have asked for will weaken the cover, and then make it if you still want it.

    Your part: Collect all your notes into one list per round.

  5. 05

    Final files

    Week 4

    Print PDF built to your printer specification and final page count, ebook and audiobook squares, and the layered source file.

    Your part: Confirm the page count is final. A changed page count means a new spine.

Case study

A cover, decision by decision

A business-book jacket from the studio, with every decision that went into it and why. This is how a cover brief actually gets resolved.

The Quiet Advantage — a single ochre circle offset against stacked geometric bands on a cream field

The Quiet Advantage

David Ngata

The brief: a business book for a first-time author with no platform, in a category where every second cover is a photograph of the author in a blazer. It had to look credible next to established imprints and still be legible at 20mm.

What we did

  • Ruled out author photography: it dates fast and reads as self-published at small sizes
  • Built the mark from a single geometric figure that holds its shape at thumbnail
  • Set the title in two weights of one typeface rather than two typefaces
  • Tested six colourways against a mocked-up category page of competing titles
  • Reserved a clear band for a future endorsement line

What was delivered

  • Front cover at thumbnail, retail and poster sizes
  • Full wraparound print cover with spine and barcode area
  • Ebook and audiobook squares cropped for each retailer
  • A one-page rationale explaining every choice

Compare

Commissioning a cover: the two usual routes

Both are legitimate. The freelance route is cheaper and can be excellent; it asks more of you.

Cost

With Kangaroo Direct

Higher. The read, the concepts and the file set are all in the fee.

Briefing a freelancer yourself

Usually cheaper, sometimes dramatically so on a marketplace.

Who reads the book

With Kangaroo Direct

The designer reads the manuscript before sketching.

Briefing a freelancer yourself

Normally nobody. You write a brief and they design from it.

Genre judgement

With Kangaroo Direct

We tell you what your category expects and when to break it.

Briefing a freelancer yourself

Depends entirely on whether they work in your genre.

File set

With Kangaroo Direct

Print, ebook, audiobook and source files, built to your page count.

Briefing a freelancer yourself

Often a front cover only, with the wraparound quoted separately.

Asset licensing

With Kangaroo Direct

Commercial licences documented and handed over with the files.

Briefing a freelancer yourself

Your responsibility to verify, and a real risk with stock art.

Speed

With Kangaroo Direct

Three to four weeks, scheduled alongside your edit.

Briefing a freelancer yourself

Can be days if they are free and the brief is tight.

  • You keep your rights

    Full copyright and royalties stay with you

  • Fixed written quotes

    The quote you accept is the amount you pay

  • Australian owned

    Local team, AUD pricing, GST invoices

  • Work you approve

    Nothing goes to print without your sign-off

Questions authors ask

Book cover design: questions authors ask

We go back and brief again at no extra cost. That happens occasionally, usually because the first brief was missing something, and the second round is nearly always right. If you like a direction but not the execution, that is what the two included revision rounds are for.

Yes, if you hold the rights and the resolution is adequate for print, which means roughly 300dpi at final size. We will tell you honestly whether it works as a cover. A photograph that means a great deal to you can still be the wrong front cover, and you deserve to be told that before publication.

Two rounds on the concept you choose, which covers typography, colour and layout changes. Switching to a different concept after development has started is a new project rather than a revision, and we will say so rather than quietly absorbing it and rushing the work.

Yes, and it is worth telling us at the brief stage even if book two is years away. A series needs a system — a repeatable layout, a colour logic, a title position — and retrofitting one onto a cover designed as a standalone usually means redesigning book one.

You do. You get the layered source file and the licences for every asset in it, so you can have it adapted later by anyone. We ask to show it in our portfolio, and you can say no. What we cannot transfer is a typeface licence, which stays with the foundry under their terms.

Yes. It is most of what you are paying for. We will show you your preferred cover at thumbnail size against the actual category page on Amazon, which is usually a more persuasive argument than anything we could say. Then it is your book and your call.

Still have a question? A real publisher will answer it.

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Make room for your book.

From your desk to a reader’s shelf

Get a cover that works at any size

Send us the manuscript and three covers you admire. We will tell you what your genre expects, what the project would involve and what it would cost.

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