Portfolios are the only thing that gives you a real picture of the quality of their work. If you like their past work, you’ll probably like their future work. Everything else is just marketing. 4. FIVERR ($5-$50): Fiverr is a marketplace of services available for $5 or so. There are a ton of book cover designers on Fiverr, but almost all of them are absolute garbage. I’ve never used Fiverr for cover design, but friends have been able to find a couple designers who are good. What happens is that a new designer will do a great job, get a ton of 5-star reviews, and then disappear to another site where they can charge more than $5 for their work. Think of it this way. If someone has any design talent, why would they work for $5 a cover? 5. DIY ($0): If you do this, you are a fool, and you will get precisely what you pay for. HOW DO YOU WORK WITH YOUR BOOK COVER DESIGNER? Once you’ve picked a designer and negotiated price, then comes discussion of your cover idea. Here is where all that work you did before comes into play. 1. SCHEDULE THE FIRST CALL FOR PHONE OR VIDEO Schedule your first call to be phone or video. Email is very hard to effectively communicate with strangers, especially about abstract concepts like design. 286 · ThE SCriBE METhOD