The Power of Photoshop & Book Cover Design

Sometimes hiring a talented artist is better than doing it yourself.

Shelby Sullivan
6 min readOct 6, 2023

It’s no secret that hiring someone to illustrate your book cover is more expensive than utilizing a few free images and editing them with Photoshop or Canva.

Since my goal is to help authors publish their books on a budget, let’s talk about utilizing technology to help you save money.

Photoshop & Talented Photograph Editors

Because of technology we no longer have to hire artists to illustrate, paint, or carve the covers of books, albums, or other products. While it is nice to have a gorgeous painting made just for your book, the overall cost is not always in the budget for many indie authors.

Instead, authors can reach out to photo editors and graphic designers who can Photoshop or remake free-to-use photos or graphics into something new.

Image source: Nastenko Slastenka

Many talented Photoshop experts create beautiful stories from a single photograph. They can make a mundane image look like a fantasy movie, or turn innocent photos into spooky horror landscapes.

That means authors can take their own photos and have them altered for a fraction of the cost of having a painting made from scratch.

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Shelby Sullivan

Hey, I'm Shelby! I'm a professional writer, editor, blogger, and cover designer. Learn to make book covers and contact me at linktr.ee/sulliwrites !