Do you hire someone on this platform to do it for you? I can tell that some parts are hand-drawn and some are created using AI; it’s certainly not the same as how I create images and text – I just generate them directly.

 But do some people meet people on this platform and ask them to create the covers for them?

I do my book covers myself in Krita

loralght Wrote: Do you hire someone on this platform to do it for you? I can tell that some parts are hand-drawn and some are created using AI; it’s certainly not the same as how I create images and text – I just generate them directly.

 But do some people meet people on this platform and ask them to create the covers for them?

I'm part of a few Art discords and just get to know some of the artists as I share my own pictures. That or places like bSky. 

I generally will keep an eye on their work to make sure it's not AI and then if they are advertising commissions I'll get them to do one for me. 
Never go with an artist who reaches out directly to you, unless you personally know them of course.

Me:

paying an artist I like money because she did the cover for my previous novel and I refuse to get my novel covers from anywhere else...

TBTR's cover is coming eventually.

As a broke author currently on the verge of filing ch. 13, I couldn't afford to pay an artist, else I've hired people on Upwork to bridge my lack of talent when it comes to illustration.

For my current novel's cover, I explained the concept to my mom (who CAN draw) and gave her examples of runes I've liked - like the outsider mark from Dishonored 1 and 2, and had her design a draft. That draft went into ChatGPT to be cleaned up and have effects like outer glows, random outer space background etc. added.

Net net - You can get a decent image for $10-50 on Upwork - and have AI clean it up for you if you don't want to spend the time doing that in Photoshop. Some artists will do the PS work for you with 1-2 revisions included in the fee you pay them, and you won't even have to deal with the post-production work.

Hope this helps.

If I could afford it, I would absolutely hire someone here to do a cover for me. In actuality, I use a combination of Gemini and ChatGPT.

MisterTut Wrote: If I could afford it, I would absolutely hire someone here to do a cover for me. In actuality, I use a combination of Gemini and ChatGPT.

I thought gemini couldn't do image generation. Does it have a paid version that can?

Google Fonts
Several hours scouring public domain for the right (or good enough) images
A lot of time spent in Affinity Photo 1.X messing with lighting, filters, styles, adjustments and effects.

MisterTut Wrote: If I could afford it, I would absolutely hire someone here to do a cover for me. In actuality, I use a combination of Gemini and ChatGPT.

Tut I could easily point you in the direction of artists who could do covers for you for like, 50 bucks. 

As long as you're not looking for something overly complex, you can get a cover for a pretty reasonable price.

BigDogDaddy Wrote:

MisterTut Wrote: If I could afford it, I would absolutely hire someone here to do a cover for me. In actuality, I use a combination of Gemini and ChatGPT.

I thought gemini couldn't do image generation. Does it have a paid version that can?

It can create images even in free version. Just say to generate image or click on the plus icon and select image creation. I think it got more free image generation than chat-gpt. If you still can't find a way in Gemini out of a bug or something, just search for a free image generator that got "Nano-Banana" (Which is the image engine of Gemini) model. This one is good for giving 20 free points daily. Check it out if you can't find something that suites you (click the link in the words "This one").

La hice yo y las haré yo 🐄, disfruto bastante hacerlas, es otra manera de expresarme, la portado lo veo bastante intimo por eso decido hacerlo yo en Ibis Paint

BigDogDaddy Wrote: I thought gemini couldn't do image generation. Does it have a paid version that can?

Gemini uses Nano Banana. I have paid now, but I started generating with the free tier. Sometimes it will lie to you and say it can't, but really, it can and does.

I draw all mine because I hate AI with a burning passion.

Either AI, or hiring an artist. In the latter case, I usually hire LittleRuby.

Skarabrae Wrote: Either AI, or hiring an artist. In the latter case, I usually hire LittleRuby.

She's so good. Out of curiosity, why haven't you changed the accountant isekai cover to the one you got from her?

CobaltWolf Wrote:

Skarabrae Wrote: Either AI, or hiring an artist. In the latter case, I usually hire LittleRuby.

She's so good. Out of curiosity, why haven't you changed the accountant isekai cover to the one you got from her?

I forgot. I'll change it right now.

My first cover was something I whipped up in Canva. It was lovely, but it wasn't really representative of my story. 

At some point, I generated a few covers, mostly in Wombo and ChatGPT, then asked the forum which one I should use. That's when Wong40K, the GOAT showed up, and built a cover for me. I've been using it ever since.

Everything I have shown on RR thus far has been my own art, but I have no illusions about my skills. I'm not at a professional grade and I don't make the kind of art which succeeds on Royal Road. Instead, I've been using RR as an opportunity to train my skills and experiment with different art styles.

Now, I know this won't be enough to get my work the kind of attention it could have with an AI-generated cover, but I've also been working in the comics industry for a few years and have plenty of contacts who are at (and above) that level, and I'll probably ask one for a cover when I'm ready to release the rewritten story under a new name. 

Arakun10809 Wrote: I do my book covers myself in Krita

Hand-drawn; no surprise.