Dear Reader,

I’d like to start this off by saying I hope I’m wrong. I hope that we’re just experiencing some growing pains as AI becomes widespread and in the end human covers will always be the best at every price point.

Unfortunately, my experience at the lower end of costs unfortunately did not make me eager to try again with a human artist until I can get to the higher end price points. I had really wanted to try human made covers, and a human made cover was a requirement for me for Cheater Cheater Bunny Eater specifically, so I was really disappointed after days of searching and spending about $100 that despite my best efforts, I got accused of using AI to make the cover. I have no way of knowing for sure if the person I hired used AI or not, but according to them, they didn’t use any AI, they used a mixture of photoshop and pre-existing assets to achieve the look I wanted.

I spent ages on Fiverr looking for book cover creators that were likely human artists. I found two that didn’t immediately scream ‘I use AI’. Even the $2-300 range I’m not sure I could guarantee a human artist. Unless I get to watch over the shoulder of an artist irl, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to guarantee that no AI art was used.

If that was all, it wouldn’t be a big deal, I’d keep using human artists and trying to have faith that they were being honest. Unfortunately, it seems the possibility that my cover was made with AI actually turned readers away from the book because it seemed hypocritical. I have no way of being certain, but I ran an ad on Tumblr (free addition with WordPress ad campaigns) to see what traction I could get. I got three comments- all of them accusing the cover of being AI generated- and two reposts- both of them resharing with a tag to the effect of ‘I’d rather eat a dead bird.’ (Which is a fan fiction term that essentially means there is likely unsavory content and/or you can’t complain if you get exactly what it looks like you would. Its a reference to I think a show where someone opens a bag labeled dead bird, sees a dead bird, and says ‘I don’t know what I was expecting.’)

As I’m trying to write books for profit, I can’t sink multiple hundreds of dollars into covers that don’t produce results (yet). So, unless and until I happen to meet an artist I can look over the shoulder of as they make the cover, I’m afraid I can’t both pour money into the cover and expect a profit. I’ve decided that it’d be better to go ahead and use AI to make the cover until I actually have some sales traction, because then at least it won’t cost me $100+ to have people hate the cover. They could then hate it at no cost to me.

I’m aware that Tumblr isn’t exactly known for being appreciative of AI and AI artists, so I probably shouldn’t use their comments as my data for whether or not covers on the lower end of the price range can be successful, after only one cover, but until I have another platform to gather data from, and/or enough of a following to justify investing more into covers than advertising, that’s the data I have.

I look forward to the opportunity to switch to human artists in the future, because I’d prefer to support human artists. But it seems in the current market, and at the speed I’m trying to write, that the most effective option for someone is AI. At least for now, that’s the case for me. I hope that sharing my experience can be another data point for you on your author journey- if you know a friend who’s pretty good at art, maybe ask them to make the cover instead. Make sure you pay them and sign a contract stating you have the rights you find relevant- if you want to be able to edit it, use it for merch, or use all or part of it again in a series, those are seperate rights that are not implied in a typical contract for a book cover. Typically a book cover contract only covers the rights to use the art, as is, for the cover- and different sizes or styles may also need to be specified as included.

I wish you more success with your first cover than I had.

Love, Eden

PS; Update from last week: I don’t think that direct to Amazon releases are looking to be the most useful way to grow an audience from zero. Perhaps if I were better at writing into a void pure Amazon would be my best option as Chris Fox says, but I don’t seem to be able to write into a void at that speed. At least, not yet. So I’m looking into my other options- for my first series, I’m heavily considering posting to Royal Road as it seems like the kind of story that would be a good fit there. Will keep you posted.