I got an inquiry from an author who likes my work and is interested in having me design the front and back cover for his novel.  He also asked about price.

The problem is, I have no clue what to charge.  I've never done this particular type of commission before.  Since he mentioned both front and back cover, I'm assuming it's got to be a spread of back-spine-cover.

I would really appreciate some advice/info from anyone here who has done (or does) this type of work.  I need to get a rough idea of what kind of prices are reasonable, expected, the norm, etc.  You get the idea.  :)

And please, comments like "charge as much as you think you're worth" will not help me at all.

TIA!
Ney

I do covers for 2 publishers but I'm not going to tell you how much I get in an open forum, I'll send a pm!

i cant tell you what to ask for it .. i dont have enough info for that specific advice.
I got the same questions for Covers for CD's ..what i did was foon the studio's etc etc and art studio's to ask what it whould cost ME "you" to have them make a cover for you..
I got loads of info from that.. so i made my price.. and yes it worked out for me..
Maybe others have more info for you ..

Chris

Thank you both. 

thefixer, your info was extremely helpful.  (Check your PMs)  Thanks!

YW ..
And i know fixers advice is always better :} thats why he's called the fixer ...

Chris

Well you could accept a price, or you could accept a *contract.

*I always ask to be able to read the book, before i design a cover for it.   The entire book is not nessesary but enough to know if its actually good or not.   In general, what you should do, is ask to be included in comission of sales (just like the author is) that for every book purchased, you receive a dividend.

This is actually the normal professional practice.  An author gets paid by how many sell, and so should you.  Think of the bargain he'd be getting if you accepted 300 bucks, yet he sold 3 million copies getting a commission of 50 cents per paperback sold.

And its your art thats selling his book.

Attached Link: http://www.theresabrandon.com

If the author is self-publishing then get your money up front as a flat fee instead of royalties.

Theresa is right for self publishers.  However, have the author sign a contract that allows you should his book take off, and become picked up by a major publisher, the ability to gain royalties in the future.

We have enough starving artists, protect your investment of work

Well, that would depend on whether the major publisher decided to use the same art, but yes, that is a good stipulation to have in the contract.