How many cover concepts and revisions do I get?

Three genuinely distinct concepts, then unlimited refinement within the concept you choose. Most covers settle within two or three refinement rounds.

What cover file formats will I receive?

A print-ready CMYK PDF wrap at 300dpi with correct bleed, a high-resolution RGB JPEG for Kindle and eBook retailers, 3D mockups as transparent PNGs, and social crops. Layered source files are available free on request.

Professional Book Cover Design UK | Custom Covers for Print & Kindle

A collection of finished hardback book covers in a London publishing setting

Designed for its shelf

The Service

We Design for the Category, Not for the Compliment.

A cover that your family calls beautiful and your category calls confusing has failed. Readers browse by pattern recognition, and a cover that breaks the pattern reads as amateur before anyone consciously decides why.

So every project starts with research. We pull the current top forty in your Amazon category and the relevant tables in Waterstones, and we map what is actually being signalled: the typography conventions, the colour temperature, whether the trend is illustrated or photographic, how much of the frame the title occupies. That gives us the rules of your genre — and a considered view on which single rule is worth breaking to stand out.

Only then does design begin. You receive three genuinely distinct concepts, not one idea in three colourways, each tested at thumbnail size on a phone before it reaches you. You choose a direction and we refine it as far as it needs to go.

Category and competitor research
Three distinct original concepts
Thumbnail legibility testing
Full wrap with correct spine width
Custom typography and lettering
Licensed imagery, cleared for commercial use

What We Design

Six Pieces of Design Every Book Needs.

The front cover is the famous one, but a book that looks professional needs all six working together.

Front Cover Design

The one-second decision

Three original concepts researched against your category, each built to hold up at thumbnail size, then refined without limit within your chosen direction until it is right.

Three distinct concepts
Thumbnail and greyscale tested
Unlimited refinement of your pick

Full Print Wrap

Front, spine and back

Spine width calculated from your exact page count and paper stock, back cover laid out with blurb, author photo, ISBN barcode and imprint — supplied to your printer’s specification.

Spine width from real page count
ISBN barcode placed and sized
Bleed and safe margins correct

Custom Typography

Where covers are won

Hand-tuned or bespoke lettering rather than a font dropped straight from a menu. Kerning, weight and hierarchy adjusted until the title reads instantly at any size.

Bespoke or hand-tuned lettering
Licensed fonts, commercially cleared
Series-consistent title treatments

3D Mockups & Launch Graphics

For selling the book

Photorealistic renders of your book as paperback, hardback and on a Kindle, plus sized social graphics for the announcement, the pre-order and the launch day post.

Paperback, hardback and eReader renders
Instagram, Facebook and X sizes
Amazon A+ content graphics

Custom Illustration

Children’s and illustrated titles

Original artwork for picture books, character-led covers, maps for fantasy titles and interior spot illustrations, matched to an illustrator whose style suits your book.

Character and world design
Full picture-book page artwork
Maps, diagrams and spot art

Cover Refresh

For books already out

Your book is published but not selling, and the cover is the suspect. We audit it honestly against the category, tell you whether it is really the problem, and redesign if it is.

Honest audit before you commit
Redesign in your existing trim size
Retailer files updated for you

What You Receive

Every File You Will Ever Need, and the Rights to Use Them.

You are not renting your cover. On final payment the artwork is yours outright, with all imagery licensed for commercial use in perpetuity. We hand over print-ready production files and every derivative you will need for retail listings, advertising and press — and we keep an archived copy so a reprint in four years is a five-minute job.

Start My Cover

Print-ready PDF wrap, CMYK 300dpi
Kindle and eBook JPEG at retailer spec
Layered source file on request
3D mockups in multiple formats
Social and advertising crops
Full commercial licence, in perpetuity

How It Works

From Brief to Print-Ready.

Two to three weeks from brief to final files, with your decisions front-loaded so nothing stalls late.

Brief & Research

You complete a short design brief and send the manuscript. We research your category, map the visual conventions and agree the positioning with you.

Three Concepts

Three genuinely different covers, presented at full size and at thumbnail, with a short rationale for each so you understand what it is signalling.

Refinement

You choose a direction and we refine it — type, colour, imagery, crop — through as many rounds as it takes to get right within that concept.

Production Files

Once the page count is final, we build the full wrap to spec, run a preflight check and deliver every file, mockup and licence in one package.

Finished hardback books in navy, red, tan and black on a British writing desk

Tested at 120 pixels

Our Standard

Every Cover Passes the Thumbnail Test.

Most book covers are first seen at about a centimetre and a half tall, on a phone, in a scrolling grid. If the title is unreadable there, nothing else about the design matters.

So before any concept reaches you, we shrink it to retailer thumbnail size and check three things. Can you read the title without squinting? Is the genre obvious within a second? Does it hold its own against the actual bestsellers in your category, side by side in a real grid rather than in isolation?

We also check it in greyscale, because a design that relies entirely on colour contrast falls apart in a Kindle listing or a black-and-white newspaper feature. Covers that fail any of these get reworked before you ever see them — you should be choosing between three strong options, not spotting the flaws in three weak ones.

Legibility at retailer thumbnail size
Genre readable within one second
Tested in a real category grid
Greyscale contrast check
Print proof colour verified
Series consistency where needed

The Kingswell Difference

Why UK Authors Choose Kingswell.

We are a British publishing services company, not a rights-taking publisher. That single distinction shapes everything below.

You Keep Every Right and Every Royalty

Copyright stays registered in your name and retailer accounts are opened in your name. We take no commission and no revenue share — one hundred per cent of what your book earns is paid straight to you.

One Named Project Manager

No ticket queues and no being passed between departments. A single publishing consultant coordinates every specialist on your book and stays your point of contact from first call to launch day.

Genre-Matched Specialists

A thriller needs different instincts to a memoir, and a business book different rigour to a children’s picture book. Your project is staffed by people with a track record in your specific genre.

Honest Scoping, Fixed Quotes

We tell you what your book genuinely needs and what it does not. Every quote is agreed in writing before work begins, so there are no mid-project surprises and no upselling.

Confidential by Default

Your manuscript is only ever seen by the specialists working on it. NDAs come as standard and your identity, your story and your ideas are never shared or reused.

British Publishing Standards

Based in Fitzrovia, London. We work in UK English by default, price in pounds sterling, and typeset to the trade standards British readers and booksellers expect.

Author Reviews

Loved by Authors,
Trusted With Their Stories.

Every review below is a real, unedited review left by an author on our public Trustpilot profile — nothing written by us.

Trustpilot See Our Reviews on Trustpilot Read what authors say on our public Trustpilot profile Open Trustpilot

Even though the project had a tight deadline, the designer delivered a creative book cover on time.

Harrison Vida Book Cover Design · 17 July 2026

I had many concerns, but the consultation answered all of them and gave me confidence to move forward with publishing.

Eliza Caldwell Verified Publishing Consultation · 16 June 2026

Whenever I had questions about the marketing process, the support team responded promptly with the helpful explanations. and their professionalism reassured me because they clearly valued my goals as an author.

Dani Lucas Book Marketing · 22 June 2026

Their staff treated me with genuine care and respect.

Isabella Lopez Verified Published Author · 2 July 2026

The quality of their work met my expectations and I appreciate the effort they put into helping me bring my book to publication. I would recommend them to anyone lookin' for reliable publisher.

Alina Michelle Published Author · 13 July 2026

Common Questions

Cover Design FAQs.

Concepts, revisions, licensing, file formats and who owns the artwork at the end.

How many concepts and revisions do I get?

Three genuinely distinct concepts, then unlimited refinement within whichever one you choose. The distinction matters: we will happily adjust type, colour, imagery and crop as many times as it takes, but returning to concept one after three weeks of developing concept two is a new project. In practice most covers settle within two or three refinement rounds.

Do I own the cover artwork?

Yes, outright, on final payment. All stock imagery is licensed for commercial use in perpetuity and any bespoke illustration or lettering is assigned to you. You can use the cover on merchandise, in advertising, on your website and in future editions without going back to anyone for permission. We do not charge licensing renewals.

When do you need my final page count?

Only at the production stage, and this catches a lot of authors out. Spine width is calculated from your exact page count and paper stock, so the full wrap cannot be finalised until the interior is typeset and locked. We design the front cover in parallel with your formatting, then build the wrap once the interior is signed off — which is why we usually run cover and formatting together.

Can you design a cover for a book I published elsewhere?

Yes. Cover refreshes are common, particularly for books that launched with a rushed or DIY cover and never gained traction. We audit the existing cover against your category first and tell you honestly whether it is genuinely holding sales back — sometimes the real problem is the blurb, the categories or the price, and we would rather say so than take money for a redesign that will not help.

Do you use stock images or AI-generated artwork?

We use professionally licensed stock photography and illustration as raw material where it suits the design, always heavily manipulated and combined rather than dropped in whole, and always cleared for commercial book-cover use. Where a book needs something that does not exist, we commission original illustration or photography. We do not deliver AI-generated imagery as final cover art, because its commercial licensing and copyright position remains unsettled — and a cover you cannot defend ownership of is not an asset.

What file formats will I receive?

A print-ready PDF of the full wrap in CMYK at 300dpi with correct bleed, built to your printer’s template; a high-resolution RGB JPEG sized for Kindle and other eBook retailers; 3D mockups in PNG with transparent backgrounds; and social crops for the main platforms. Layered source files are available on request at no charge.

Can you match covers across a series?

Yes, and it is worth planning for early. Series covers share a title treatment, layout grid and visual language while varying imagery and colour per book, so they read as a set on a shelf and in a Kindle series listing. If you already have book one from another designer, we can build a compatible system around it.

What if I do not like any of the three concepts?

It is rare, because the research and brief stage catches most mismatches before design begins. If it does happen, tell us specifically what is wrong and we will produce a further round of concepts at no extra cost. If we still cannot find a direction you are happy with, you can walk away and we will refund the design fee.

A Cover Has One Second to Do Its Job.

We Design for the Category, Not for the Compliment.