theBookDesigners Reviews 29

I have worked with the BookDesigners team for two of my self-published novels. Both covers reflect the essence of my stories in unique and beautiful ways. The design process was collaborative, respectful, and professional. Having worked with other cover designers, I can attest to the fact that the BookDesigners operate at the highest level of the industry standard. I highly recommend their work.

I can be a bit of a perfectionist, especially when it comes to putting a book together... but Alan was so helpful during the entire process. He was patient and kind through out all edits and requests and was a joy to work with. They gave me the best price and had the quickest turn around time. 10/10 recommend working with this team of designers for all your book needs. (:

As a professional book writing, editing and publishing agency, we love partnering with the Book Designers on all our client's book cover and interior book formatting design needs! We've worked with them on many projects - they are always an absolute pleasure to work with: professional, punctual, skillful, and beyond. They create beautiful designs that always meet or exceed our expectations.

I could not be more pleased with the work the BookDesigners did on two of my books! They created stunning, distinctive cover art, and did absolutely beautiful interiors of two literary novels. I would never consider going with another book design company; I've found the best! Not only do they do excellent work, with no glitches or mistakes, they are sheer pleasure to work with: consummately skilled, easy to communicate with, receptive to ideas and opinions, responsive to questions, and invariably professional while being so dang NICE! I recommend them without reservation or hesitation!

I could not have asked for a better experience from The Book Designers. Their communication, design, and just genuine kindness made the process so smooth and professional. I appreciate the clarity, contracts, and process. From a company that has clearly been doing this for decades they were able to guide me in creating something I’m so proud of, really a lifelong dream. Highly recommend.

As an independent author I have been very careful about selecting members of my team in order to produce a professional product.

Working with Alan and Ian of The Book Designers is always a joy. It is one of my favorite moments in the production process when the initial images come through!

For my debut novel and the seven subsequent books I have published, they asked copious questions about the story, comps, my vision and genre before providing me with several initial cover options. From there I was able to provide feedback on what I liked (or didn’t) about each one and which spoke to me. They listened and reworked and I was then presented with a second round for additional feedback. Typically, one cover from the second round resonates either as is or with tweaks. I believe they have a third round standard, but I haven’t needed that.

The Book Designers have a huge breadth of experience and expertise in cover design and it shows. The covers they have created always garner attention and compliments from readers and have won awards. I trust their vision and creativity and will always return to them for cover work.

I also want to speak to their responsiveness. It is remarkable. The turnaround time from request to first round images is swift and they are quick to implement feedback. I have emailed them both early and late in the day and gotten a response back in a very timely fashion.

I recommend The Book Designers to anyone who is looking for creative, professional covers that are not simply AI responses to a prompt but are created based on skill, talent, and a deep understanding of the nature of cover design in publishing.

My experience with The Book Designers has been entirely positive.

They have created beautiful cover art and interior layouts for all of the books in my Jubilee Walker series, and are currently working on another one.

I have found them to be open to collaboration, responsive to my ideas, prompt to respond in all communications, and competitively priced.

In general, I have found them to be very professional, creative, pleasant to work with, and dependable.

Unprofessional Experience -Brief Ignored, Poor Quality, and Legal Threats

I hired BookDesigners at the end of May 2025 to design a cover for my nonfiction book.
As requested, I paid a 50% deposit upfront. From the outset, I made it very clear that I had a specific concept and creative vision in mind.

To support this, I submitted:
• A mockup (created via AI) to visually convey the layout and design idea
• A specific three-color palette
• Font files and written instructions on font usage (e.g. subtitle placement, styling, and hierarchy)
• Clear tone and style direction (elegant, minimalist, modern)
• Reference images and past covers as examples
• Notes on layout structure and recurring design elements to ensure visual consistency for future books in the series

They agree with these terms, and just because of that, I decided to hire them.

Despite this detailed brief, the results were far from what was requested. The designs ignored the colour scheme entirely, used unrelated fonts, and applied random stock imagery with no relation to the concept I had outlined. The layout and overall tone felt cluttered and amateur, and bore no resemblance to either my mockup or the stylistic cues discussed. None of the foundational elements I provided were integrated.

When I expressed my concerns—clearly and respectfully—I was met with defensiveness. Shortly after, the designer blocked me on Instagram, despite all project communication having taken place via email. This move appeared more like an attempt to avoid responsibility than resolve a professional disagreement.

To make matters worse, I then received a written warning that publicizing my experience could be considered “defamatory” and lead to legal action. In a follow-up, they explicitly stated:

“We’re terminating further communication. If you choose to pursue this further, you’ll be hearing from our attorney. We’re fully prepared to take this to small claims court with the signed contract and documentation of our work.”

This kind of intimidation is not only unprofessional, it’s deeply troubling. A client voicing dissatisfaction with a poorly delivered service, especially when supported by extensive documentation, should never be met with threats of legal consequences.

To put it plainly as an analogy: if you walk into a store, ask for a simple white T-shirt, show a reference, pay in advance, and are handed a loud yellow shirt covered in red print—how would you feel? Would it be acceptable for the seller to insist they “followed your brief,” refuse a refund, accuse me of exploiting and then threaten legal action when you raise your concerns?

This is not a matter of subjective taste. It is a breach of creative responsibility and professional conduct.

I have thoroughly documented every step of this project, from the brief to the design drafts to the correspondence. This was not just disappointing; it raises serious questions about the studio’s integrity, accountability, and treatment of clients—particularly those who select their lower-tier service packages.

Clients deserve transparency, professionalism, and respectful dialogue, especially when things go wrong. This experience, unfortunately, delivered none of those!!

Used these two once, they:

- charged customized illustration price for bare minimum stock image fiddling, and gave me a cover that was "remarkably similar" to a Big 5 book by an established author: (https) imgur (dot) com/a/NTGANiQ;

- charged 3x market price for bare minimum text formatting, did an underwhelming job, and complained about the amount of work;

- blamed their own sloppy mistakes on me, then pretended nothing happened after being called out; and

- lectured me about “respect” when I fired them.

Mediocre af yet have the audacity to call themselves "THE book designers". Well, crossing paths with them is THE most disgusting experience I've had in publishing.

They will be THE designers when every living thing with access to a doodle pad has died.

Edit 06.04: lol you want more info, here it is
- using stock =! stealing design. I've located the stock you used for other options, which consistently appeared near the one you copied in simple search results (imgur com a 7SYS8KA). Ppl can make up their own minds about the chances that you "have never seen that design"
- this is not a misunderstanding. You were lazy, you stole something, you got caught, and you tried to wiggle your way out of it by doubling down and gaslighting
- stop throwing words like "respect" around like you deserve it. What you did was not respectable