Category: Creative Business

For “Creator to Cover” to run there are four main elements that I would need to get started: a website, a domain, advertising/promotion and the software to create the designs. I would be running this as a side business alongside a part time job and spending free time producing content and keeping profits earned as payment for myself. I would run the business this way for the first 2 year until the business grew to be big enough it needed more of my time to keep up with the demand.

To start the business I will have 3 main costs to get established and running along with some promotional tasks to do. I would not need any equipment as my product is online and digital and I already have a sufficient computer to work from. The first thing will be creating a website, Wix offers Entrepreneurs & Freelancers pricing coming to £8.50 a month. Secondly I would be using Adobe Illustrator to create the cover designs for the clients, this costs £19.97 a month for the single app subscription on the Adobe site. Along with this I would create the social media accounts I need to promote my business through posts, stories and interactions. I would also use these social media accounts to run ads. I have set a £50 a month budget for advertisements on social media, this is the minimum you can spend on them to have a successful ad campaign. This brings the start up costs to £78.47 which is small enough that an investor wouldn’t be needed to start up the business.

For my costs for year 1 it would encompass the 3 main costs I laid out above. The first would be a website at £8.50 a month, Wix offers a free domain for the first year too so a domain would not need to be purchased as of yet. The site costs would total £102 a year and be the smallest cost for running the business. The second would be the subscription for the software. This being £19.97 would total £239.64 a year. The third cost is the ads on social media, as my ad budget is £50 a month (roughly £1.50-£2 a day) this would come to a total of £600 a year. This is a significant cost for the business but one of the most important ones to attract clients to the social media accounts and to the business’s website and is something that I think is worth spending money on. Most of the budget would go towards the instagram adverts as I think they would be more successful as there is a larger publishing industry on that platform and ads would be easier to target. This would bring the first year total to £941.64 in expenses.

For year 2 of the business the same costs would apply totalling £941.64 but there would be an additional £10 a year for a website domain. I found that on Google Domains I can get the domain I would want for as little as £10 a year so this cost would be added to my expenses as Wix does not offer a free domain in the second year of having your website. This would bring the second year expenses total to £951.64.

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When working out if my business would be profitable with these expenses I started to calculate the sales totals I would predict getting in the first and second year per week. I estimated a weekly sale total of between £50 – 70 a week in the first year, averaging at £60 a week. As well as larger series cover projects totalling £1000 a year. This would come to £4120 in sales. This would be a good profit as it would cover the expenses required in the first year and leave £3178.36 in profit for myself. For the second year I estimated growth for the company and set the estimated sales at £100-150 per week, averaging at £125 along with larger projects totalling £2000 a year. This would result in yearly sales of £8500 a year which is a significant increase from the first year. Subtracting the expenses for the second year, which would make the profit of £7548.36.

This means that the total expenses for the first 2 years is £1893.28, the sales totals would be £12,620 and the profit would come out to be £10726.72. This would mean the company would be profitable in the first 2 years and make it economically viable. With these profits I believe by the 3rd year I would be able to comfortably and easily run the business as a full time endeavour.

References:

Adobe, 2020. Creative Cloud Pricing And Membership Plans | Adobe Creative Cloud. [online] Adobe.com. Available at: https://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/plans.html [Accessed 18 November 2020].

Wix.com. 2020. Wix Pricing Information | Upgrade To A Premium Plan | Wix.Com. [online] Available at: https://www.wix.com/upgrade/website [Accessed 18 November 2020].

Domains.google.com. 2020. Google Domains. [online] Available at: https://domains.google.com/registrar/search?searchTerm=creatortocover&hl=en# [Accessed 18 November 2020].

The diagram below I created to show my idea for a promotional plan for this business. I was thinking that it would be best to gain interaction with potential customers through establishing and promoting a social media presence as this, in my opinion, is the easiest way to reach the most people. I know from experience using social media it is easy to build a following in the subject you like by interacting and following like minded individuals, therefore growing your reach and following allowing for more interactions.

My idea is to create social media accounts on Instagram and Twitter. These accounts would be used to post content about the service, eventually repost service reviews from customers, and to interact with potential customers and push a friendly and helpful narrative for the business and its customer service. This would be the best way to reach potential customers on a personal level, answering questions in direct messages, replying to comments etc. By following accounts who have an interest in books and publishing and smaller authors, this is helping to show the account to people who would be most interested in the service and making sure it can start to be recognised by people and followed.

Using these social media accounts, the business would not only create relevant content and interact with potential clients, the accounts would also be used to reach out to influencers and also smaller authors personally asking for an opportunity to promote the company. By doing this the reach of the business would increase as it would be shown to more people who may not have known about it and increase the potential interested parties. These larger accounts could be asked to create content promoting the service such as a post or story in exchange for discounted services if they are interested or a small amount of compensation. They could also be used to promote offers such as a 10% off code etc.

Another promotional idea is to use social media sponsored ads, targeting the desired demographic. These are easy to set up and can cost fairly little depending on the time needed and the desired reach. These are a good option as it would encourage people to check out the service after seeing the ad as it would be relevant to their interests, even if they don’t use it they could remember it to tell a friend.

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“Creator to Cover”, when looking into similar ideas and existing services is quite unique on the front of book cover design. As the name I have come up with suggests, it would focus more on taking the creator’s idea (the author) from just a concept to a full professional design. I could not find any services themselves that actually catered specifically to creating book covers from scratch, taking into account the creativity and influence from the author, and instead just found a myriad of independent sellers who sold pre-made designs.

I couldn’t find any ideas that were exactly similar to this concept of mine, but there are many services out there for other design areas such as business cards or websites that can be hired to create your dream content. This I think is probably the most similar to my idea, a service which designs something specific for a customer and works with them to bring an idea to life. For example the company seen below, Plasma Design, offers a free design service along with the ability to upload your own designs. They offer a questionnaire that asks for information about your business, what you’re considering for the design, any sketches you may have etc. to help to design what you are envisioning. They will send designs and garner feedback from you to help make revisions and produce exactly what you are needing. This is the type of service I would like for my business idea to provide just to a different audience and selling a different product. I like how they offer this service additionally for free along with uploading your own content as they of course manufacture the designs. This as I said in post 1 could be a possible expansion for my idea if it were to be come successful and gain the facilities and funds to print the books that were being designed, a print on demand kind of service that could then offer low or even free cost design services.

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Whilst researching I found many examples of this practice of pre-designed covers, allowing no true input from the buyer. Many of these could only be minimally customised (e.g adding the author name or changing the title) and some others were being sold solely as shown with the titles and information being unable to be added or changed, sometimes only available with further spending. These instances of pre-made covers I was able to find on sites like Etsy, a creative market place, and varied in price from the cheapest I saw being £30 and some of the most expensive I saw being close to £300 for a pre-made set. Even though I think there is room for this to be eventually an option for “Creator to Cover” when looking for expansion, the idea of almost off the shelf designs and the ability to customise to some degree, I believe that this does not offer adequate control to the clients looking for a design service. The idea that a lot of individuals out there create covers themselves then sell those pre-made ideas may work for some people but I’d think that most authors would want a lot more customisation and control over their book’s outcome. Below is an example of one of the designs I found whilst looking on Etsy at pre-made design sets.

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Honestly I do not think there is a service out there that is like my business idea. There are no services that uniquely specify in this subject area or that are able to give the amount of customisation that this idea could offer clients. Having a site that is specialised in the area of design you are seeking is really important as if you asked a designer with no experience or interest, you may not be able to get your vision realised as they would not be as knowledgeable about what your needs would be or what would be best for the cover of your novel. This makes this idea more attractive to potential clients as they would feel like they knew they were getting a personalised service and something that will match their vision successfully. I think for this level of care and attention the prices could comfortably be set around those of the pre-made covers on Etsy but they would be more justified in my eyes as you have some one dedicated to bringing your idea to life working with you to create it.

PlasmaDesign. n.d. Plasmadesign – The World’s Most Innovative Business Cards. [online] Available at: <https://www.plasmadesign.co.uk/> [Accessed 5 November 2020].

MagicalBookCovers (Etsy) , n.d. 5 Pre-Made Urban Fantasy YA Book Covers | Etsy. [online] Etsy. Available at: <https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/875317782/5-pre-made-urban-fantasy-ya-book-covers?ref=shop_home_feat_3> [Accessed 6 November 2020].

My business idea that I have chosen is that of a book cover design service, titled “Creator to Cover”. The idea for this service came to me when I was talking to one of my close friends who is an author, and she was talking about how it’s really hard to create covers for her books because she doesn’t necessarily have the skills for it and there aren’t really many options out there for custom covers that she could create. Her first book cover she asked a friend to create a simple art piece for her and then took this into Microsoft Powerpoint and added some text on top of it to create the cover. This was not the most efficient way to design the cover and it didn’t quite yield what my friend imagined at the start of the process. My idea would allow authors to get personal design advice and help with their book covers all in one place to help ease the process of this important design choice.

On this site I envision there to be a base form to fill out with information on the plot of your book that is relevant to your desired cover, the title of course and the genre of the work. Along with this there would be a place to submit files and images, be it a sketch you made of a general idea, some art work you had commissioned for your work, some reference images of the style you are going for etc. This information would then be taken and reviewed and some simple designs would be made. The author could then chose one of these they like most to be brought to the final design. A proper final design would then be made and the author would receive this new cover for their book. This service would of course be paid and a discount could be given for purchasing design services for multiple books in a series at once. I see “Creator to Cover” becoming a go to place recommended by freelance authors for their design needs when it comes to creating their book covers.

In addition there could also be a possibility of a cheaper however less personalised service on the website. I feel like this would be an additional point of sale to add to the site later on to bring in more varied audiences with differing budgets. This would be much like a design tool, with pre-made text and images (or alternatively an option to import their own images) that could be chosen and your title and information added to it. As this would be less personal and more generic it could cost less than a fully custom cover and could be a good option for authors on a lower budget. This would be a good idea as then there are two points of sale at the business allowing for people who want to spend a little or a lot being catered to.

I also think there is the option of having people design for the site, or even sell base designs on the site all in one place. This would be more like a Redbubble type of site where creators create the content, upload it and the site is the host. There are already individuals providing this service and having it concisely shown on one helpful website could help them garner sales of their work. This could be a future expansion on the idea for once it is established and consequently more designers could be hired to further produce content who are adding impressive work to the site. There are many other areas of expansion this business could encompass, such as possibly opening its own design and print on demand publishing business and other such large scale ideas.

This business idea is something I find really interesting and to be something that I am passionate about. In college I had a final major project which allowed us to chose whatever we wanted, mine became redesigning some of my favourite books as illustrated covers. I really enjoyed this process and it was something I like doing, so if I had to create a business I do think that an idea centring about books and the publishing industry is something that I would realistically like to be involved in. I think this would be an idea that would interest smaller publishing companies and independent authors alike and would change the industry having easy design all in one place.

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