How I found my cover artists

Here’s how I searched for cover artists for my two ebooks:

1.       I visited the Wizards of the Coast website and went through their wallpaper art galleries. For each piece of art (from Magic, D&D, or whatever) that I liked, I noted the artists name. WotC won’t give away contact information for their artists, so I searched for the artists online.

2.       I visited www.elfwood.com and searched for art. Again, I collected contact information for each artist.

3.       I went to a Barnes & Noble store and perused the books for cover art that I liked. I noted the artist name and then searched for them online.

I sent email to each of the artists, asking if they were available for commission work.

Here are the artists who responded and the fees that they charge for color cover art:

$400 Igor Kieryluk http://www.igorkieryluk.com/

$500-$1000 Les Peterson http://www.lespetersen.com.au/

$500 Brandon Leach http://www.brandonleachart.com/

$1500-$2000 Steve Argyle http://www.steveargyle.com/ (for ecover)

$2000-$3000 Eric Deschamps http://www.ericdeschamps.com/

$2500-$4500 Stephan Martiniere http://www.martiniere.com/

$3000 Raymond Swanland http://www.raymondswanland.com/

$3000 Daniel Horne (website gone)

$3500 Dan Dos Santos http://www.dandossantos.com/

$5000 Todd Lockwood http://www.toddlockwood.com/

Just like many other self-publishers, I don’t have thousands of dollars to pay for cover art. Happily, I found Igor Kieryluk who charges only $400 and I like his style more than many of the others. I also found Les Peterson, who actually lowers his price for debut authors. Both Igor and Les are great to work with and I emphatically recommend them to anyone who needs artwork.

I have heard that other authors have found cover artists who charge below $100. However, I think those are mostly photomanipulation artists. I prefer non-photo covers for my books. But, if you want to save even more money on your cover, you should look into photo artists.

If anyone has any artists of any stripe who they would like to recommend, please add them to the comments below.

UPDATE: Here's another artist recommendation from Tara Maya's comment:

I found the art for the cover of Tomorrow We Dance on Deviant Art. Because I knew I couldn't afford to commission a piece, I cheated and looked for a piece that was already done which perfectly captured the character and mood of the story. Then I made the artist an offer.

Because she was so approachable, next time I *may* commission a piece from her. (She is amenable.) You can see the cover on my site, or on Amazon. (Note: the story is included in the anthology Conmergence, so if you've already bought that one, you don't need Tomorrow We Dance. But if $2.99 is too much, Tomorrow We Dance is only .99.)

Here's her contact info:

websites:
http://www.coroflot.com/chermilla
http://chermilla.deviantart.com/