DIY: fast to start, honest about the middle
A template-based tool produces a presentable draft in minutes; the real hours go into the decisions that make it publishable — trying title treatments, testing the thumbnail against the category grid, and adjusting contrast. Budget an evening for a first serious pass and a second session after sleeping on it. The common failure mode is shipping the first draft; the second look is where DIY covers stop looking DIY.
Premade: the design already exists
A premade cover is finished art waiting for your title, so turnaround is typically days, driven by the designer's queue and one round of text placement. Speed is the point, exclusivity is the trade — confirm whether the design is retired after your purchase and what the license covers. Premades suit tight launch dates and clean genre fits.
Custom: what the weeks actually contain
A commissioned cover spends its first days on the brief and research, then a week or more on initial concepts, then the bulk of the calendar on revision rounds and final production files. Two to six weeks is the range marketplace guidance commonly quotes for the whole arc, and popular designers book out further. The lever an author controls is the brief: a precise one saves a full revision round; a vague one adds two.
The step no route can skip
Whatever made the front cover, the print wrap waits for the finished interior: the spine is calculated from the final formatted page count and paper, so the complete back-spine-front sheet can only be produced after formatting locks. Plan the cover early, but schedule the wrap after pagination — and if the page count changes in proofing, the wrap must be recalculated, which takes minutes in a calculator and days in an email thread.
Sources: Reedsy 2026 cover design cost study · Reedsy book cover designer marketplace. Reviewed ; recheck the official page before production.