Hello, I'm a book designer

My name is Anton Khodakovsky. I have more than 23 years of experience in the field of graphic design, and I’ve been designing books for over 10 years, in genres ranging from spiritual guides to thrillers, and from popular science to poetry.

I've designed hundreds of titles, and know how to create a cover that stands out. The quality of my work is on par with the NYC major publishers—see for yourself.

Rates are reasonable, turnaround is quick,
and everybody is happy.

Some of my clients: Atticus Books (Kensington, MD), HolyCow! Press (Duluth, MN), HIS Publishing Group (Dallas, TX), Éditions Kéruss (Québec, Canada), Greenleaf Book Group, University of North Texas Press, and dozens of independent authors from across the United States.

How it works

While the process of writing often has a romantic flare, book market is all about selling, and what would sell what catches the eye. Readers spare you only a few seconds before making up their minds to buy (or not). They do judge a book by its cover.

Creating a great cover requires specific skills, experience and, of course, talent.

The design process takes about 20 to 35 hours. I research what the competing books look like, choose the right imagery and fonts, do some sketching and scribbling, photo manipulation, color correction and all that design stuff.

Within a week I'll deliver up to 4 front cover concepts. One of them is often accepted with minor tweaks, but you are welcome to ask for revisions or even for a completely new concept.

Once your front cover is approved, the back cover and spine will follow within a day or two. Once you approve the back cover, everything is ready to go to print.

I'll provide ready-to-print files to you or directly to your printer, according to the specifications. I've been working with the leading print-on-demand service providers like Amazon KDP and IngramSpark.

how long does it take?

Usual turnaround for book cover design is 10 days, from start to finish. Complete book design (cover, interior and typesetting) may take two and a half weeks if I start with a fully proofread manuscript and receive your feedback promptly during the process.

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Let me just say: a million thanks for the quick, amazing work on this! You are a rock star and a hero.
—Sean Murphy, author of Please Talk about Me When I'm Gone

...I showed your cover to my agent and my American editor and they both pronounced it "extremely cool".
—Matt Ruff, author of Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy

It’s not an arm and a leg

Here's an estimate to help you plan a budget.

899	The Custom Cover 5 concepts to choose from, up to 5 rounds of revisions*. *Additional rounds are $50 per hour.
150	Book interior design It involves selecting the typeface and margins, deciding how to indicate chapters, page numbers, footnotes etc. 3 layout samples to choose from.
	Typesetting & composition
3.5	Simple layout (per page). Yes, it’s only three and a half per page for novels and poetry. Price includes footnotes/endnotes, ToC and up to 5 black & white images.* * Additional images are $3 per image.
4.75	Complex layout (per page). Color images (pre-press & retouching included), up to 10 color images*. Tables, sidebars, extensive back matter, multilevel ToC. * Additional images are $5 per image.
180	Indexing Simple, reader friendly and practical alphabetical subject index. All I need is a keyword list.