When designing a book cover, premade book cover designs skip past a blank slate to an existing book cover design that needs only to be customized into a finished cover and expanded for authors who want to offer a paperback or hardcover option.

Premade covers like The Forest Queen, Next Door Witch, and All the Lies She Told underwent almost no major changes to be converted into their final cover. Conversely, A Formal Affair required some significant edits and the addition of a hand-drawn flowing cape, and A Raven in Winter saw a dramatic revision that included changing the color of the model’s tulle dress, as well as her makeup. [see the digital editing work to turn A Raven in Winter into Here There Be Monsters at michfisher.com] 

Some premade book covers can even become the basis for a series brand concept. For example, the Bats premade cover served as the inspiration for the entire 10-book box set for author Charmaine Pauls’s 7 Forbidden Arts series — with the final design carrying the overall look and distinctive fonts into the final ebook covers and paperback book cover designs — and the Obstruction of Justice premade concept was expanded into a trilogy.

[see the case study Expanding a Premade Book Cover Into a Series at michfisher.com]