Alan Rinzler

Consulting Editor

  • Home
  • About
  • Author List
  • Services
  • Testimonials
  • FAQ
  • Video
  • Blog
  • Contact

The blog for writers

The Book Deal

How Guy Kawasaki got his cover for Art of the Start: Q&A

June 26, 2008 by Alan Rinzler

gk.jpgLike many authors, Guy Kawasaki has struggled with his publishers to get the cover designs he wants for his books. But unlike anyone else before him, he decided to take matters into his own hands and hold an online contest to recruit and select the best possible jacket for his book The Art of the Start.

The response was phenomenal, with hundreds of submissions from graphic artists and design firms all over the country.

Of course it helped to be Guy Kawasaki, whose name and website come up near the top of a Google search for the just the word “guy”. That’s out of 672,000,000, folks.

This Guy is famous for being a pioneer and entrepreneur in tech promotions, start-ups, and publishing for many years. He was an early evangelist for the Macintosh to software and hardware developers, and later an Apple Fellow, whose tour of duty was to maintain and rejuvenate the Macintosh Cult. He’s now a Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm.

guy2.jpgHe’s written eight books, including Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and most recently The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything, a book that Guy says “reflects my experience as an evangelist, entrepreneur, investment banker, and venture capitalist.” The book has sold 68,000*, and continues to sell more than 200 copies a week, four years after it was published.

We can all take a lesson from his success at engaging the community in creating a better book with a built-in market, whether it’s through a contest like this, open source participation as the book is being written, or other special outreach techniques as befits your unique creation.

“Anyone can give this a shot and create some buzz around their book”

-Guy Kawasaki

I spoke to Guy a few days ago to ask about his experience with the online jacket design contest:

Why did you take this route, rather than go through usual process of working with the publisher’s art director?

My publisher showed me six designs they had commissioned and I didn’t much like any of them, so I decided to run my own cover design contest with friends from iStockphoto and was lucky to get hundreds of submissions, finally boiling it down to three finalists.

Who were the judges?

Me, myself, and I.

How did your publisher feel about letting you run the show?

They were OK with it, especially when they saw the three finalists. They even upped the prize from the original $1000 Canon digital camera to a big fee for the winning designer, Adam Tucker, at their usual rate, which they had not agreed to at first.

Do you recommend this approach for other authors?

Sure. Not every author has the name recognition on the internet that I do, or would necessarily attract as many contestants on the same level. But why not? Anyone can give it a shot and create some buzz around their book.

What were the benefits for you?

It inspired a whole lot of entries and a lot of publicity for the book in the community. We had so many good covers that we not only used the winner on the front but included 85 other versions on the inside cover of the book, which was a first. So everyone is real happy about it, and it will be coming out next in paperback.

* Book sales figures are from Neilsen BookScan, which collects retail sales data for the book industry.

Update on Adam Tucker, winner of Guy’s cover contest. We thought his career as a book jacket designer might have taken off, given the visibility of his winning cover, but it took a little sleuthing to find him and here’s why: “I’m still working as a freelancer, but I’m also a part-time seminary student these days,” he wrote, responding eventually to a Facebook message. “So, I have my clients I generally work for, and the occasional new one due to word-of-mouth. All that to say, I don’t even have a website :-)”

Filed Under: Book Industry Trends, Marketing Your Book

About The Book Deal

Welcome readers.  Let me introduce myself and offer up some credentials for the opinions, perspectives and insights in this blog. In nearly … more »

Working with Alan

I can’t thank you enough!

"Working together was interesting, challenging, and fun. I can't thank you enough for taking my stories and putting them in a comprehensible order, focusing more on my younger, formative days with my parents, and helping me remember great events that added so much to the book."

– US Senator Barbara Boxer. Her memoir, The Art of Tough, was published by Hachette in June 2016.

Figure out how to get Alan on your side

"Figure out how to get Alan on your side. He took my rambling manifesto and helped me hone it into a sharp, funny, culture-changing book featured in the New York Times, the New Yorker, The Atlantic, the Times of London, and most recently on The Daily Show."

– Lenore Skenazy, author Free Range Kids – How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children Without Going Nuts with Worry.

Enthusiastic, imaginative and razor sharp

"Alan is enthusiastic, imaginative, razor-sharp, concise. His line-editing is specific and actionable; his developmental advice truly invaluable, providing focus and direction to the often chaotic process of writing a first novel."

– David Tomlinson, author of The Midnight Man.

An advocate, friend and mentor

“Alan can tell you at one glance, where a manuscript works and where it doesn’t. More than an editor, he’s an advocate, friend, mentor, and a bullshit detector of the highest caliber.”

–  Celeste Chaney, author of In Absence of Fear

A 5-star Olympic Gold Medal for editing!

"Alan Rinzler has edited seven of my books, and no one compares to his competence as an editor. Everything I write he makes better. Alan knows the business, knows writing and understands a writer’s needs. He has my 5-Star Olympic Gold Medal for editing! I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him."

– Michele Borba, author of Building Moral Intelligence, The Big Book of Parenting Solutions, and others.

Featured Video

view more »

Ask the Editor

Tips for blending in the backstory

Tips for blending in
the backstory
2015-07-28T14:50:53-07:00
Tips for blending in the backstory
https://alanrinzler.com/testimonials/tips-for-blending-in-the-backstory/

Wake up your readers! How to thicken a plot

Wake up your readers!
How to thicken a plot
2015-07-28T15:29:05-07:00
Wake up your readers! How to thicken a plot
https://alanrinzler.com/testimonials/another-link/

Memoir or novel for my true story?

Memoir or novel
for my true story?
2015-07-28T20:47:16-07:00
Memoir or novel for my true story?
https://alanrinzler.com/testimonials/3172/

Is your book in need of emotional glue?

Is your book in need of emotional glue?
2015-07-28T20:51:25-07:00
Is your book in need of emotional glue?
https://alanrinzler.com/testimonials/is-your-book-in-need-of-emotional-glue/

Can I really become a better writer?

Can I really become a better writer?
2015-07-28T21:05:22-07:00
Can I really become a better writer?
https://alanrinzler.com/testimonials/can-i-really-become-a-better-writer/

7 techniques for a dynamite plot

7 techniques for
a dynamite plot
2015-07-28T21:17:53-07:00
7 techniques for a dynamite plot
https://alanrinzler.com/testimonials/7-techniques-for-a-dynamite-plot-2/

What to expect from a developmental editor

What to expect from
a developmental editor
2015-07-28T21:21:18-07:00
What to expect from a developmental editor
https://alanrinzler.com/testimonials/what-to-expect-from-a-developmental-editor/

Categories

  • Ask the Editor (23)
  • Book Industry Trends (81)
  • Book Proposal Critiques (4)
  • Craft of Writing (72)
  • Guts Ball: Editing Hunter Thompson (3)
  • How To Get Published (80)
  • Literary Agent Profiles (11)
  • Literary Destinations (3)
  • Marketing Your Book (33)
  • Memoir (7)
  • Parts of a Book (5)
  • Self-Publishing (34)
  • The writer's toolkit (3)
  • Writers at work (2)

Follow me on

2008-2025 © Alan Rinzler Consulting Editor