Every good book needs a great cover. It’s a powerful billboard for conveying the spirit and content of your book. So, you’ll need a good graphic design belfast company or somewhere more local to help you bring the cover of your book to life.
An eye-catching cover can persuade readers to pick up and buy a book. But a jacket that’s confusing or boring or worse, can stop a potential buyer from giving that same book a second glance. Covers also need to pop as thumbnails, for all those online shoppers.
Publishers rely on talented jacket designers to create great covers. These specialized graphic artists are either on staff or hired as freelancers. Staff designers frequently cross over, creating a jacket for their own publisher one week, freelancing for another house the next week, and taking on an indie author client the week after that. Thus they are familiar with the process and can select the right graphic designing software and photo editors like PicMonkey (https://serp.co/reviews/picmonkey/).
Attention indie authors
For self-publishing authors, the ability to hire a professional designer is a new and important development, because nothing shouts amateur louder than a lousy book jacket. “There’s no reason why a self-published book should look “self published,” says Laura Duffy, a senior art director at Random House.
Hear hear! Read on to learn how four highly successful book jacket designers create stunning, memorable covers, along with their practical advice for writers who want to understand and participate in the crucial process of getting it right.
How 4 professional designers create great covers
Laura Duffy is Senior Art Director at Crown, a division of Random House, where she has worked in the art department for 15 years.
Kimberly Glyder is principal at her own book-design firm based in the Philadelphia area.
Henry Sene Yee is the Creative Director of Picador, a leading literary trade paperback imprint of Macmillan Publishing.
David Drummond is founder and principal of Salamander Hill Design, based in Québec, Canada.
What’s the most important thing to accomplish in a jacket design?
Laura Duffy: My goal is to create a cover that stands out, gets the correct message across, and looks interesting and even exciting. In the olden days our only goal was to have a jacket standout on a crowded bookstore shelf that would inspire someone to cross the store to pick it up. Now we also have to consider how covers will look online, so we’re doing things like making fonts thicker and subtitles bigger and really paying attention to how designs look when they’re shrunk down.
Kimberly Glyder: It’s been said before, by Chip Kidd [one of the industry’s best known designers] that a successful book cover is one that gets you to pick the book up in a store. I would add to that in this day and age, if someone “clicks” on a book online I’m doing my job well. Book covers are still marketing tools and a good design is one that makes someone want to take a closer look. My fear with e-books is that a large image and big type is what ebook publishers consider successful. Clickable covers are not ideal though, I still hope people buy their books in bookstores!
Henry Sene Yee: My goal is that the reader has an emotional response and connection to the story and characters or ideas. The minimum you can do is give out info, but how you say determines how it will be received, like hey, by the way, your house is on fire.
David Drummond: To surprise the viewer – not in a gimmicky way – but hopefully by solving the visual problem in an intelligent way.
How do you begin the design of a new jacket?
Duffy: Here at Random House we have concept meetings at the beginning of every list where we sit down with the editors and listen to what they’d like to see on the cover, as well as offer ideas of our own. I try to read whatever is available in order to have as much to work with as possible. Occasionally I work directly with an author. I look at other jackets in the same genre (comp titles). I also research online to get a bigger picture of what I’m working with, perhaps looking at an author’s website.
Glyder: I do like to read the manuscript in its entirety. Typically, I’m given a pub sheet with information regarding the sales handle and competing titles. With about 90 percent of my cover jobs, my interaction is limited to working with the art director who acts as a go-between with the editor, publisher, sales, marketing, and the author. I do sometimes see email exchanges with the author, but mostly I’m kept out of that discussion. The benefit of working with a traditional publisher, rather than with an author who’s self-published, is to make use of the specialists who deal with books on a daily basis.
Yee: In my meetings, I may ask for plot summary, characters and description but what I need to know is the theme, tone, mood, point of the book, what makes this different than other similar books, the meaning of the title, etc. An author & the editor can get too personally close to the project and know and want too much on the cover. I need to reduce and suggest using symbols, metaphors, tone. Not say everything. I do not want to illustrate a scene or turning point in the book but the subtext of that scene and what it means to the overall theme.
Drummond: I read the book if it’s fiction. If it is non-fiction I try and get a really good brief. I am always looking for a hook or a way into the material. If I need more information I talk to the editor and on occasion the author although that rarely happens.
Have you taken on self-publishing authors as clients?
Duffy: Yes, many times. I love working with these authors because I can bring all my experience to the project, including marketing ideas. Many times I’ve helped them evaluate their copy and its emphasis, perhaps changing wording or including elements in the design that make information pop that they didn’t realize was important. I’ve also helped them create selling back cover copy and discussed ways to market their books. It’s a lot of fun. My advice to them, is that if they’re hiring me they’re in good hands, so let me do what I do best and not over think the design. There’s no reason why a self-published book should look “self published”.
Glyder: Up until last year, I rarely accepted self-publishing authors. However, it’s hard not to notice that the publishing environment is changing rapidly and self-publishers have many more resources available to them. Still, I’m picky–I tend only to take on self-publishing authors whose work I find very interesting. As a designer, it’s difficult to take on authors directly who may not understand the publishing process and how books are marketed, especially just how important it is to consider the audience in finding a successful tone for a design. My experience working directly with authors is that they become set on one vision, rather than being open to understanding that the way they view their book may be different than how a book needs to be marketed so it appeals to a wider audience.
Yee: I have. The best advice is to hire someone good and then trust them to do their best job. Have all your information ready for them to create.
Drummond: Lately I have been doing quite a few covers for self-published authors. The ones I have worked with have been really good about letting me do my thing with a few exceptions.
Do you have a standard contract with mutual expectations, dates and other terms? What’s the typical cost range for a jacket design?
Duffy: Some of the houses I do freelance for send me very specific contracts with design direction, due dates, and budgets. The costs vary from house to house with the smaller ones paying $500-$800 a cover, and the larger ones $1200-$1800.
Glyder: Most of my contracts come directly from the publisher. Dates and terms are included, covering all expectations, including (sometimes most importantly) the kill fee. When I hand off the initial comps and can bill for half the fee, that’s already a large amount of time spent. Typical fees range on the low end for university press clients approximately $800, all the way up to $3000 for some trade publishers.
Yee: In general, two weeks for sketches/comps for the art director and another week to refine an idea to show the editor. And then the game of a thousand cooks with their own opinions of the cover begins. The base amount is $1500. But can range as low as $1,000, and as high as $5,000
Drummond: The process is usually quite informal. I do sign contracts for the bigger publishers. My range for cover designs runs the gamut. Average fee is about $1000.
DIY book jackets
Many authors feel strongly about having a hand in their own jacket design. The late Steve Jobs reportedly loathed the initial cover design of his own biography by Walter Isaacson. Jobs, although not the author, insisted on redoing the cover himself with the clean white aesthetic typical of Apple products.
In the case of author Bruce Spitzer, a background in advertising led him to design the jacket to his debut novel Extra Innings, a sci-fi baseball thriller about Red Sox legend Ted Williams, who is brought back to life with cryonics in the year 2092. Spitzer, experienced working with graphic print media, had a strong sense of the front cover photo and design he wanted, and a creative way of achieving his goals.
Spitzer had a limited budget, so he recruited a graphic design college intern who could translate his rough sketches into a polished jacket. He then found a photographer online who turned out to be a huge Red Sox fan. A neighbor with a young son fit the bill perfectly as the tall, lanky Ted Williams and Johnnie, a child who plays a central role in the novel. Then he located a vintage Ted Williams’ jersey with his famous number nine, bought some cleats and authentic red socks, and they were ready to go.
Spitzer’s garage became a photo studio using the photographer’s lights, a white backdrop, reflectors, shades, power cords and cameras on tripods. Of course, he probably needed professional help from a cleaning company like Modern Maids in Houston to get the place spotless before the studio could be set up, but it’s definitely manageable. He found a model release online, always a good idea. A few days after the photoshoot, Spitzer and his designer sorted through the shots to pick a favorite, choose the jacket’s colors, the type, and to organize the copy Spitzer had written.
If you don’t have the resources to set up a studio in your own home, you can always look into production studios for shoots. They are built to provide you with the best quality photographs and have many of the resources you will need. It might be a bit more costly but the end result will be well worth it.
Costs so far for his jacket, still a work in progress: Art Direction/Graphic Design: $300. Photography: $300. Props:$200. Models: $1. Collaboration: “Priceless!” Spitzer says.
What about you?
As authors, what’s your take on all this? Have you been satisfied with your jacket designs? Did your publisher involve you in the process? If not, do you wish you’d had the opportunity? And if you’re self-publishing, what are your plans for your cover design?
Any thoughts on the jackets pictured in this post? Which stand out for you?
A great article which gives some really useful insight into the book cover design, I would also recommend the use of a professional, the idea of making one yourself is tempting but should be left to a professional who’ll be able to match your design to not only the genre but the market too. I would also recommend you check out some of the portfolio at http://www.jdandj.com too.
Thanks, D
Really good, insightful article. All I can add is 1. have a great cover and 2. don’t neglect to do an author’s website. I have both and I am selling a lot of my recent book, “I’m a Type A — How the Heck Will I Ever Retire?” I used a very experienced designer for both, Audria at DesignbyIndigo. I add content once per week to my website — fun articles — and I’m getting 100 – 200 hits a day. That is helping me sell books. Don’t skimp on design or you’ll be sorry.
Andy
You’ve chosen a striking but ambiguous image that in my opinion does need words so the shopper or potential buyer isn’t confused about what the book is about.
I recommend you include not only the title and author credit but in this case more information like “The Tale of a Young Girl’s Pain, Loss and Healing” or something like that.
Otherwise a reader seeing the cover in a variety of settings might think it’s a book about the Louvre: Art and Architecture.
I met with Alan at a workshop in Marin and took his sage advice to publish my e-book at Amazon in order to establish a track record. I followed his logic that if I’m going to have everyone I know read my book anyway, why not start collecting the 5-10,000 copies needed to soothe the risk-averse traditional publishing community.
My first cover image had no words. I know I’m not the only one who posted just a picture when they couldn’t figure out how to doctor a jpeg image properly. But now that I’ve gotten my son to help, using his MAC, I’m wondering about the commercial appeal of presenting a cover with image only, no words. After all, in an ebook advertisement, the image is presented right next to the title, author,and synopsis. These listing elements formerly existed only on the sleeve of the book, but now they’re part of the ad. Many album and cd covers with images only have been quite successful.
Here’s a link to the Amazon ad for my new book Glass Palace. What do you guys think about putting it up without words, as I originally planned? Know of anybody doing that?
http://www.amazon.com/Glass-Palace-ebook/dp/B0078P7BRK
You can write me back at . I’ll be happy to send you an copy of the image file without words to compare. I couldn’t figure out how to post it here side by side.
and don’t forget the spine
Great information! Will share this post with my book publishing overview students at Emerson when we reach the unit on book and cover design.
For my indi release of THE BETWEEN, I was fortunate to have worked with an amazingly talented artist, Jade E. Zivanovic, a woman I was in an online writing group with several years ago. She was looking for subjects to work with just as I needed a cover design. We communicated via the interwebs, she read my story, and started to come up with character sketches.
It was an incredible process and I couldn’t have been happier with the final design. You can see her cover here:
http://www.amazon.com/Between-LJ-Cohen/dp/0984787011
Wow, $1000 for a cover? That needs quite a lot of sales just to cover the price of the cover design but I presume the publishers think it is worth their while. I produce covers for writers publishing on Amazon and Smashwords and produce about 10 covers a week. I’m not in the league of these guys but I think my covers aren’t bad.
http://www.jeremytaylor.eu/smashword_covers.htm
Dear Alan, I am writing a memoir now and hope to self publish it in 2013. I already hired a graphic designer for my e-Cover. His price was very reasonable and his work was good. Thanks for all your help and enlightenment! You are increasing my chances for sucess.
Thank you so much. Just what I needed as I just contracted a designer to do my book jacket.
When I published my first two (and so far only) books, I recruited a designer whose work I liked. She had never designed a book, but we worked together on it and she translated my ideas into covers that really worked. I have a background in p.r. with a lot of time in graphics and we trusted each other toward getting just what we wanted. It was a great experience. I’ll hire her again for my next book.
This was a very helpful piece that reminds me to look at the new need to have the cover great for online marketing as well as book stores. Thanks…
http://www.skylarkwritingstudio.com
Great article, and some eye-catching covers. I really like the one by Kimberly Glyder; it’s stark and compelling and the colors pop.
As an Indie, I tried doing my own cover. I managed to Gimp up my idea, but it screamed amateur. I hired a designer and he took my idea to a professional level.
The two covers are on my facebook page. I doubt anybody would have trouble telling which was mine and which was the pro’s. If you want to have a look:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toni-Dwiggins/293769983970874
nice read thanks
I have five hardcover novels with Five Star/Gale since 2007 and I’ve always had input into the cover art. If I found something wrong, they redesigned it. With my current novel, THE TRUTH SLEUTH, it was designed exactly as I suggested and there have been many compliments on the book jacket. DEATH LEGACY which won’t be published until March was another story. The initial cover art was all wrong for the novel. I explained that the book was a mystery thriller not a cozy. The resulting change in cover art was excellent. Now I just have to hope reviewers think so too and select the novel for review!
Andy
A professional jacket designer probably will have had experience in laying out and choosing type to go with an illustration that’s been commissioned. The trick is to choose an experienced and creative designer whom you can talk to about exactly what you want, and then will prepare a few comps for discussion before finalizing.
I’m curious about a specific case not represented here. All the covers above reflect the modern adult trend of using primarily photographic or stenciled (vector) art. Certain genre books (namely Fantasy and Science Fiction) have more of a tradition of “painted” images. Of course, these days this often means Photoshop and may even include heavily modified photographic elements. Still, we are talking denser images than the stenciled sort. Modern examples of this would be http://www.amazon.com/Children-Sky-Zones-Thought/dp/0312875622/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1321064247&sr=8-4 or http://www.amazon.com/Clockwork-Angel-Infernal-Devices-Cassandra/dp/141697587X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321064298&sr=1-1 .
Painters often do not do the typography or the more mechanical part of cover design, even though they often specialize in and complete dozens of book covers a year. I’ve commissioned an image in this manner from a well known cover artist. Any suggestions on interfacing this with a separate cover designer to do the logo, typography, layout etc?
Charles,
Thanks for your comment. I took a look at your design site, and recommend readers here do the same.
There are some very nice covers to check out: http://insidefaceout.com/
I greatly respect all these designers. Great article.
Having the programs and a little bit of knowledge on how they work, does not make you a designer. The most important thing a designer brings is their training, knowledge and experience in the craft of book design. Just because I can fire up Word and type, doesn’t mean I should be editing authors manuscripts.
To all self publishers, the best thing you can do is hire a quality book designer. A bad cover, and there are a lot of them, can affect your sales almost more than anything else.
Thank you for this post, Alan, and all. Covers are such an important part of the publishing process, and when they are not done well, they are a huge detriment to the book.
Like Michelle who commented above, I have had the experience from both the Traditional publisher side, and also in self-publishing. I have recently self-published my Traditionally published book in the e-book form (the rights have reverted to me). But unlike Michelle, the second cover (http://amzn.to/enjoytoday) is much different than the Traditional publisher’s original cover (http://amzn.to/s60L3P).
I learned from working with the Traditional publisher just how little control over a cover an author really has. When they sent the original form of the hardcover cover to me, the cover photo came with the woman cross-eyed and missing a tooth. Truly. After I raised it as an issue, they assured me they would fix it. They did. With Photoshop.
Since then, I have learned the value of having an agent as an advocate, and many more things. I very much appreciate publishing experts and pros sharing their expertise with others.
Thank you!
Carolyn
Glad to hear you’ve found someone wonderful who also works for traditional publishers to design the jackets for your self-pubbed backlist.
But sorry to hear that you received less than satisfactory work by people with little or no actual training or professional experience. Next time, be sure to see the jackets they’ve already designed, and look for major work with successful results in their portfolio.
It’s awful to pay for a cover you’ll never use. And if you’re not sure your requests for changes improve a cover comp, trust your more seasoned professional to make the right decision.
For my print published books, I’ve had degrees of input from none to not too much but by and large, I think that’s a good thing. I’m not a graphic designer. My agent and I have, in the past, pointed out things that needed to be tweaked in images. I’ve never had a book cover that I didn’t think was at least “good enough” and most have been great.
Obtaining good covers for my self-pubbed backlist has been . . . an interesting experience. There are a lot of people out there who think because they have photoshop, they can do a cover. This class of people seem to have little to no actual training or professional experience as an artist — they don’t get typography, for example. The majority of what I’ve seen has been subpar and I have more than once paid for a cover that I will NEVER use. The upside that that is I know who NOT to use.
It’s also very difficult to find good images for my historicals. Most of the stock images are laughably inaccurate. I have resources for accurate clothing, but I’ve had very bad luck with trying models and photographers. There’s a niche begging to be filled — by professionals.
On the bright side, I’ve recently started using someone who also does covers for the Big 6 and her work is wonderful.
When I look at potential cover artists, I want someone who will tell me my idea is terrible or my suggested change is not the best way to fix a perceived issue. And there’s the dilemma for me. I’m always questioning whether my assessment of a cover is going to result in a change that improves the final product. I need more experience, too.
Michele,
Both versions of your front cover show that you know what you want and how to work with a jacket designer to get it.
The English version is hot and perky, with plenty of what appears to be local context. The US edition shifts smartly to what appears to be an American woman in what could be London, which fits the market here perfectly. Good work.
Great post!
I’ve had the benefit of both a traditional publisher who commissioned the cover for my debut novel, and the chance to design my own cover for the same book when I recently launched it for the US market (my decision to self-publish is another story altogether!).
I absolutely loved Penguin’s choice of cover for the UK version, but that was down to luck rather than any hand I had in the design. So I agree that writers lose a lot of control over the marketing of their book when they sell distribution rights to a publisher. Polly Courtney recently fired her publisher over that very issue.
When it came time to design my cover for the US version of Single in the City, I found it really hard! With a completely blank page, how do you decide what will best convey the story and tone of your book? For me it was difficult because US chick lit tends to have photographic covers where my UK cover is illustrated. Despite all the vitriol heaped upon pastel illustrated covers, that’s exactly what I chose. I’m a chick lit writer and don’t want my books mismarketed. I hired my genius UK cover designer, Nellie Ryan, and together we designed another great cover that even more perfectly represents my book.
I’d love to know which cover others think is better?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Single-City-Michele-Gorman/dp/0141048263/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320945689&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Single-in-the-City-ebook/dp/B005Y11DAQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320945714&sr=8-1
I admit, the only cover I like among those four is Kimberly Glyder’s. It has a sense of inevitability the others lack.
As an indie, I make my own covers and am getting better at it; I’m aware I won’t think much of my current efforts in a year’s time. I don’t have $1000+ to spend on a cover, and I love wrestling with Adobe Photoshop.
One Book Cover (which didn’t actually end up being the final design) I found strikingly beautiful was the Eric Ries ‘Lean Startup’ Japanese-styled circle (http://www.udemy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/theleanstartup.png) It’s so bare and spartan as to mean nothing, but I just found it beautiful.
Note: in the Lean Startup, Eric encourages entreneurs to go through the product iteration cycle as fast as possible (that’s what he teaches and preaches in the book), so the circle does actually have meaning. But without a subtitle, passersby in Borders are not likely to pickup this book. It’s a little TOO esoteric of a design, hence the new Blue and White + Subtitle version: (http://esbjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/leanstartup-cover.jpg)