It has me thinking. I mean, to the point where my head is sizzling and hair is smoking. In the new landscape, it’s not just the bookstores where the cover has to stand out — it’s online too, as a tiny little thumbnail lost in a sea of Amazon.com thumbnails. So you also have to design one that looks good as, basically, an icon. Which means large graphic and big font.

Again, thank you. I found this exactly at the right time.

Anyway, I don’t think an author is ‘rarely qualified’ to have some input in the cover design.

Although I think I should stop right now and elaborate on what I’m thinking of when I talk about covers. I’m specifically thinking of covers that have actual illustrations/pictures on them. I realize this strikes most books from the discussion, as most covers are just a combination of fonts and backgrounds. (Right next to my laptop is a paperback copy of Cryptonomicon, whose cover is all gray with a black print of the triangle/cross icon from the story on it. What can I say about the effectiveness of that cover? The selling point is Neal Stephenson’s name, and maybe the “New York Times Bestseller” line right above it, not the icon.)

As I said in a previous comment, I’m used to thinking more in visuals, so when I think of selling a book I mean by summing it up in a single image or providing an interesting scene to catch the potential reader’s eye. Hence, I think the writer should have some idea of what that might be, and the publishers or artist might as well hear them out.

Sometimes the best idea might be obvious and the author already thought of it, or sometimes it might be more obscure and the art director will surprise the writer with a better idea than they had. I said last night if I ever get my foot in the door I’ll be a nuisance about everything, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll be obstinate.

I have two book ideas in mind right now; one of them lends itself to a couple cover ideas so obvious I’d be surprised if an artist working independently didn’t come up with them on their own (even if they’re phoning it in that day), and one that involves a plot device that I still (a couple months after I began writing) am not sure how to depict in one or two images. With the latter, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else came up with a better idea than I ever could. Frankly I’d hope somebody else could.

Philip: “Phoning it in.” Do you “phone it in” at work some days? It’s almost impossible not to, even in creative industries. Or especially in creative industries, where you have to deal with insane, often erratic deadlines, irrantional expectations, and a final product that will almost always be altered, re-done or critiqued by folks in the pipeline who have no idea what they’re talking about. On top of which there is Sturgeon’s Revelation: 90% of everything is crap. That applies to covers, just like it applies to everything else.

And the truth is, the author is rarely qualified to direct a cover, especially when they know nothing about art direction, being a freelance artist, marketing to their target demographic, pitching a product to a retail buyer, or standing out on the bookshelf.

We fancy ourselves experts because the book is our baby, but in most cases, we’re really just starry-eyed parents wearing blinders.

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Melissa: And thank you for the freelance artist/illustrator’s perspective. That’s why I wrote this post—so few people outside the industry seem to have the faintest clue of how it all works.

Very few people outside the industry seem to understand how it works. I’ve been asked nearly a dozen times if I’m the girl on my “headless” covers, and probably as many times if I’m the girl on the cover of my book that HAS a head, which really baffles me.

Every so often I’ll get an email from a new author who hasn’t even sent out their manuscript for consideration yet. Not to an agent, not to a publisher… sometimes not even to their mother. But they’re contacting ME because they just know that their book is going to be the Next Big Thing (I’ve been told by no less than three authors that their book was going to outsell Harry Potter… … … yeah. Okay. Moving on)…

They’re contacting me because they want me to do their cover. Sometimes they offer right up front to pay me to paint their cover and, being a mostly ethical person, I’ll usually take the time to explain to them why they’re wasting their money by hiring me before trying to get their book published. Sometimes they promise me royalties, or payment once the book starts selling—I’m a little less gentle with these people.

If they’re self publishing I take the nice client’s money and paint whatever they want. At that point they’ve appointed themselves Art Director and I’m not going to quibble. Their battles are going to be uphill anyway.

Basically it boils down to new authors simply having no clue how publishing works, and specifically how book covers (and interior illustrations) work. They think they need to have the whole package completed and ready to send to the publisher, or that having a pretty cover will give them a leg up—when it’s really such a waste of their time and money, and might be detrimental to their manuscript if they try to include it.

Having to explain this so often usually makes me feel like I’m kicking puppies, but I feel like it’s something that must somehow get missed when new authors are looking for advice on how to get their books published.

Coupled with what I said before about identifying so much usage of generic designs that don’t actually SAY anything about the story, and I’m left with the idea of a terrible cover design being a worse nightmare for me than getting screwed out of royalties by a soulless corporation (money comes and goes, after all).

I’m not a designer by a long shot, but I have VERY strong opinions about what should (and, more importantly) what should NOT be on my covers. Have I always been successful? nope. And yes, publishers want their authors to be happy with what is on the cover, but often what the author wants is not what the publisher (or accounts) think will move the most copies. And so their opinion doesn’t hold much weight unless they are a mega bestseller who can call all the shots.

You can want to be as much of a “nuisance” as you like, but are you willing to let a contract stipulation such as cover approval be a deal breaker to you? Would you be willing to buy your book back a few months before its release over a cover snit?

This is how it usually goes when an author HATES his or her cover:
1) Author receives email from the editor. “Here is the cover of Title. We love it, sales went mad. We hope you like it as much.”
2) Author: “Oh, HELL no.”
3) Author emails agent. “This is so awful what are we going to do, can they change it?”
4) Agent talks to editor and gets some variation on, “Oh, but sales/the major accounts/the VP of the publishing company love it sooo much. We really think we’re going to get a great response.”
5) Agent relates this to author, then asks, “What are your 1/2/3 most egregious problems with the cover? Maybe we can get those changed.”
6) Author and agent list their three worst issues with the cover. Maybe a few minor changes are made (color, cropping, some tiny little detail of the cover such as the color of a character’s hair or her clothing). The font of the name might be adjusted. Stuff like that.
7) Under EXTRAORDINARY circumstances the author holds her breath and waits, hoping that a large account will come out against the cover, or there’ll be a huge public snit about it, and the publisher will ditch the cover and try again.

But it seems like a short-sighted route to take, because like you say Justine, the artwork is what sells the book. At the very least an author wants the book to sell well enough to justify the publisher’s expense in printing and selling the book, yes? That plays a role in being able to sell future manuscripts, even if the book doesn’t become a bestseller. A return on investment should mean something to the author, I figure.

So why aren’t the authors more involved? They’re the ones who know more than anyone else what the theme of the book is, what the important scenes are, what defines the books as a unique work. They should have ideas on how to visually define or sell the story.

Speaking personally, if I had any kind of deal with a publisher for my first book I’d be making a nuisance of myself, pushing ideas I had for the cover design, the artwork, the blurb on the back, etc. It’s my book and I’m trying to sell it in the way I feel best. Probably wouldn’t win me any favors with the publishers, but if I ever get that close to realizing the dream I want to do everything I can to make it work.

Or maybe it’s just that I’m different in how I’ve noticed the blandness and uniformity of so many movie posters and book covers. I really don’t understand how even the advertisers could phone it in so often, using the most generic ideas. How many movie posters have shown the cast walking towards the camera in a single row? Ugh.

I think sometimes authors concentrate on the wrong things with their covers, like insisting they get photoshoots or somehow believing that commissioned artwork means their publisher is more “serious” about the book. TWILIGHT was stock art. And not even exclusive stock art. I’ve had covers made from stock art, from commissioned artwork, and from photoshoots. maybe it’s just my aesthetic by my favorites have been the stock art covers.