The Mystery Writers of America (a fine organization) occasionally holds panel discussions for its members on a variety of topics involving writing and publishing. One of these discussions a few years back described the production of a book; the creation and marketing of the physical object. On the panel were people from different publishing houses, each from a department that addressed some aspect of the process. When they got to the people who did covers, there was much talk about how a cover is designed. We in the audience heard from marketing, who talked about the need for bright colors and sexy images (“Hey, sailor, buy me a drink?”), and editorial, who spoke about the need to propose an idea that would grab people’s attention. Someone mentioned the necessity of a good title. Everyone on the panel had some input on the topic,and they all seemed to agree about the needs a cover should address.
What they didn’t do was address the author’s perspective.
So I raised my hand. (more…)
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If you’re a writer and you want to understand how publishing works, work in a bookstore. Brick and mortar bookstores are where the tires hit the pavement. Watching readers browse and how and why they buy books is a real education. (The whole system of browsing/shopping is something that eBooks have yet to figure out.) The bad news is, they do judge books by their covers. They also judge an entire book based on the first page — sometimes just the first paragraph. Authors know this. Authors also almost never get a say in what appears on their cover. (Unless it’s negotiated into their contract, and that almost never happens either. That’s a good thing, largely. Because most authors don’t know a damned thing about graphic design, let alone marketing.) Authors have no control on that aspect of things. That’s why getting a bad cover is so heartbreaking, particularly for a new author. I was lucky. Jeremy hired 