Hello Christopher,
I really like your work as a book cover designer, I have been looking through your website and been reading articles such as the interview, yourself and Paul Buckley did for 'The Casual Optimist' and would love to ask you a few questions.
Well a bit of context first, I am a 3rd year Graphic Design student in Leeds, where I am currently researching for my dissertation. I am very intrigued by the design of the book cover and so I am using my dissertation to delve into the art of it and find out about the designers behind them.
If I could ask you a few questions about your practice I would love to get your insight and personal experiences in this industry.
When you are designing a book cover, how much contact do you have with the author, if any? Do they find it important to oversee the whole process or are you pretty much able to have free reign over the design?
This may be a silly question but do you ever read the books before you design for them?
I'v been looking at 'Glover's Mistake' by Nick Laird in particular and wondered what was the process when you started designing this book cover?
As a designer, have you ever re-designed any book covers or are they all first edition designs?
I know you are very busy, but any input you could give me would be much appreciated.
Thank you so much for your time.
Rebecca Liggins
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Hi Rebecca,
It's nice to hear from you, thanks for getting in touch. Let me try to answer your questions for you:
1. You almost never deal directly with an author. The author works with an editor of the book and the publisher of the book. Those two people work for the publishing house. There is also an art director who works at the publishing house and he/she is the person who works directly with designers. The Art director will maybe get some suggestions from an author before the process of designing a cover starts or throughout the process, but for the most part the cover is run by the author at the end of the process, once the art director, editor and publisher all decide on the cover. Some authors have the rights for cover approval built into their contracts, so they could reject your cover at the end of the process, author authors don't have that ability.
2. It's really important to read fiction. For the most part I would say you cant really design a cover without reading the book. Something could happen in the last 20 pages that could change everything for the cover. But, for nonfiction, I don't think it's always as important. You can get away with reading a little bit or researching the subject matter.
3. You can read a little bit about this cover here : www.faceoutbooks.com. I talked about the process in an interview there.
4. As a book cover you will find yourself redesigning a lot of book covers. I've worked on some classics that have dozens of different covers. A lot of times covers will be redesigned when a book goes from hardcover to paperback, especially if a book doesn't sell as well as the publisher was hoping that it would, then they like to blame it on the cover and they will try a new one.
It's nice to see you taking an interest in book covers though. They can be a lot of fun. Over here, they are kind of a little niche in graphic design where you have to specialize in them to get the work. If you're interested in getting into book covers then I suggest you try to look for an internship at a publishing house or with someone who is designing them on a freelance basis.
Good luck with your studies.
Best,
Chris
I really like your work as a book cover designer, I have been looking through your website and been reading articles such as the interview, yourself and Paul Buckley did for 'The Casual Optimist' and would love to ask you a few questions.
Well a bit of context first, I am a 3rd year Graphic Design student in Leeds, where I am currently researching for my dissertation. I am very intrigued by the design of the book cover and so I am using my dissertation to delve into the art of it and find out about the designers behind them.
If I could ask you a few questions about your practice I would love to get your insight and personal experiences in this industry.
When you are designing a book cover, how much contact do you have with the author, if any? Do they find it important to oversee the whole process or are you pretty much able to have free reign over the design?
This may be a silly question but do you ever read the books before you design for them?
I'v been looking at 'Glover's Mistake' by Nick Laird in particular and wondered what was the process when you started designing this book cover?
As a designer, have you ever re-designed any book covers or are they all first edition designs?
I know you are very busy, but any input you could give me would be much appreciated.
Thank you so much for your time.
Rebecca Liggins
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Rebecca,
It's nice to hear from you, thanks for getting in touch. Let me try to answer your questions for you:
1. You almost never deal directly with an author. The author works with an editor of the book and the publisher of the book. Those two people work for the publishing house. There is also an art director who works at the publishing house and he/she is the person who works directly with designers. The Art director will maybe get some suggestions from an author before the process of designing a cover starts or throughout the process, but for the most part the cover is run by the author at the end of the process, once the art director, editor and publisher all decide on the cover. Some authors have the rights for cover approval built into their contracts, so they could reject your cover at the end of the process, author authors don't have that ability.
2. It's really important to read fiction. For the most part I would say you cant really design a cover without reading the book. Something could happen in the last 20 pages that could change everything for the cover. But, for nonfiction, I don't think it's always as important. You can get away with reading a little bit or researching the subject matter.
3. You can read a little bit about this cover here : www.faceoutbooks.com. I talked about the process in an interview there.
4. As a book cover you will find yourself redesigning a lot of book covers. I've worked on some classics that have dozens of different covers. A lot of times covers will be redesigned when a book goes from hardcover to paperback, especially if a book doesn't sell as well as the publisher was hoping that it would, then they like to blame it on the cover and they will try a new one.
It's nice to see you taking an interest in book covers though. They can be a lot of fun. Over here, they are kind of a little niche in graphic design where you have to specialize in them to get the work. If you're interested in getting into book covers then I suggest you try to look for an internship at a publishing house or with someone who is designing them on a freelance basis.
Good luck with your studies.
Best,
Chris
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