Never Judge a Book by its Cover
Everyone always says ‘never judge a book by its cover’ but
do you know the one time that really isn’t true?
When you’re judging a book.
Before I became an author, I worked as an editor for a
major children’s publisher and every week we would meet as a department to
review the proposed covers for every single one of our books. Everyone was
there; editorial, marketing, sales and of course, design. Hours and hours went
into the development of every cover and everyone has a role to play. The editor
has to make sure the cover reflects the story inside, the marketing team’s job
is to communicate any pertinent information a potential buyer might need to
know, like the author’s previous books or bestseller status while the sales
team advise on retailer preferences and gives feedback from buyers. And of
course, the designers take all this information and turn it into a work of art
– literally.
As an editor, my job would be to act as the middleman
between the author and the rest of the team, explaining certain cover choices
to the author (who might not always agree) and helping the sales and marketing
teams understand a book that might need a cover before it’s even finished.
Not that I’ve ever delivered a book that late as an author.
Cough.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, all these people
absolutely want you to judge a book by its cover. How else are you supposed to
pick something out from a crowded table or Amazon page? It’s a nightmare! Cover
art was one of my least favorite parts of my old job. No one ever agreed on
anything and we were constantly being challenged with statements like ‘green
covers don’t sell’ and ‘So-and-So at This Bookshop hates one word titles but
Whats-His-Name at The Other Bookshop will only buy one word titles’. It was
exhausting.
But as an author, I find process fascinating. I’m fully
aware design is not my area of expertise but I’m sure my editor would happily
tell you I’m far too emotionally involved in the process. Once it’s your baby
you’re talking about, it’s hard not to get involved. The idea that you can spend
months of your life working on something and then hating the cover is
incredibly difficult to adjust to. It’s like saving up to buy a Chanel handbag
then watching the shop assistant wrap it in dog shit smeared newspaper.
The thing I find most interesting is how the exact same
book can have completely different covers in different countries. Take my first
book, I Heart New York for example.
The UK covered featured a whimsical, pastel
illustration of a girl looking out at New York City while the Canadian cover
was considerably more stylistic.
The US cover was just as different again,
photographic this time, but with the same sense of wonder and discovery as the
UK cover. And don’t even get me started on the Dutch cover…
The covers for About a Girl were even more different – here
are the UK and US covers for comparison. So, how can two identical books speak
so differently to people who do the exact same job in order to achieve the
exact same end? It will never not baffle me.
Whether you’re looking at the photo-real US approach or UK
illustrative designs, whole departments full of people sat down, judged my book
and these were the covers they came up with. So the next time someone tells you
not to judge a book by its cover, please feel free to tell them a lot of bloody
work went into that cover and you will judge as you please. As long as
they really are talking about books, of course.
LINKS TO PURCHASE
(just a FEW of the many amazing books available for sale by the fabulous Lindsey Kelk - she is my chick lit idle! She was the one who got me hooked with I Heart New York! And of course Hollywood, Paris, Vegas, London, and Christmas JUST TO NAME A FEW!)
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