Creating a Great Book Cover
Berni Stevens Gives a Detailed Account of How to Design Book Jackets
May 8, 2009
Berni Stevens has had several titles over the years: Junior Designer, Publicity Designer, Design Manager and Freelance Cover Designer. She’s worked for many UK publishers from the small to the very large conglomerates like the Penguin Group and Harper Collins.
When she first started, she was designing two-colour brochures for schools on behalf of the (now defunct) Inner London Education Authority. After working her way up in the industry, she landed the post as Publicity Designer for the paperback section of William Collins (now Harper Collins). She worked there for six years before moving to Penguin as Publicity Design Manager.
After several changes in various big name publishing houses, she finally settled into freelance work in 2003. ‘My current client list changes month by month in the present climate, with more and more publishers having an embargo on freelancers, so this has not been a good year for me. Last year I worked for: Transworld Publishers, Ebury, Harlequin Mills and Boon, Little, Brown, Piatkus, Quercus and the Dracula Society.’
What Goes Into Making a Great Book Cover; Aspects and Challenges for the Book Cover Artist
Berni admits that nobody really knows the special formula of getting the cover just right. Lesser known authors, she states, will rely on the cover to capture the imagination of both the buyer and any potential book reviewer.
‘A good cover has to stand out from the rest; it has to catch the eye of the person browsing in a bookshop or airport. So if it's a paranormal romance or horror, don't give it a black background because it will sink beside all the other black covers.’
There also tends to be a trend in copying bestseller covers, such as the Da Vinci Code. Berni states that at the moment there are a lot of covers that are matt laminated with spot varnish on the title and author type. ‘The more mass market covers are often a gloss finish with foil type. Illustrators come and go in and out of fashion with cover designers as well….’ Getting the balance right is important too.
‘Children's covers have changed immensely in the last few years too, particularly the teen market. They've become more trendy, urban and more mature. It's a tough business getting the cover right and sometimes even after a cover has been proofed, it will be rejected because a buyer from Smiths doesn't like it.’
Getting it Right; the Time and People it Takes to Produce a Book Cover
Apparently, there is no fixed time for the process. It all depends on the size of the publisher and what they want. If there are too many individuals involved in the process, who need to agree on the cover, such as the Publisher, the marketing department and the author, it’s always more difficult to come to a compromise.
‘Basically the more people that are in a meeting, the longer it takes for a cover to get either approved or rejected. It's very easy to criticize a visual, but it's incredibly difficult to please everyone at the same time…and still keep the author happy.’
In the process, there is first a cover briefing where the designer will be given an allotted time in which to read the manuscript and come up with initial ideas. ‘As a freelancer, I'm usually given two to three weeks for initial ideas, but in-house people usually get longer. Then of course there's the possibility that people will want to see variations of the ideas – different fonts and colours.’
Designs can be bounced back and forth until the visual cover is approved. Then the designer will commission the illustrator or photographer (often a photograph is taken from a picture library) and the artwork is handed over to the production people who liaise with the printers.
‘If a visual is approved straight away, it's possible for a cover to be turned around in a matter of weeks, but there are a lot of people and factors involved, so that doesn't happen often.’
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