Covers by Neil McGowan

 

Never judge a book by its cover.

At least, that’s what they say.

I’ve been doing some fresh research into cover design these past few weeks, gearing up to launch the first in (hopefully) a series of Young Adult books. The book is written (and rewritten, three times), and the manuscript has been edited and proof-read until it’s as polished as I can make it. As an aside, even after three passes for typos, some still remained; my go-to method for a final pass is to print out and read the book in reverse, a paragraph at a time. It’s long-winded and not the most fun, but it does seem to catch any remaining spelling and grammar mistakes. I suspect it’s because I have to force my brain to engage, rather than going with the flow of the story. On the plus side, even after reading the book seven or eight times, I still like it.

But back to my original thoughts, cover designs.

I hadn’t really thought much about this, but every year, it seems like a theme emerges that almost all successful book covers seem to emulate to a degree. Colour is a big one – 5 or 6 years ago, Adrian McKinty’s book The Chain became a smash hit (and with good reason, it was a pretty good read). Cue a wave of book covers for the next year or so that featured a lot of red in the design.

There was also Lucy Foley’s The Hunting Party – bold, primary yellow was the predominant theme, and it was followed by a wave of books that all used lots of yellow in the artwork. First problem, then – what colour or imagery is likely to be popular this year.

My previous cover designer is no longer available, so I thought I’d have a look myself at what’s involved. After all, in the past, I’d developed a rough theme and idea and my designer took these and turned them into something I could use.

This ended up with me going down a rabbit hole of design language and concepts. Bleed areas, trim sizes – there seems to be no end of weird and wonderful things to consider. Font size, page count (for the correct spine dimensions), all of which I needed to work out. And that’s before I even start to think about the actual design. And despite teaching graphic design for three years, I’m not that good at it. (In my defence, this was fifteen years ago, and I’ve not had cause to use those skills – limited though they are – since.) I know how to use the software, but that’s the easy bit. I’m not a very visual person, so my artistic skills are, shall we say, somewhat lacking. And despite the saying with which I started this post, it appears that people do actually judge books on their covers, so my own, not-very-good attempts are likely to sabotage sales.

I now have an elevated respect for book cover designers, and the way they can use subtle design cues to draw your eye to certain elements. I’ll be finding a new designer for the cover, even if it means delaying the launch by a month or two. It’s my book, and I’m proud of it; I want people to enjoy it, and if that means waiting for the right cover, then that’s what I’ll do.