Essential knowledge about scholarly book publishing that every author should have. Get weekly tips on writing and publishing your scholarly book from developmental editor and publishing consultant Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD.
How to love your book cover
Published about 1 month ago • 6 min read
The Manuscript Works Newsletter
Essential knowledge on scholarly book publishing that every author should have
Dear Reader,
In the midst of so much bad news lately, I was relieved to get a small piece of good news last week: the cover design for my forthcoming book came in, and I love it!
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Privately, I’d been anxious about how this moment in the production process would go. I plan to do a lot of promotion for this book, which naturally involves plastering the cover image on every digital surface I have access to. If I didn’t like the way the cover looked or didn’t feel it positively represented all the years of labor I’ve devoted to writing the book, that promotion work (which is hard enough as it is) would feel like that much more of a slog.
So, it came as a great relief to see the cover concept my editor sent me and immediately think “yes, the designer knocked it out of the park.” I’m particularly grateful because after publishing two previous books and guiding hundreds of other scholarly book authors, I know this outcome isn’t guaranteed. Sometimes we feel more "meh" about the covers our books are given, and we just have to psyche ourselves up to like them. There may be some room to request changes to a cover design, but only within limits (sometimes very tight limits). If your press gives your book a cover you love, count yourself lucky.
This newsletter isn’t really about how much I like my book cover, though. I thought instead this would be a good opportunity to offer you some practical tips on how to increase the likelihood that you’ll be satisfied with your next book cover. So let’s do that!
Tip 1: If cover design is important to you, start thinking about it before you even reach out to publishers with a book proposal. Pay attention to the recent catalogs from your target publishers and scrutinize their booth in the book room at your next conference. If you think they’ve done a good job with their previous books, that increases the odds you'll like what they do with yours. If you don’t care for most of that publisher's covers, it might be a sign to lower that publisher in your personal ranking.
By the way, if you’re still trying to identify and narrow down your top target publishers for your future book, I welcome you to join my five-day challenge coming up in April!
Tip 2: Fill out your publisher's design questionnaire when you're asked to. At some point during the production process for your book, you will hopefully be asked for your input about cover ideas before the designer starts their work. There will be things about your subject matter and your audience that your cover designer may not be aware of, so this is your chance to fill them in. For example, I hoped my publisher would steer clear of two kinds of imagery that I’ve seen on other books about editing and revision: red ink representing editorial markings on a printed manuscript page and depictions of actual humans (which I find to be sort of limiting by projecting an image of who the ideal reader is in terms of certain identity characteristics). This is not to say that these types of imagery are bad or inappropriate on other book covers. I just felt they wouldn’t represent what my book is really about or who my intended readership is, so I knew it was important to communicate that up front.
Tip 3: When you first get to see your cover design, take time to sit with it. Print it out true to size and look at it from across the room. Is it legible? Even if it’s not love at first sight, does it grow on you after a few days? Avoid shooting off a knee-jerk reaction to your publisher. If they receive a list of complaints from you immediately, they’ll wonder if you’re seriously understanding or respecting the expertise, labor, and resources they’ve already brought to bear to produce your book
Tip 4: You can voice legimate concerns. If your publisher is sending you the design for input and approval, they are expecting you to be engaged with the process, so do speak up if you need to. When voicing your concerns, keep in mind that you are the expert on your subject matter but your publisher is an expert on publishing and selling books. They are operating based on the track record of what has worked to sell their books to readers in the past. Try not to confuse your personal aesthetic preferences with what is best for getting your book to the people who need it. Case in point: I don’t love the color blue, but I know that the electric blue the designer chose for my cover (inspired by the color used by my previous book’s cover designer) is very eye-catching on a book store shelf or on a table in a convention hall. Prospective readers will find my book, which is what really matters in the end.
At the same time, it's also true that publishers are working on a lot of books at the same time and some details might get lost in the shuffle. It's ok for you to speak up (politely) if there's something you think the publisher has failed to consider. You will get furthest with your press if you position any concerns in terms of audience and marketing. If you’re aware that certain images will be offensive to your target readership or will misrepresent your book’s content in a major way, definitely make that known. If there is something about the cover that will truly make you hesitant to actively promote it, try to explain where you’re coming from so your publisher can understand why a change is important.
Understand that margins are typically very thin in scholarly book publishing. Your publisher has allotted a certain amount of time and labor (i.e. money) for cover design and they’re working on covers for many other books too. Your cover designer may even be a contract laborer rather than a permanent member of staff. So they won’t have unlimited hours to go back and forth with you on tweaking the design. Again, you can and should voice legit concerns, but don’t expect the publisher or designer to act as your personal service provider.
Tip 5: Don’t come up with a completely new design on your own and ask your publisher to throw the old one out the window. Don’t hire your own designer after a cover has already been designed by the press. If you do want to submit artwork or design ideas, the time for that would have been before the production process began. If you prefer to have complete control over all aspects of how your book looks, then you may want to consider self-publishing. Otherwise, expect that trade-offs are going to be a part of the publishing process, no matter what.
To sum up, being proactive about selecting publishers and having conversations about design before the book goes into production are your best routes to getting a cover you love. It’s good to care about how readers will perceive your book, so if you do have concerns about your cover, keep readers front and center both in your mind and in your communications with your publisher.
And when you do have a book cover—whether you personally love it or not—I’d love to help you promote your book by sharing it in my newsletter. Just shoot an email to support@manuscriptworks.com with your high-resolution cover image and link to your publisher’s order page. I share new books by Manuscript Works readers and clients in this newsletter every month.
Thanks for reading and keep scrolling for more resources for scholarly authors!
This newsletter is coming to you from Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD, professional developmental editor and publishing consultant. I help scholarly writers navigate the book publishing process with more ease and agency.
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Essential knowledge about scholarly book publishing that every author should have. Get weekly tips on writing and publishing your scholarly book from developmental editor and publishing consultant Laura Portwood-Stacer, PhD.