I loved this article, Nathaniel. The way you wrote it is genius. As an author and publisher of my books, I need the cover to appeal to people I hope will love the book. And I need to love it. I’m starting work today with my book designers, and I confess, I am scared. It’s a big process and while I trust them completely, I don’t know exactly what I want. I go back to the first cover they designed for me. I would never have imagined what they came up with. I insisted that there would be NO Eiffel Tower on the cover. (I hate clichés.) But in the end, there it was, albeit at an angle. I love the cover. (Chasing Sylvia Beach, if you want to check it out.) I have some ideas for the new one, and plan to go to the bookstore today for research and to gain some language around what I am feeling for the cover. I need to love it, because I need to have that buoyant feeling when I share the book, pass out postcards, etc. Your articles are helping me think more about book covers and I appreciate the work you do and how you write about it.
I checked out that cover—I think you’re in good hands! Not knowing what you want can be scary, but I think that opens the door for true collaboration and discovery.
(I’m an aspiring author looking into self publishing) I agree that I would need to like my book’s cover, but the cover being effective is more important than me *loving* it. If I have a dream cover that won’t work I’d commission it as art. Maybe see if it would work as a postcard/bookmark/merch, idk. But the point of a cover is getting people to pick up my book, so that would be my focus.
I don’t have to delight in every aspect of my marketing portfolio, just be comfortable with standing behind it and putting my name on it. While I’d be more concerned with liking my book’s cover than, say, banner ads for it, fundamentally it doesn’t need to be something I want to hang on my wall.
This newsletter is so great! For what it’s worth, I think you should trust yourself on your writerly stylistic decisions more. Hi there is a great opener. Waffling is a great structure, and the end didn’t feel like a ramble. Would you apologize this much for your book cover designs? Obviously you work on those way longer than a newsletter post, but truly, I think your prose is working great.
I feel you! I pointed it out to you because it’s an impulse I’m always wrestling with as well. I have to keep reminding myself that other people don’t notice unless I tell them.
Also, I filled out your survey last night and when you asked what we want to read about, I said, I want to read about whether I need to like my book cover. I laughed when I saw the title of your post today! Now then, I would also like enough money to retire so I don’t have to worry ever again about whether anybody likes my writing and I can just do what I want. I’m looking forward to you delivering that to my inbox first thing tomorrow!
I actually love the messy contradictory listicle! It's nice to see all the opinions represented. It's truly a difficult subject to decide on, and the emotional attachment authors rightfully have to their manuscript doesn't help. I think you did the problem justice, and you've given me a lot to think about from the publisher's side of thing :))
I don’t think so. The original was published as a plain green cover. There have been many, many versions published since but I don’t know of any that replicate his idea.
There’s a whole book about Lolita book covers, that I have admittedly not finished yet. But I plan to write about it this year!
Thank you, Nathaniel, for a timely and useful post. I might even make a "consider this" rubric for myself from it. I have a fabulous designer and we collaborate beautifully but I've never considered the factors from this point of view.
I have liked very few of my covers, mostly because there was so much distance between the actual content of the book and the ideas expressed via the cover. This is also why so many of my book covers ended up being type treatments: having written the world's first history of virginity, for example, I had a really good reason to refuse to let my publishers put an extremely thin extremely young-looking naked white female body on the cover. And so on.
A fascinating post, thank you. A clear way of looking at different aspects and opinions; it’s more complicated than I realised. Productive communication and trust between all parties concerned seems the best situation, must be very unsatisfying if this breaks down.
I loved this article, Nathaniel. The way you wrote it is genius. As an author and publisher of my books, I need the cover to appeal to people I hope will love the book. And I need to love it. I’m starting work today with my book designers, and I confess, I am scared. It’s a big process and while I trust them completely, I don’t know exactly what I want. I go back to the first cover they designed for me. I would never have imagined what they came up with. I insisted that there would be NO Eiffel Tower on the cover. (I hate clichés.) But in the end, there it was, albeit at an angle. I love the cover. (Chasing Sylvia Beach, if you want to check it out.) I have some ideas for the new one, and plan to go to the bookstore today for research and to gain some language around what I am feeling for the cover. I need to love it, because I need to have that buoyant feeling when I share the book, pass out postcards, etc. Your articles are helping me think more about book covers and I appreciate the work you do and how you write about it.
Thank you, Cynthia. What a lovely comment.
I checked out that cover—I think you’re in good hands! Not knowing what you want can be scary, but I think that opens the door for true collaboration and discovery.
Best of luck and thanks for the kind words!
Thank you Nathaniel!
(I’m an aspiring author looking into self publishing) I agree that I would need to like my book’s cover, but the cover being effective is more important than me *loving* it. If I have a dream cover that won’t work I’d commission it as art. Maybe see if it would work as a postcard/bookmark/merch, idk. But the point of a cover is getting people to pick up my book, so that would be my focus.
I don’t have to delight in every aspect of my marketing portfolio, just be comfortable with standing behind it and putting my name on it. While I’d be more concerned with liking my book’s cover than, say, banner ads for it, fundamentally it doesn’t need to be something I want to hang on my wall.
This newsletter is so great! For what it’s worth, I think you should trust yourself on your writerly stylistic decisions more. Hi there is a great opener. Waffling is a great structure, and the end didn’t feel like a ramble. Would you apologize this much for your book cover designs? Obviously you work on those way longer than a newsletter post, but truly, I think your prose is working great.
Thank you Lisa, I am heartened 🙂 and you’re so right!
It’s too easy to lampshade my own writing to, almost, critique it before someone else can.
I feel you! I pointed it out to you because it’s an impulse I’m always wrestling with as well. I have to keep reminding myself that other people don’t notice unless I tell them.
Also, I filled out your survey last night and when you asked what we want to read about, I said, I want to read about whether I need to like my book cover. I laughed when I saw the title of your post today! Now then, I would also like enough money to retire so I don’t have to worry ever again about whether anybody likes my writing and I can just do what I want. I’m looking forward to you delivering that to my inbox first thing tomorrow!
Hahahaha. I’m afraid the serendipity might end today 😅
WE'LL SEE. :)
I actually love the messy contradictory listicle! It's nice to see all the opinions represented. It's truly a difficult subject to decide on, and the emotional attachment authors rightfully have to their manuscript doesn't help. I think you did the problem justice, and you've given me a lot to think about from the publisher's side of thing :))
Thank you, Rose! Here’s hoping this helps everyone see the “other” side a bit, whatever that may be for them.
I like this thought experiment! Really interesting.
Thanks Auzin!
V. Nabokov had to have been joking.
Nope 🙃
Did anyone ever try to make his cover?
I don’t think so. The original was published as a plain green cover. There have been many, many versions published since but I don’t know of any that replicate his idea.
There’s a whole book about Lolita book covers, that I have admittedly not finished yet. But I plan to write about it this year!
Thank you, Nathaniel, for a timely and useful post. I might even make a "consider this" rubric for myself from it. I have a fabulous designer and we collaborate beautifully but I've never considered the factors from this point of view.
Thank you Jo! And thanks for the Joe ☕️ 😉
I’m glad this was useful and I hope it further strengthens a terrific collaboration.
I’m getting some mixed messages here 😂
😁 welcome to my head
I have liked very few of my covers, mostly because there was so much distance between the actual content of the book and the ideas expressed via the cover. This is also why so many of my book covers ended up being type treatments: having written the world's first history of virginity, for example, I had a really good reason to refuse to let my publishers put an extremely thin extremely young-looking naked white female body on the cover. And so on.
The history of virginity! The prospect of doing a cover for that is both terrifying and thrilling. All-type makes sense.
Hi there🙂
A fascinating post, thank you. A clear way of looking at different aspects and opinions; it’s more complicated than I realised. Productive communication and trust between all parties concerned seems the best situation, must be very unsatisfying if this breaks down.