Do authors actually choose their book covers?
And why do they sometimes change?
Today my latest novel is officially out in paperback! Those of you who read the hardback may have noticed that the book has had a revamp, with a new cover and a shortened title. The Vintage Shop of Second Chances has become The Vintage Shop and the yellow, text-based cover has changed to a blue cover featuring a yellow dress. Some people have asked about the change so I’m going to dive into the complex world of book covers and share some of my experiences as an author…
‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’?
Unfortunately, humans do not possess the ability to touch a book and have its information immediately conveyed to us via psychic forces (wouldn’t that be great?). So, book covers do the hugely important job of letting you know what type of book lies within the pages and whether it’s for you using some quick visual cues.
My book covers need to:
Tell you what the book is about and why you should read it
Make it clear that the book is written by me – if you’ve read and enjoyed my other novels you need to know this is another Libby Page book
Give you an idea of the genre
Hint at what other books it might be similar to.
That’s a lot of information to communicate in one image and a few words! To make it even more challenging, the design of the cover needs to work in a variety of different formats. It has to grab you whether you see it on a table in a bookshop, shelved spine facing out in a library, or if you see it as a tiny icon on your phone when browsing the Kindle or Audible store.
Thinking about all that, it makes me very glad I’m not a book cover designer and I’m in awe of all the designers who have worked on my books!
What’s involved in choosing the cover?
Deciding on a cover is a collaboration between me and my publisher. I usually see the brief for the cover before it goes to the designers. I have a background in marketing so am used to looking at briefs, which is why I like to be more hands-on and involved early.
The brief sums up the main themes of the book and will include some ‘comp’ examples – so some other books that we think are similar to mine. It’s not about copying other covers but it’s important that my cover communicates what the reader can expect.
For people who have never read any of my books before, it can help if the cover makes them think, ‘that looks a little like such and such book that I enjoyed, maybe I might like this one too’.
I remember going book shopping in New York on a visit a few years ago and feeling totally thrown because cover trends in the US are very different to trends in the UK. It made me realise how subconsciously I’ve absorbed all the little cues and trends in UK cover design.
I know the second I step inside a bookshop in the UK where to head just from a quick glance at the covers.
As time has gone on my feedback on covers has become more specific. I like to think I know my readers fairly well by now, so have clearer ideas about what they might like than when I saw the cover of The Lido and the full extent of my input was, ‘yeah, it looks great!’. I also know my work better than anyone so can give insight from that perspective. For example, we decided to feature the yellow dress that’s at the heart of The Vintage Shop on the new cover, so I supplied a photo of my recreation of the dress for the book launch – it was important to me to get it exactly right.
While I always have a say in picking the covers, I also accept my limitations. I am not a designer; I deal with words, not pictures!
And you’re all lucky that this is the case because otherwise my covers would consist of stick drawings and maybe some messy collage (I do love a collage). It’s also important to trust the experience of my publisher and take on board what they think is going to connect with readers.
Why do book covers change?
The Vintage Shop isn’t my first book to have a different cover for the paperback versus the hardback. It happened with The 24-Hour Café too. The 24-Hour Café and The Vintage Shop of Second Chances are fairly long titles. The main reason we changed the covers for these books for the paperback edition was to allow more space to let the images communicate the story.
With The Vintage Shop, we went one step further and chopped off some words to allow even more space for images to tell you more about the book. So now we have the yellow dress that brings together the main characters, plus some lovely shop details (a tag, a key) and sewing paraphernalia (a cotton reel, a needle) that hint at the handmade nature of the dress and also (hopefully!) the many threads within the story.
With this cover, the designers worked hard to make sure it works well at full size but also works digitally too.
A lot of readers will be reading this book as an ebook or listening to it as an audiobook, especially at this stage in its publishing journey, so it’s really important to have a cover that looks striking when it’s a tiny thumbnail too!
As I said before, cover designers don’t have it easy!
Why do books have different covers in different countries?
Different countries have different tastes in book covers – as I found when I browsed New York bookshops and found myself getting totally lost.
I absolutely love the creativity in some of my overseas editions. Here are some of my favourite covers for The Lido. Which is your favourite?
So there you have it.
Book covers matter, a lot.
Coming up with them is a collaboration between author and publisher.
It’s not easy, and sometimes covers change in response to feedback or to achieve different things for different editions.
Do you have a favourite of my book covers?
And what is your favourite book cover of all time?
Let me know! Next week I’ll be diving into the process of choosing titles, and will explain how The Vintage Shop of Second Chances became The Vintage Shop!
Competition time!
The Vintage Shop is out now in paperback! Do you have your copy?
To celebrate the publication, I am running a competition to win a signed copy (either hardback or paperback) of The Vintage Shop. To be in for a chance to win, just subscribe to my newsletter. If you’re already a subscriber then you don’t need to do anything - you will be automatically entered! But if you think a friend might be interested, do let them know to sign up so they can be in for a chance to win too. I will contact the winners via email.
I love the Dutch cover of The Lido, that's the book I have and am very happy with it.
With regards to your latest book I like the one with the yellow dress much more as the other one is too much text for me personally.
The top left edition of the lido is so cute - very different from the others but I love it!
I think my favourite book cover (of this year) has to be Cleopatra and Frankenstein - it’s so simple but beautiful.