
I would like to welcome Amanda Cabot back to A Bed of Roses…Thorns Included. She’s written a great article for us about cover art.
From the time that she was seven, Amanda Cabot dreamed of becoming a published author, but it was only when she set herself the goal of selling a book by her thirtieth birthday that the dream came true. A former director of Information Technology, Amanda has written everything from technical books and articles for IT professionals to mysteries for teenagers and romances for all ages. She’s delighted to now be a fulltime writer of Christian historical romances. Her Texas Dreams trilogy received critical acclaim, and Waiting for Spring, the second in her Westward Winds series, was just released.
The Art of Cover Art
We’ve all heard the adage that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but reality is, we do. A good cover will make us at least pick up the book, and if the back cover copy and first couple pages are as intriguing as the cover itself, we may buy it. So, how are those covers created? I asked Cheryl Van Andel, Revell’s Art Director, that question. I already knew that it was a collaborative process, but her answers revealed just how much effort goes into a cover design at Revell. (Please note that other publishers may have very different processes.)

The type of clothing the characters would wear and landmarks or other background suggestions are also part of the questionnaire. Since the Westward Winds books take place in real locations, I sent photos of those places instead of simply describing them. I was shocked but also thrilled when Revell used one of my photos for the background of Summer of Promise, so I sent another for Waiting for Spring. Cheryl used that one, too!
No work on the cover begins until the book has been titled. If you thought that authors chose their titles, you’d be only partially correct. Although each author is asked to suggest possible titles and the reasons for choosing them, the final decision is made by a committee which includes Sales and Marketing as well as Editorial.
Once titling is complete, Marketing and Editorial discuss cover direction based on the information they’ve acquired from the author and/or from reading the manuscript. This determines the market and what “look” sells best to those book buyers. Final title and cover direction is then given to the art director to be assigned to a cover designer who specializes in that particular line of fiction; e.g., contemporary, Amish, historical, Western. If the designer does not do his or her own photography, the art director hires a photographer for the shoot.
Based on the author’s info, model and clothing options are gathered and emailed to the art director, who finalizes the selection with the marketing director and acquisitions editor. Many times, clothing options are sent to the author to verify that the style is correct for a certain time period. I can’t speak for other authors, but I’ve enjoyed being part of this process. I was able to select the dresses for each of the Texas Dreams books, which was fun, but the real thrill was choosing the gown for Waiting for Spring. The designer could not find an appropriate gown, so he had one custom made. Cheryl sent me a number of possible designs and allowed me to pick not just the design but the color. That was definitely a highlight of 2012 for me!

For Revell fiction, the art, marketing and editorial directors tweak one or two designs until they believe the covers are ready to be shown to others. These covers are emailed to the rest of the Revell team, meaning all Revell editors and the marketing staff, and narrowed down to one design. This design is sent to all of Baker’s sales reps for feedback. If the majority of reps are okay with the design, the cover is sent to the author and agent for feedback.

As you can see, designing cover art truly is an art.
Love this blog post! (and your Blog Title 🙂
This is a fascinating topic and thanks for covering it so thoroughly.
Susan Karsten
I agree Susan. Fascinating and well-written.
Susan — I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I learned a lot during my conversations with Cheryl.