We can help with:
Accelerate your career
Join us today
Book an event
A unique 3-minute opportunity to pitch to publishers & agents
Do you want to know how to nail your pitch to publishers?
We advocate for members
Stay in the know
Stay in the know with industry news and ASA views.
Search our resources
Find ASA members
FAQs on publishing and more.
Member only guide to the Australian book industry.
MIN READ
Behind the Book is the ASA’s series of articles demystifying the book publishing industry and providing behind-the-scenes insights from industry professionals.
This week we look at the book design process. What are the key elements of book design and who is involved? What goes into designing a book cover and the internals? And how are authors involved in this process? In this article, we hear from Imogen Stubbes, Art Director at Text Publishing, Tess McCabe, Graphic Designer and founder of Creative Minds Publishing, and Mark Campbell, Creative Director and Publisher at HarperCollins.
Some publishers will have an art or design department in-house that they use for the whole process, others will work with freelance designers, with strong input and management from the publisher. In either situation there are a number of key steps in the book design process.
First, is a discussion with a number of departments to ‘position’ the book, deciding who the readers or target audience are, where the book sits in the market, the genre, and any other key considerations. These discussions include representatives from marketing, sales, publicity, editorial, design, and sometimes rights & export, if design will be key to selling the book in overseas markets.
If the cover design is being done in-house, the designer will read the book and make notes along the way for tone, imagery, and key elements. Then they discuss a brief with the editor/publisher and other teams to make sure everyone is comfortable with the direction.
For those publishers without internal art or design staff, they will have a number of freelance designers they work with. According to Tess McCabe, Graphic Designer and founder of Creative Minds Publishing, “each [designer] may have a specific visual style or design aesthetic to suit a genre, so the first step might be to ascertain which designer’s style suits the title and their availability”. The publisher will put together a design brief which includes both the technical details of the book (publication size, title, subtitle, author name, endorsements) as well as some information about the book’s content, a summary of the overall positioning, and if available, thoughts or comments from the author.
The designer then does further research, sketches, and image searching to develop a few options for cover design. These are presented to the publisher and other relevant departments as sketches and roughs that will be further honed once the publisher specifies their preferred direction. The designer will then develop the concept further and input changes as feedback comes from the publisher. Imogen Stubbes, Art Director at Text Publishing, suggests that “the amount of roughs and rounds of designs you do differs from book to book. But the goal is to narrow it down to one that everyone agrees on. The roughs can include original art from the designer, stock imagery or commissioned art depending on the book. A book with a commissioned illustration takes a slightly different route with more steps”.
When the publisher is confident with the book cover design, it is presented to the author. Stubbes says, “The author always gets a say in their cover but we like to do all this homework first to make sure we’re positioning it in the best way possible, so we go to them with a cover that we think works best for their book in the market”.
Mark Campbell, Creative Director and Publisher at HarperCollins says, “No ONE person makes the final decision on any cover design – it’s always a collective decision between the author, publisher, designer, sales team and marketing team so that everyone has a shared stake in the success of the book.”
The very last step is to finalise the full cover including spine and back cover, and for all these elements to be provided for early marketing and promotion.
Depending on the type of book, the internal design of a book, including typesetting and layout, can be a separate process to the book cover design. For illustrated books, such as illustrated non-fiction and picture books, the two happen simultaneously.
For illustrated books a publisher works closely with the designers on internal design concepts before having it approved by the author, and then an editor will work with the designers and typesetters to finalise the book before going to print. For standard black and white text-based books, the majority of the editing process happens first, before the manuscript is sent to typesetters. If there are any specific design elements required then the publisher or typesetter will work with the cover designer to create those.
According to Imogen Stubbs, there are two key elements that influence the design of a book cover: “Firstly the book itself, and what comes to you when you’re reading it and thinking about a design; and secondly, how the team is going to publish it and position it in the market, what markers it needs to hit to make sure it’s finding its readers.”
For Mark Campbell, the approach can be different based on genre. “For fiction you would always start by reading the manuscript to get a sense of the language, tone, and genre, but for non-fiction it might be as simple as researching the author or subject matter yourself. External factors like similar titles in the market, previous books by the same author, and legibility of the text are common influences on the direction of any book cover design these days.”
“My early conversations with the publisher/marketing lead and the design brief usually inspire some initial ideas for a visual look and feel” says Tess McCabe. “I will then start to investigate potential imagery (via stock image websites) and typography options (via font foundries). It’s very important that the title and subtitle are finalised before this begins, as these elements influence the cover layout a lot.”
The amount an author influences the cover design can be dependent on the kind of publishing deal the author has, and the relationship between the publisher and author.
As Tess McCabe notes, “in a hybrid/self-publishing scenario the author may have more say in their cover design than if the book is being fully financed by the publisher. An author’s already-established personal brand and visual identity may also influence the cover design if the publisher feels this will equate to recognition in the marketplace”.
In a publishing house, Tess continues, “the final decision maker is usually the publisher… Most smaller publishers will consult with the author, but many have ‘final say’ on the cover design written into the author’s contract”.
According to Mark Campbell, “Sometimes the author might be consulted at the very beginning of the process (for example on their memoir) and sometimes they might be shown concepts for review much later on. It ultimately relies on the intuition of the individual publisher to know when the designs are ready, but we would never want an author to be unhappy with their cover (and then be expected to promote the book) and will always endeavour to find a solution that works for everyone.”
At Text Publishing, Imogen Stubbes says, “the author is often consulted towards the end of the process but… that’s mostly because we want to present it as more than just a design but as a plan for their book out in the world (print and online).Sometimes authors will have thoughts about their cover that they share with the editor early in the process and those come to me, so I can have an idea of what the author is hoping for, but most of the time they’re happy to let us do our jobs and surprise them. With non-fiction books there might be imagery that the author has provided that we look at to use for the cover”.
The three designers featured above can be found, with many others, on the member directory of the Australian Book Designers Association website.
If you are seeking an illustrator for your work, you can also check out our illustrator member portfolios on the ASA Style File. Minimum recommend rates of pay for illustration work can be found at the ASA’s Rates of Pay.
