This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Failed designs, Devil Wears Prada-type meltdowns and a lot (seriously – a lot) of emails, as a special Friday treat, writer and comedian Viv Groskop is here to reveal what really goes on between publisher and author when it's time to create a book cover.
By Viv Groskop
You don’t hear much about the etiquette around authors and book covers. This is because there is a code of silence around this process. And maybe that’s right. Because (a) authors are moany and no-one likes a moaner and (b) publishers know a lot more than authors about what people like to buy and authors secretly know this. It’s just not the done thing to admit you don’t really like your cover. Worse, you have to pretend you love it.
In defence of the hissy fit author (guilty), a cover is an incredibly emotive thing. It’s your first glimpse of the snapshot that someone else thinks your book represents. If the cover’s not right, it feels like your whole book was a waste of time. It’s the image that represents the work of at least two years, usually more.Many authors cry (in private) and stamp their feet (on email) at this point. You’ve got to feel for the designers.
I had a Devil Wears Prada-type meltdown over plans for the cover of the 2013 edition of mid-life-crisis-in-a-comedy-club memoir I Laughed, I Cried. It was my first book and I wanted a concept on the cover. I wanted the comedy equivalent of a hiking boot (Wild by Cheryl Strayed: 1.3 million copies sold) or pasta, prayer beads and orchids spelling out the book title (Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert: 7 million copies sold) or, say, a simple gold cross (The Bible: 5 billion copies sold). I did not mention the cross. The designers already wanted to shoot me.
It took several failed designs to get me to agree – reluctantly – that my face should be on the cover. The publishers argued that as it was a memoir and as it was about me, it made sense. I did not want my face on the cover, though, because the book is not about me. It’s about the mess of life, losing your way and trying to rekindle the ambitions you had in childhood when you thought you could do whatever you wanted with your life. It just happens to take place in front of a microphone in the smelly basements of comedy clubs with me telling the story.
After 94984 emails I caved and a compromise was reached. The cover showed half of my face crying, the other half laughing. It pretty much said what I wanted: this book is honest and funny and has a lot of ups and downs.
For the redesign for the paperback edition, I knew there was no way I could get away with a second diva strop. So I let them do whatever they wanted. They did a swirly cartoony thing with me in a pink top from Zara and too much eyeliner.
Now everyone – no, not just everyone but EVERYONE – says they prefer the second cover to the first. Which is very annoying. (“No offence. But who wants to see you crying?”) Me? I’m slightly with the guy who wrote on my Facebook page: “I preferred the original. This is like a Tracey Beaker.”
I Laughed, I Cried: One Woman, One Hundred Days, The Mother of all Challenges is out now.