The Cover Process

(Note to mods -- wasn't sure which forum would be best for this, so if you think it'd work better somewhere else....)

I posted this in another thread and thought it might be helpful for a wider audience to know what goes on in the process of designing a cover.

My publisher recently did a series of posts about the whole process (handily listed here) from acquisition, through art department briefings, to final touches. I know I learnt a few things from this, and thought perhaps it would be interesting (or useful) to see what goes on, and discuss it.

Roxxsmom said:

Do they always put this much effort into cover design, or is this something they do when they think the story is going to hit a certain market demographic that would benefit from going the extra mile?

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Obviously I can't speak for anyone else, but they were talking to me about the ideas for my cover before the contract was finalised - several months before it was announced and well over a year before the book came out. They certainly think about it very deeply -- who the book will attract and how to make a cover that will attract the people who will like the book. Sometimes that means going with what has previously worked. Sometimes, something in the book helps them do something new. (other, smaller pubs I've worked with have done stuff in a lot shorter time frame, and sometimes recycle images that they know work).

So does this mean that when a publishing company does put a woman in a spine-twisting pose on their cover (the sort that Jim Hines satirizes), they actually get a contortionist model in for a photo shoot?

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One suspects a LOT is to do with the publisher, but they also go by what actually sells, though out of the box is always a consideration. So the hooded man covers (started by the Trudi Canavan covers? The latest, which looks like a hooded man trying to press through the page, is a really cool twist) sold well, so they replicated what worked. But ofc you have to have something new occasionally. At least in these covers, the hooded man is not that same model guy I've seen, in the same clothes in the same pose, on many covers. One suspects that a lot of the spine twisters are not photo shoots (many covers aren't. Here's a post on how the artist did mine, for example.)

Covers can be problematic, but what is also problematic is these covers sell. ETA: That doesn't mean I don't think they shouldn't sort it out. Though I see much less of that on UK covers, or the ones I see at least

To be fair, there are pubs (*cough*Baen*cough*) that have less than stellar covers, but still sell boatloads of books.

Having a cover you love is better from the writer POV though. But do we know what sells books? I don't, I know that