What control do authors have on cover art?

Koobie said:

What control do authors have over their books' cover art?

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In a nutshell, pretty much none.

Here's a bit of debate about it:

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72708&highlight=cover+art
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66624&highlight=cover+art

Koobie said:

What control do authors have over their books' cover art?

I'm very interested in this, and I coudln't find a similar thread on AWWC. I'm sure one exists somewhere, but I'd probably have to journey deep into the annals of the intrawubs... And I don't think I'm up for the challenge.

Not sure if this is the right forum section for the thread, but it's the best I could find.

Anyway, I've the following questions:

Is it a standard for the cover art to be completely under publisher's control? Or can authors tell their publishers what to put on the cover? Can they maybe even propose their own covers if they have contacts with professional (and by professional, I do mean professional) illustrators? Or are all these details vary wildly publisher to publisher, and are discussed in detail in the contracts?

Thanks!

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I imagine the fine details vary from publisher to publisher, but as a general rule authors don't make the decisions regarding cover art. You can offer suggestions and input, but once that's done it's up to the publisher's art/marketing department to decide whether your input is worthwhile.

Here's a link to a related post on Kristin Nelson's blog: http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2006/06/trouble-with-covers.html

Cover art

Cover art is the province of the publisher. They pay people big bucks to determine what does and does not sell novels. Writers may know what they like, and what they hate, but they seldom have a clue about what does or does not sell a novel.

Maryn said:

An author I know was enraged, not because she had no input into her books' cover art, but because the main character of the series has a Westie. On the cover of book one, the artist used a Scottie. My friend complained, and her publisher (St. Martin's, so we're talking big boys) apologized and promised to do better on the cover of her second in the series.

They used a Yorkie.

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I also have a dog in my book. I actually emailed pictures of the type of dog I wanted and the artist nailed it. (Not exactly what I had envisioned, but so what.)

Koobie said:

What control do authors have over their books' cover art?

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Totally depends on what style of publishing you do.

If you're shooting for a NYC publishing house (one of the big boys), you get nada input. You MIGHT get to see a copy of the picture before it's actually used, but only if the editor really, really likes you as a person.

Many epubs will give you more input, but that can turn out to be more hassle than help.

When the epub/small press bought my book back in 1999, I was told that I'd get to see the cover before it was used. I was among the first four books bought for this new epub, so I wasn't sure what they'd use. The editor gleefully sent all four of us authors the covers as they came into being and I was horrified to see that what was being used was standard clipart, not even artfully arranged. Some of the pieces looked like they'd been scanned from other covers. I quickly arranged with the publisher and an artist-friend to have my own cover done differently, which the editor was delighted with the idea of. Only, they only used a third of the picture so the cover was still stupid and made no sense--but at least it was copyrighted to ME.

Having gone through it once, even on a small scale, I'm just as happy to let a respectable publisher take care of that business. LOL!

I got none

I want to emphasize what James said. The folks who design these covers (or at least the ones who hire them) know what works and they also know that it's often not important to get details right on a cover (I think this isn't the case if you're a writing for a historical market). Getting the feel of the book is what counts. Though for the record, putting the wrong dog on the cover would drive me batty.

I have a friend whose book is being released this week whose cover has nothing to do with the book whatsoever, yet the marketing people know that this is what appeals to the folks who read in that genre (thrillers) and it's similar enough to her last cover, to help brand her. Was she mortified when she got it? You bet. Have we made endless jokes about it? Of course. But it's eye-catching and I'll bet it doesn't affect her sales in a negative way at all.


grommet

DeleyanLee said:

If you're shooting for a NYC publishing house (one of the big boys), you get nada input.

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I don't know. My editor asked me if I had any ideas before they began designing the cover. I told her I didn't; I wanted to see what the publishing house folks could do.

As far as showing the cover of the book before it goes to print, I think that's pretty common. I've seen the cover to not only my American book, but a few foreign editions as well -- and we're still months away from publication.

<----------------- Those are Chinese tangrams on my cover, BTW. They show up in the book. Shamefully, I didn't even recognize what they were; my editor had to tell me. But I thought it was pretty ingenious to take out that small detail and use it on the cover. My idea would have probably been totally minimal, because I love just font on a book cover. But I'm weird like that.

Will Lavender said:

I don't know. My editor asked me if I had any ideas before they began designing the cover. I told her I didn't; I wanted to see what the publishing house folks could do.

As far as showing the cover of the book before it goes to print, I think that's pretty common. I've seen the cover to not only my American book, but a few foreign editions as well -- and we're still months away from publication.

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I want your publishing house!

After you've been with the publisher for a bit (multiple books) and you can show a propensity toward marketing and art, you can sometimes get "cover consultation" as a contract clause. That doesn't mean they MUST do what you say, but they'll let you look at it and make suggestions on color, design and such. We have that right in our contract, and it's been pretty useful for several books. I wish we would have had it earlier to avoid some lamentable colors (our Mafia hitman werewolf isn't really a bubble-gum pink sort of guy... sigh. )

Some authors eventually can get "cover approval" where it won't hit the shelf unless the author says yes. But those contracts are few and far between, and even then--the author can only say yes or no to what's presented. They seldom get to design the cover outright unless the publisher is REALLY flexible.

Will Lavender said:

I don't know. My editor asked me if I had any ideas before they began designing the cover. I told her I didn't; I wanted to see what the publishing house folks could do.

As far as showing the cover of the book before it goes to print, I think that's pretty common. I've seen the cover to not only my American book, but a few foreign editions as well -- and we're still months away from publication.

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I, too have been able to see the cover, and although I don't have approval, when I made a couple of suggestions, the art department worked with me on it; they didn't have to do that (legally I don't have any say), but I think a certain level of consult is a common courtesy at the larger NY houses.

I was asked to submit a "cover memo" giving my ideas for the cover; rather than make concrete suggestions (the art dept. knows its business, I figure), I talked about some themes and visuals from the book that they might find useful. And they didn't use any of my ideas, not at all! But that's okay, because I like their direction. Visual people really DO get it more than "word people."

Harlequin has authors fill out "art fact sheets." They take a good bit of time to do, and one of the portions is that the author describes three potential scenes/images for the cover. You have to describe hair and eyes, using drop-down menus, and I used to get annoyed because the selections were like: brown. BROWN! Come on, this is a communication between a WRITER (who can come up with a better word) and an ARTIST (who surely knows there are many shades of BROWN.) LOL.

Sometimes they listen. Sometimes they don't. <shrug> It's a little irritating when they don't listen at all because you spent so much time filling out the damn form. <G>

In my four books, though, I loved all my covers. At first I was a little disappointed with book 4's cover, but then it grew on me, and I loved it. Book 2's cover is absolutely magical, IMHO, and really captured the essence of the book.

So I give the HQ art department big THUMBS UP!

Susan G.

Jamesaritchie said:

Cover art is the province of the publisher. They pay people big bucks to determine what does and does not sell novels. Writers may know what they like, and what they hate, but they seldom have a clue about what does or does not sell a novel.

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Or even what is a good graphic versus a bad graphic. I do presentation design at work and am continually amazed at the truly bad graphics people pick--and even worse, they usually think they did a pretty good job picking them. The problem is they're picking graphics that give them an emotional reaction, but not much thought goes in beyond that. Covers have to make the people pick up the books, and that's close to an art in itself--and it changes from year to year. What cover sells this year may not work a few years from now. A few months back there was a lot of discussion about the covers for the Little House on the Prairie books. They've used the same covers for pretty much for decades. The covers were whimsical drawings of Laura and her adventures drawn by Garth Williams. But the publisher discovered that they weren't selling the books to today's audiences, so they finally changed the covers to photographs of real people. I'm sure there was a great deal of discussion about no longer using Garth Williams covers, and there were definitely people who hate the change, but ultimately, it all goes back to what will sell the book.

Cover

Will Lavender said:

I don't know. My editor asked me if I had any ideas before they began designing the cover. I told her I didn't; I wanted to see what the publishing house folks could do.

As far as showing the cover of the book before it goes to print, I think that's pretty common. I've seen the cover to not only my American book, but a few foreign editions as well -- and we're still months away from publication.

<----------------- Those are Chinese tangrams on my cover, BTW. They show up in the book. Shamefully, I didn't even recognize what they were; my editor had to tell me. But I thought it was pretty ingenious to take out that small detail and use it on the cover. My idea would have probably been totally minimal, because I love just font on a book cover. But I'm weird like that.

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Most publishers will ask if you have any ideas. I've been asked with every novel I've sold. But no one has listened yet. After asking, they usually ignore whatever we say. I believe all publishers send writers the cover art well before publication. But it isn't so you can say yes or no. By the time the writer sees it, it's almost always far too late to make a change.

I didn't have approval for my cover (ha ha, like THAT was gonna happen for a first-timer), but my editor was really great about asking for input. And since I was responsible for permissions and acquisitions for photos, she came to me right away and asked if I had any particular photos in mind for the cover -- and as a matter of fact I did.

I provided her with the cover painting, and when she came back from production with the cover design, I was thrilled -- it looked pretty much the way I envisioned it from the start.

I don't know that I was lucky; I think the situation just gave me the opportunity to provide a bit more input. Besides, with non-fiction, your options are a bit more limited. Sort of.

I had nada on my first two books, though I did get a little bit of input into the third. Not only that, but they actually used my input on book three. I was thrilled

Mostly, I've been happy to leave it in the hands of the professional artists and cover designers. As folks have said, they do this for a living, and they have a lot more knowledge and experience than I do when it comes to cover design...

An author I know received a finished copy of her picture book, fully illustrated. She had never seen any of the art until the book appeared.

Geezus, I have enough trouble with control over the words on the INSIDE of the book. Presuming there ever is an inside of a book. Which is on the dark side of doubtful.

If it ever gets that far, I just hope they put a picture of Britney Spears with a couple of goats on the cover.

caw

Maryn said:

An author I know was enraged, not because she had no input into her books' cover art, but because the main character of the series has a Westie. On the cover of book one, the artist used a Scottie. My friend complained, and her publisher (St. Martin's, so we're talking big boys) apologized and promised to do better on the cover of her second in the series.

They used a Yorkie.

Maryn, wondering how they'll botch hers when the time comes

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Wow, first they use a starship engineer, and then a chocolate bar. How wrong can you be?