What a Cover says About a Book
Literary Agents Jessica Faust and James McGowan sat down to talk about the process behind cover designing and what a cover does for your book.
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Jessica Faust’s love for books is what first brought her to open BookEnds Literary Agency. It is her desire to be an advocate for all authors that pushed her to create her blog, the BookEnds KZread channel and to maintain a vibrant presence on Twitter.
Jessica is proud to have grown BookEnds to an agency that represents authors of all genres for children and adults, allowing her to reach more readers and help more authors and illustrators achieve their dreams.
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Since interning at BookEnds as an undergrad in the summer of 2015, James has (basically) never left. He's just continuously level-up-ed inside of BookEnds. Now he is the Literary Assistant and Social Media Manager for the team. He’s been a reader since his mom gave him the first A Series of Unfortunate Events book and ordered the sequels regularly through Scholastic book orders.
James is currently growing his own list and is actively seeking submissions in adult literary and upmarket fiction, mystery, thrillers, and suspense. He is also actively building his picture book list.
Connect with BookEnds!
Twitter: bookendslit
Instagram: bookends_literary
Website: www.bookendsliterary.com
Connect with Jessica: bookendsjessica
Connect with James: jmcgowanbks
Пікірлер: 24
Loved this! Would love a video someday on how titles are chosen, too!
RE: The cover: "It should be the invitation into you exploring more about the story." Love it! And, great cover examples. Also, Paige has a stellar last name. ;-)
This was SO helpful - I hadn't seen a cover as "an invitation" but of course it is. So it's trying to do a very particular job.
The cover of a book reminds me of a shopping trip with my wife where I went along with my wife to shop for a special evening gown. All through the various stores she was sure she had found the right dress only to show to it me and I would just sort of nod ok. In each case she went back to the dressing room and looked over the dress and began to see tiny issues with it. Finally she came out and and I happily said, "That's the one!" She was unsure but was happy she got the response and asked me what made this one different. I said, "Seeing you in this dress makes me want to touch you, makes me want to take that dress off of you." That is what a book cover needs to do.
I was really hoping you would show examples. Thank you. I gotta get Going Up!.
@BookEndsLiterary
3 жыл бұрын
So fun!
So much great information! Thank you so much!🎉❤😊
My childhood memory was being fascinated by Richard Scarry books because they were so colorful and busy, and I got lost looking at all the tiny details...
Thank you. I love the examples. I'm thinking about my Killer Bunny story and what the cover would look like. ha.
Curious if the artists creating the covers get to read the whole manuscript, or are they operating off a summary given to them by the editors?
@etluxaeterna
3 жыл бұрын
most of the time they do not read the whole book and often not even any of the book but rather just go off of a 'brief' given to them by the author/publisher/etc. But it depends on what level we're talking about (self pub vs. traditional) and genre etc.
@BookEndsLiterary
3 жыл бұрын
@@etluxaeterna ^^
"We all judge a book by its cover." - so true! Also love the idea that the cover is an invitation NOT the whole story. I recently started using Pinterest to assemble visual references! Not surprised to hear other writers are too. Very useful, esp. in visual mediums such as picture book and graphic novel. P.S. Also love the GOODNIGHT, OPPY cover!
An agent is just a person as the writer. The judgements won't be different from an agent if you are a writer and also know about design. It's all about the judgement, what looks more appealing to the public
I was just mentioning this to someone last week... the saturation of illustrated (or I called them cartoonish) covers on novels. I believed them to be rom-coms. You proved to me that they are not just rom-coms. If and when I get my book published, I really don't want that type of a cover. The person I was speaking to added the fact that the illustrated cover doesn't give much away, that the reader can come up with their own ideas of what the characters and setting look like. Any thoughts on this?
@BethWorsdellauthor
3 жыл бұрын
Our covers are so important. It really is our first impression. Even our color choices determine who our book attracts.
I'd love to know yall's insight on how different publishers have different cover styles. What does that say about the publisher's target demographics? So looking at a lot of the more graphic cozy covers, the majority are coming out of Berkley Prime Crime while Kensington is still pretty painting-esque for lack of a better term.
How do Agents and Publishers view Anthologies? (In a single book context, like a collection of related short stories)
Unrelated, but still would be fun to get to know about an agent's mind and leisure :) Do you guys read published books by authors who are not your clients? How do you deal with all the reading? And do you normally read books your colleagues (within the same agency) sold even if you have no interest in the genre?
@BookEndsLiterary
3 жыл бұрын
we do! It's a balancing act
This process has to be one part art, one part marketing, and three parts alchemy from the tunnels of Thieves World.
@BookEndsLiterary
3 жыл бұрын
Precisely
Do you guys have any information on artists that may be trying to become cover artists?
Ugh, I hate those mystery covers that are all pink. Also not thrilled with a lot of thriller covers. I hope mine (fingers crossed) will be different and cooler.