Ignore This -- Research for a class I had to format on LJ
I couldn't find a lot of straightforward information on what the publisher thinks or says about book covers, so instead I've complied and extensive list of topics that I think help paint a picture of the cover-designing process, ranging from readers' input on trends to authors' experiences with their covers to the designers' discussions of the process itself.
Stock Photography
Fun fact: different covers will re-use the same stock photography again and again. While this article doesn’t pertain to YA specifically, it does identify the ways in which stock photography is manipulated and re-used in and on different covers. Two other blogs are devoted to spotting specific double-uses of stock photography in covers. While none of these sites are YA specific, they do contain some examples of YA "double dipping". At any rate, this was probably the most salient fact I learned - I had thought that each book cover got its own photoshoot. Reusing stock photography is economical, though I can't help but think covers with recycled stock photos look pretty silly.
Major Trends
I think it's useful to start out with a quick look at Goodreads' top 100 or so YA covers. It helps identify some major trends, trends which are further articulated in this article. Other major trends include intimate faces, blue butterflies, trees and people in them, t-shirt titles, cropped faces, symbolic signs, dolls, headless women, and (in the case of fantasy novels) circles and more circles.
However, the most notable trend is this mimicking of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight covers. This trend can be seen in the re-jacketing Wuthering Heights, other classics, and a variety of contemporary works.
Covers Across Time & Space
Author Sarah Rees Breenan talks about current covers in the US versus covers in the UK while Rebecca Bengal looks at covers over time and how they've changed and Leigh Ann Jones notes that the cover of a book can mean the different between it getting picked up from the library or not. Gayle Forman choses instead to look in-depth at a variety of covers, all for the same book, If I Stay. A similar study can be found on the blog inkcrush, which takes a look at the ten different covers of Kristen Cashore's Graceling. I find these kinds of studies valuable because it illustrates what works better in different cultures and parts of the world, and what's changed in the composition of covers over time, albeit a brief period of time.
Authors On Their Own Covers
Authors, especially lesser-known or debut authors, have very little say in their covers. This sometimes leads to crappy covers. This sometimes also leads to more-than-crappy covers, to downright problematic covers. Here, Justine Larbalestier talks about the original U.S. dust jacket of Liar, the controversy that ensued, and the eventual cover change. Similarly, Karen Healey talks about her almost-trainwreck of a cover, and how that cover was changed before it was put into print, mostly due to her input. I think both stories are interesting - in the former shows how little author input mattered, while the latter illustrates how author input can make a difference. Similarly, Sonya Chung talks about her concerns and difficulties with perceived race that arose during the creation of the cover for her book Long For This World. Here, Chung's input is valued and taken seriously, although she had her publisher do not arrive at a clear-cut conclusion.
Of course, authors don't always have issues with their covers. John C. Ford talks at length about what he loves about the cover for his debut novel The Morgue And Me. Maureen Johnson defends the cover art choice of her books to a disgruntled reader. Diana Peterfreund, after making several fake covers for her book, finally reveals the true cover excitedly.
Which, all of this leads up to a pretty straightforward conclusion: sometimes authors have some say in their covers, sometimes they don't; sometimes the end product is awesome, and sometimes, well, it's not. (Of course, it's pretty difficult for book designers as well).
The Cover Design Process
Book designer/art director Chad W. Beckerman has a plethora of articles wherein he talks about the process of creating a cover, and how that process involves specific examples. Although his work seems primarily geared toward children's literature, his "evolution of a book cover" series is very informative. He's done an article on each of the following:
Colleen Venable discusses the challenges that go into making a cover that is suitably terrifying with her discussion of Brain Camp, a graphic novel written by Susan Kim and illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks.
Columnist Judith Rosen takes an outsider's view on the sometimes-
exorbitant process of creating book covers with her article on the the creation of the cover of Sara Shepard's The Lying Game. In response, author Nancy Werlin talks about cover creation on a budget with the use of stock photography, photoshop, and in-house designers.
Lauren Panepinto shows how manipulating stock photography happens in real time with a short, time-collapsed video that shows the process she went through when designing the cover for Blameless by Gail Carriger. On a similar note, Barnes & Noble have a series of mini-documentaries where they interview cover designers and illustrators on their creative processes.
This article contains and in-depth description of what covers make it, what covers don't, and why certain covers are "killed".
Other Resources
Stock Photography
Fun fact: different covers will re-use the same stock photography again and again. While this article doesn’t pertain to YA specifically, it does identify the ways in which stock photography is manipulated and re-used in and on different covers. Two other blogs are devoted to spotting specific double-uses of stock photography in covers. While none of these sites are YA specific, they do contain some examples of YA "double dipping". At any rate, this was probably the most salient fact I learned - I had thought that each book cover got its own photoshoot. Reusing stock photography is economical, though I can't help but think covers with recycled stock photos look pretty silly.
Major Trends
I think it's useful to start out with a quick look at Goodreads' top 100 or so YA covers. It helps identify some major trends, trends which are further articulated in this article. Other major trends include intimate faces, blue butterflies, trees and people in them, t-shirt titles, cropped faces, symbolic signs, dolls, headless women, and (in the case of fantasy novels) circles and more circles.
However, the most notable trend is this mimicking of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight covers. This trend can be seen in the re-jacketing Wuthering Heights, other classics, and a variety of contemporary works.
Covers Across Time & Space
Author Sarah Rees Breenan talks about current covers in the US versus covers in the UK while Rebecca Bengal looks at covers over time and how they've changed and Leigh Ann Jones notes that the cover of a book can mean the different between it getting picked up from the library or not. Gayle Forman choses instead to look in-depth at a variety of covers, all for the same book, If I Stay. A similar study can be found on the blog inkcrush, which takes a look at the ten different covers of Kristen Cashore's Graceling. I find these kinds of studies valuable because it illustrates what works better in different cultures and parts of the world, and what's changed in the composition of covers over time, albeit a brief period of time.
Authors On Their Own Covers
Authors, especially lesser-known or debut authors, have very little say in their covers. This sometimes leads to crappy covers. This sometimes also leads to more-than-crappy covers, to downright problematic covers. Here, Justine Larbalestier talks about the original U.S. dust jacket of Liar, the controversy that ensued, and the eventual cover change. Similarly, Karen Healey talks about her almost-trainwreck of a cover, and how that cover was changed before it was put into print, mostly due to her input. I think both stories are interesting - in the former shows how little author input mattered, while the latter illustrates how author input can make a difference. Similarly, Sonya Chung talks about her concerns and difficulties with perceived race that arose during the creation of the cover for her book Long For This World. Here, Chung's input is valued and taken seriously, although she had her publisher do not arrive at a clear-cut conclusion.
Of course, authors don't always have issues with their covers. John C. Ford talks at length about what he loves about the cover for his debut novel The Morgue And Me. Maureen Johnson defends the cover art choice of her books to a disgruntled reader. Diana Peterfreund, after making several fake covers for her book, finally reveals the true cover excitedly.
Which, all of this leads up to a pretty straightforward conclusion: sometimes authors have some say in their covers, sometimes they don't; sometimes the end product is awesome, and sometimes, well, it's not. (Of course, it's pretty difficult for book designers as well).
The Cover Design Process
Book designer/art director Chad W. Beckerman has a plethora of articles wherein he talks about the process of creating a cover, and how that process involves specific examples. Although his work seems primarily geared toward children's literature, his "evolution of a book cover" series is very informative. He's done an article on each of the following:
- John Brown: His Fight For Freedom + an article from the illustrator's perspective and an interview with the illustrator.
- Heart Of A Samurai by Margi Preus
- Attack Of The Fluffy Bunnies by Andrea Beaty & Dan Santat
- The Strange Case Of The Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger
- The 323 Detective Agency: The Disappearance Of Dave Warthog by Fiona Robinson
- NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society by Michael Buckley
- The Diary Of A Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
- Meanwhile by Jason Shiga
Colleen Venable discusses the challenges that go into making a cover that is suitably terrifying with her discussion of Brain Camp, a graphic novel written by Susan Kim and illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks.
Columnist Judith Rosen takes an outsider's view on the sometimes-
exorbitant process of creating book covers with her article on the the creation of the cover of Sara Shepard's The Lying Game. In response, author Nancy Werlin talks about cover creation on a budget with the use of stock photography, photoshop, and in-house designers.
Lauren Panepinto shows how manipulating stock photography happens in real time with a short, time-collapsed video that shows the process she went through when designing the cover for Blameless by Gail Carriger. On a similar note, Barnes & Noble have a series of mini-documentaries where they interview cover designers and illustrators on their creative processes.
This article contains and in-depth description of what covers make it, what covers don't, and why certain covers are "killed".
Other Resources
- Jacket Knack
- Jacket Whys
- Books Covered
- Cover Art, Consumerism, & YA Reading Choices
- Judging a Book by Its Cover: Publishing Trends in Young Adult Literature
- Print: Design For Curious Minds
- The Book Design Review
- Book cover templates
- Further reading