Continuing in the series of interviews with authors and people in the publishing industry, today we have an interview with Susan Wenger, who works for Wheatmark. Susan designs book covers and gives us some great tips below – this follows on from the previous post on Book Cover Design.
I met Susan through Twitter which continues to be a brilliant resource for authors (here’s why!)
Can you tell us a bit about you and your company?
Wheatmark is a full-service self-publishing company. We design your book, take care of administrative stuff like obtaining the ISBN, and get the book into print and online distribution. We also do a whole lot of author support. The people who come to us tend not to know much about the publishing process, so we educate them about publishing and basic book marketing as they go.
I came on board in 2003. My tasks include cover design, interior layout, occasional copyediting and proofreading, and the aforementioned author support.
What are the key elements of cover design?
Attractive typefaces (but not too many). Attractive, easy-to-read typesetting. An attractive, compelling image. Your book doesn’t necessarily have to have an image, but if it does, it should look great.
The gestalt is just as important as the elements, though. You need everything on the cover to work together to draw the reader’s eye. If you have beautiful elements that fight with each other for attention, the whole thing falls apart.
You say not to use Times New Roman on your Twitter profile. Why not?
Here’s the 140-characters-or-less answer: Times New Roman is fine onscreen, but in books it looks boring and amateurish.
I bash Times New Roman mostly for the benefit of people who plan to design their own books but have no experience. A lot of them seem to think that Times New Roman is the only body font out there. By telling them better typefaces exist (and giving recommendations if they let me know what their book is about), I hope not only to steer them away from TNR, but also to get them to question other assumptions they may have about design.
You mentioned typefaces and typesetting as key elements of cover design. Can you go into more detail?
Here are a few tips for those of you who want to try your hand at this.
1. Don’t make your title too long.
That probably doesn’t seem like a design tip at all, but trust me, it’s important. Say your title is The Quick Brown Fox Jumps over the Lazy Dog: A History of Keyboard Interface from QWERTY to DVORAK. It’s cute and clever … and unlikely to draw the eye when crammed into a 6″x9″ or smaller space.
2. Choose appropriate typefaces for the title and author’s name.
Take the time to find a font that’s not only easy to read, but conveys the flavor of the book. A typeface that works wonderfully on one cover will be completely unsuitable for others.
You may love Papyrus, for instance, but you don’t want to use it for your suspense thriller.
Fonts in your computer’s system not inspiring you? There are a ton of free fonts sites out there, and some of them give you permission to use their stuff for commercial projects.
3. You can get great results by varying the sizes of the words in your title.
Your text doesn’t all have to be the same size!
Making some words larger than others can help draw the reader’s attention to what’s most important. It’s also a nice technique for those titles that are a little on the long side.
How about images? What should people look for when picking one?
Does the image draw your eye? If you don’t know how to finesse an image in Photoshop, will you be able to lay text over it without the whole thing looking too busy? Is it at the right resolution? 72 dpi looks good onscreen, but in print it will appear extremely pixelated.
Also, if you’re searching the Internet for pictures, make sure you grab something you have the right to use. If the site doesn’t specifically give you permission, you don’t have it.
Where are the best places to get images for your book cover?
My favorite is Photos.com. (Full disclosure: I used to work for the company that created the site.) I like it because it has the most easy-to-use interface, and because it’s subscription based – once we’re paid up for the year, we can download as much as we want. People who only need one or two items will find iStock.com more cost-effective, however, and they have a ton of images.
Should an author include their photo on the back of the book?
That depends. Does your photo sell the book? Look at the picture you want to use and think, If I were one of my potential readers, would I want to buy a book on this topic from THIS person?
How you should present yourself will vary with your book and your audience. If you’re selling a how-to business book, for instance, you’ll want a different look than if your book is about arts and crafts.
Here’s one of my favorite examples.
Dr. Toni Galardi wrote The LifeQuake Phenomenon, a self-help book about dealing with big life changes. She’s dressed very professionally, but wears her hair down, conveying a sense of fun and spontaneity. She’s smiling brilliantly as she looks right at you, projecting absolute confidence. Doesn’t she look like she can guide you through your personal crisis? Wouldn’t you love to hear what she has to say?
“But I’m not photogenic,” I hear you cry. Neither is Dr. Toni, or so she told me when I commented on how good her author photo was. She hired a professional photographer, and that did the trick.
Hiring a professional means that everything else about the photo will look good as well. Designers can adjust things like color imbalances or lack of contrast, but only to a certain extent … and there’s nothing we can do if you’re out of focus.
How can people get in touch with you?
You can reach Wheatmark by calling (520) 798-0888. You can reach me at swenger@wheatmark.com. We’d love to hear from you.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Thank you for the post. The bottom line is, whatever you do, make sure it’s done by professionals: whether it’s cover design or even just a photo that’s part of the cover design.