Six Writers Talk about Book Covers and Blurbs and Stuff

The Awl asks several writers the following...

* How important are covers in terms of selling a book?
* Have your publishers asked you for your opinion or “input” on your covers, and to what extent do you think they listened? Did you ever meet with the designer? How important was “marketing” in making decisions about the cover of your book(s)?
* Did you ever receive a cover that made you unhappy and if so, what did you do about it? Did you ultimately end up with a cover that made you happier?
* How important are blurbs, particularly for a first-time author?
* How did you go about getting your blurbs? Did your agent or editor help, or did you rely more on personal connections?
* Have you ever offered someone else a blurb?

From the piece...

I think covers are extremely important. The cover of your first book is like your wedding dress if you’re a woman: You want it to represent who you are, but you want it to make you look much better than you normally do. And you only get one first book. I can’t think of an apt metaphor for men. Your first book cover is like… I don’t know, your first car? This is a futile exercise in gender normativity, anyway, so I’ll move on.

You should definitely have input into the cover’s design, and your publisher should facilitate and encourage this input. If your publisher is being cagey, get your agent involved. For me, my publishers (the Crown division of Random House and the Miramax division of Hyperion) sent me several mock-ups from which to choose. I was with Crown for my first book, and they allowed me to search for an image I thought might be appropriate for my book’s jacket. They didn’t ultimately use that image, but they used one by the same photographer that I actually preferred to the one I had found.