Fishing Expedition
The crafting of a book’s cover is a curious thing. The choosing of that cover even more so. Deciding on what design gets blessed to grace the cover of a book may be more complicated than the writing of the book itself.
For those who don’t know, after the initial cover comps (ideas) are created by the designer they are then presented internally for approval. Sometimes this entails floating them by the right editorial and marketing people. Other times they are taken to team meetings where editors, marketing, sales, and art all get together and talk about the value of each concept. What happens during that meeting is a mystery to those of us on the outside. It is like the secret council of cover wizardry. One unnamed art director says this about those meetings:
I have to figure out how to keep the weird or rude or not-helpful feedback from tainting how I relay information [back to the designer]. As designers, we are highly-sensitive to subjective comments, ones that do not recognize the time, effort, and the creativity it took to offer the book cover solution. I get very very, very upset when someone dismisses a cover, whether it is mine or one of my designers. It takes some dancing to pull the real message from the comments and then relay that info in a somewhat upbeat manner.
I like the sky better in #1 and also that the girl is closer, but I like her expression in #2 much better, and also that she is looking ahead.
But, in addition to getting feedback internally, publishers have begun to look outward for help in choosing cover designs. One of the most recent trends is for clients (publishers and/or authors) to “focus-group” covers (or even branding) in order to help determine the best route for a particular book. A number of options are posted to the client’s site or blog and readers are invited to pick their favorites. (It seems even musicians are using this approach.)
For instance, the author and editor of a novel couldn’t agree which of two covers submitted was best. So, they posted the two to the author’s blog and asked for fan reactions. This comment is a good summary of the rest of the sixty-some comments posted there so far:
I like the sky better in #1 and also that the girl is closer, but I like her expression in #2 much better, and also that she is looking ahead. I don’t like her expression at all in #1 or the fact that she is looking backward. However, I will love reading the book regardless of which cover is chosen!
Author input on covers used to be reserved for A-list authors, but no more. Publishers typically grant writers the ability to review the design that was chosen internally for their book. The authors in turn may solicit responses from aunts, friends, brothers, postman, or anyone else who is willing to give their two-cents. And those opinions get added to the mix. Now, social networking makes fielding opinions so much easier with a wider pool of reviewers to draw comment from. Covers can be posted to Facebook, linked-to from tweets, and agonized over on blogs.
Internal feedback is one thing, but what about fishing for a great cover design publicly? Is trolling for reaction on proposed covers a good way to make decisions on cover designs?
Image courtesy of Library of Congress.
10 Responses
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Pieratt says:
I have to admit I stopped reading after this: “Deciding on what design gets blessed to grace the cover of a book may be more complicated than the writing of the book itself.” C’mon now.
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Cheryl Van Andel says:
Hmmm…the key word in that phrase is which is more “complicated” (rather than time consuming). I’ve never written a book, but I’m fairly certain it’s mostly an editor/author battle when it comes to editorial changes. Book cover design selection involves the subjective likes and dislikes of marketing, sales reps, editors, agents, book buyers and, of course, authors (who are easily influenced by their relatives, friends and coworkers). If the book doesn’t sell, the cover is usually the first to be blamed and subsequently redesigned for the next printing. Unfortunately, these are not isolated occurrences. The design bar seems to rise every season. We are encouraged to be cutting edge and a leader in the industry, and than asked to make a cover similar to it’s bestselling competitors. I’d never dare attempt to make an editorial suggestion, but no one seems to have a problem making a design suggestion!
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josh says:
Online surveys. The marketing people love this kind of thing and (for the most part) designers hate it! A designer once responded to a request by stating that “he was fundamentally opposed to online surveys”.
Your question made me think of some user testing that we did recently for our redesigned website (not yet up). Our web people tested a couple of random people and asked them to perform basic tasks. When asked, one of the users couldn’t find the search bar. The search bar was already larger than most and was positioned in the upper right hand corner (where most are located). He admitted that he rarely used computers and was not at all technologically inclined. Despite his obvious handicaps it was decided to make the search bar larger and change the color. This a classic example of designing for the lowest common denominator and is a misuse of information gathered.
Generally, I do not think it is helpful to post covers on blogs inviting feedback. Or rather, I do not think it helps in the selection or design process. There are some really great sites like http://covers.fwis.com/, that give people the opportunity to critique design. However, you will notice that people have very strong and very different opinions. It becomes impossible to work through the comments and apply them in a constructive way.
I think that surveys can be valuable if conducted properly and evaluated carefully. This is obviously a bit manipulative, but I am most inclined to conduct a survey when I am trying to obtain objective results in favor of a design I prefer. If an author is being really difficult we often use a survey in an attempt to support our claim. In other words I know that I’ll win. This doesn’t mean that we let our bias come out. For example, a sales rep recently asked key accounts for their feedback on a cover. He made it pretty clear that he didn’t care for the design in his email. As you can imagine, they gave negative feedback (everyone loves to be the art director). When conducting the survey it is very important to remain entirely unbiased.
It is also important to be careful how many designs you present. In fact, I would suggest only showing 2 options in most cases. Otherwise you run the risk of dividing votes between designs that might appeal to a similar market.
Our most effective surveys have gone out to a couple thousand people. The results were automatically tabulated and could be sorted according to demographic. However, in cases like this the results still need to be evaluated carefully and should always take into consideration the target market.
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Chris says:
As I’ve watched this trend develop, I’ve come to think that it points to an fundamental misconception among publishing teams and authors: that design quality is wholly independent of the designer. The belief is that designers are simply another technological tool—machines into which data can be fed that assures output of the “best” design solution.
Sadly, I don’t think this will reverse until it’s understood to be counterproductive on a sales/business level. We’re part of an industry that’s indulging a trend because it sees only the promise—not any hazards.
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ian shimkoviak says:
I think they should just have Chip Kidd and a select few renowned designers approve all cover—or disapprove them. No elaborate comments, just a Yes or No.
I personally find that while it’s annoying to have the feedback of what i know to be 10 or so people at times, it also makes me think in different ways about my approach to something. So while I may be sitting around trying to infuse something with concept and meaning—maybe the author or her husband or or the sales team is right: “We need a simple shot of a woman from the back with her arms stretched out towards the ocean with the title set in Times New Roman. Can you do that?”… to which I reply, “F*** yeah I can do that—thanks for making this easy and letting me move on to the next best thing”.
I guess my point is that there is no way to standardize the process. One client will have one way of approving and reviewing and another will have their way. All you can really do is sit back and enjoy the ride—and all the bumps that come with it.
One thing our studio does is we try to let clients know ahead of time how we like to receive feedback. Some will give numbered lists of corrections and others will forward me their uncles comments without any censoring, “Number three looks like those old Penguin books my grandmother would read”. Like that’s a bad thing.
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I’m not sure that trolling for public feedback will end with the best design solution for the book. For one thing: most of the public haven’t read it, so they are basing their decision on their own aesthetics separate from the book. In essence, their desire to form an opinion gets divorced from their curiosity about the book’s contents – which is essentially the purpose of the cover design.
Asking someone about their opinion on a subjective matter such as design is asking a few things of them: to form an opinion; to critique; to suggest alternatives. Many folks would feel either obliged or proud to offer an opinion. Rarely would they simply say ‘I like.’ They will strive to imprint their taste on it.
When I worked as an Art Director inhouse, I had the daunting task of basically training the sales staff to offer an opinion. You see, the publisher had been a distributor for so long, and this whole ‘whoah, we’re doing our own books’ thing had people in a tizzy. The first question I got from Sales was, ‘what do you want us to say?’ It was the best question they could ask, to be honest: once I told them that I was soliciting them for an opinion based on their sales experience as well as their in-the-field knowledge of what was currently selling, we could start the dialogue. And it was a dialogue: if I felt that we needed to break away from some norm, then we’d discuss why and posture how that would affect sales. Didn’t always work (some people just couldn’t get past their own personal taste, particularly with colour, and the whole ‘make it bigger’ suggestion reared up), but it was a start.
So, perhaps if one does resort to outside opinion-farming, one should be careful to give the great unwashed some guidelines, if only to avoid a nitpick fest.
And remember: too many Hollywood movies have been tested to death, where the movie will trundle along quite nicely and have a tacky, disappointing, but entirely ‘crowd-friendly’ ending. In some ways, that over-testing gave rise to the Independent film movement. So you have to ask: what result do you want?
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I’ve found that non-designers have trouble articulating exactly why a book jacket does or doesn’t work. For example, the problem might be that the title is hard to read, so the author/agent/editor might say “Make it bigger.” But the solution could be changing the background or using a different weight of the same typeface or any other number of solutions to make it more legible. I think it’s part of the designer’s job to interpret feedback and not always take it at face value.
Non-designers probably can’t put their finger on why they don’t like the type or the image, but sometimes they’re bringing to light an issue with the design that does need addressing. I’ll never forget about 5 years ago I was working at an italian/french restaurant and the owner was getting frustrated because people kept coming in and asking for sushi. He couldn’t figure out why. I told him it was because the logo on the awning was gold brush script on black— a style commonly used by sushi restaurants. It was funny because neither the customers or the owner knew what was causing the confusion, but they both knew there was a miscommunication going on.
Other people can’t “see” like designers do. They can’t immediately picture what “make it bigger” will look like. You need to push aside all their frustrating suggestions and figure out what they’re really getting at, then I think it’s much easier to come to a satisfying resolution.
All that being said, I’d much rather have the opinion of my trusted mentors or colleagues than a bunch of non-designers any day. Not only will they see they problem, they will see millions of solutions.
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Cathi Stevenson says:
You don’t know what real pain is until some author, whose neighbor’s, best friend’s, cousin’s, ex-boyfriend, who read a book on design and owns Photoshop insists you use four or five different fonts on the front cover so it look “more professional.” A true story. Hold me.
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My opinion (and I would yield to someone with more experience in this arena) is that trolling for reaction is somewhat of a temptation that should not be indulged often. It’s wonderful that the option to get feedback from just about anyone is out there because I’m sure at times it can lead to some unique solutions, especially when the available options just don’t seem to be the right option.
But there are a lot of shortcomings with it too. Trolling for a reaction from the masses could easily lead to a “design by committee” scenario in an effort to appease everybody. In all honesty, I don’t think it’s feasible for everyone to like or know what the best design for a book cover, poster, album cover, etc. should be. The majority of the masses will have an opinion but not enough of a education in good design to be able to make constructive criticisms.
In my work, when I have the option, I show my drafts and ideas to a few people that either know the subject matter well or have a good sense of design themselves—because I trust that they are looking for the best solution, not just something that they necessarily like.
Anyone else that sees my work and gives their opinion, sometimes including even my own wife, I’ll take their suggestions with a grain of salt.
Now, all of that is not to say that I think designers should never test out their concepts on non-designers. I just feel that it should only be an occasional occurrence, such as when neither of two different options seems to be the right fit. A third option may arise from the masses that no one thought of yet. Key word—may.
I would love to hear what designers with more years of experience have to say though.