Book Cover Designer, Kirk DouPonce

I remember as a kid, maybe junior high age, reading through the copyright page of a Robin Hood book and being excited to discover who the cover artist was. Weird I know, but true. That’s actually how many of my clients find me today. You can usually find out who designed a book cover simply by looking at either the inside back flap, back cover, or copyright page. Free marketing! That’s not the case with most other areas of design. Mom was always impressed to read my name on the books, as were the dates I would take to B&N for that very purpose.

I originally got into designing book covers just out of art college. I was living in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a town that happened to have a couple book publishers. I met an art director from one of them at a community college night class. He was gracious enough to give me my first cover assignment. After that, I worked in-house for a publisher, and then for a studio that focused on book cover design. I went solo with DogEared Design six years ago. A scary jump, but not one I regret.

I've turned down a few jobs over the years, and have taken some I probably should have turned down. The ones that bother me the most are the pseudo spiritual psycho babble books. I do a lot of books for Christian publishers so some of the bigger publishers have come to me with their spiritual books. Some are fine, some are pretty weird, the universe is your personal genie kinda stuff. I've had mixed reactions turning down covers. Some art directors respect it, some may never call again. It’s always a difficult thing to do.

As much as I would like to say that book covers are purely art, they’re not, they’re marketing. The mission of the cover is essentially an advertisement to sell the book. But they’re art as well. They literally give the book a face. As far as the extent to which a cover contributes to sales, that’s a hard question to quantify. If any publishers are reading this, I’d say that the cover is the most important part of the book, much more important than the author or the actual contents. Thus designers should be compensated accordingly.

I’m usually given about three weeks to provide the client with three to five completely different comps. They’re called comps but they’re actually finished covers with hi-rez art in place. The project begins with a brief which could be one or two sentences to include a title, subtitle, and author name, or it could include a full blown manuscript. I used to have to print out manuscripts in order to read them, now however, I can upload them to my beloved Kindle. A lot of trees have been saved by that devise which could eventually replace the physical book... and put me out of job. I hate the foul gadget!

Ahem. I digress.

The process is somewhat different for each project, but generally I start by researching the topic on the net. I love photography, so depending on deadlines and subject matter, if I can, I’ll do the shoot myself. But in many cases that’s not possible so a lot of time is spent going through stock sites looking for imagery. Even when stock is used it’s never just a matter of slapping a photo on the cover and calling it good. Usually images need to be manipulated and merged with other images as well as doing some digital painting on them. It’s very rare to find an image and bam, I’ve got a cover. An example of this is the cover for “Scared” by Tom Davis. It’s a fictional story of a young African girl with AIDS. In this case there was a lot of available info on the web to research and no lack of photography either. When I stumbled upon the image of a young African girl with dry tears in her eyes I knew it was the magic image. When you look at the final cover, however, you’ll see a lot more went into the imagery than just using the photo, as perfect as it was.

Each publisher works a bit differently, but most don’t give too much specific direction as to what they want on the cover. Some will give examples of covers in the market that they like and also give the general mood they’re after like “dark”, “light”, or “edgy” etc. So at the beginning there’s usually plenty of freedom. I’m only a hired gun, so I have no say as to which comp will be chosen. Often the Frankenstein factor occurs, a client will ask for different parts of different comps to be merged into one. That happens a lot. If I’m at a book store and don’t like a cover on the shelf, I always give the designer the benefit of the doubt, they may not be happy with the final product either.

The cover is ultimately finished when it’s approved and sent off to the printer. Sometimes when I see my work, say in a book store a couple years later, I cringe and wonder what I was smoking.

Book covers aren’t fine art, they’re commercial art. Designers and illustrators need to develop a thicker skin. Having said that, it’s difficult to not be emotionally attached to your work. Since I generally have to create three comps, I’ll try to create at least one to make me happy and the rest to make the client happy. That’s not to say that a cover can’t fit within both categories. Life seems worth living when that happens. Many of the covers on my site aren’t the final covers, just the comps that I preferred. If you want clients to keep coming back, it’s important to give them what they ask for without trying to push your agenda upon them. Ultimately the cover belongs to them. Which answers the second part of your question, one way a book cover designer can gauge the merit of their work is by the number of clients that continue to come back to them.

Some have held up over the years, others, not so much. The crazy thing is that it seems like I could knock work out a lot faster back in the day. Now, however, it takes me longer to get a cover to where it should be. Hopefully it’s because I’m pickier and not because I’m getting rusty with years. I think my work is more illustrative than it used be. I’ve put a lot more time into doing my own photography and digital painting. I used to hire that stuff out, but now that’s my favorite part.

There’s actually a secret formula for creating successful covers. A marketing VP taught it to me back in my in-house days, it’s called “bigger titles guys, bigger titles”. If a cover had big type he loved it. Sometimes big type works. A good example that caught my eye is the cover for Hilary Mantel’s book Wolf Hall designed by Lisa Fyfe. But sometimes, call me crazy, small type works. A good example of that is is the cover for Steven James’ book Story designed by Chris Gilbert. I’m typically drawn to covers that are simple like the cover for Dave Cullen’s book Columbine designed by Henry Sene Yee. But sometimes complex covers are the way to go like the cover for Dexter Palmer’s book The Dream of Perpetual Motion designed by Ervin Serrano. Okay, so there’s not really a secret formula, it’s all about the mood you’re trying to create.

I typically work six days a week, so I can’t wait for creativity to strike while projects pile up. Sometimes it’s gotta be forced out of its hole and wrestled to the ground. Hunting the wild boar seems the most appropriate analogy. As far as a singular source of inspiration, I may not be a young earth creationist, but I do believe in the biblical Creator from whom we get whatever talents and inspiration we have... and everything else for that matter.

Obsession. Any artist, athlete, realtor, you name it, who wants to be at the top of their game has to love what they do and think about it constantly. When not creating, I’m looking through book stores, both brick and mortar and online, or I’m looking through trade magazines or watching tutorials. Gnomon Workshop and Massive Black are amazing resources for expanding artistic ability. Another good resource is a web site called DesignRelated.com, lots of talent to be inspired by there.

It’s unusual to work directly with an author, and it’s also unusual for an author to have the last word on how the cover ends up. My interaction occurs mostly with an art director. I used to be an art director, so I know how difficult their job can be. They act as buffers who get direction from in-house committees, the authors, the author’s spouses, and the publisher’s dog. They then condense the sometimes contradictory information and funnel it to me.

As far as getting copies of the books, some publishers are great about sending copies. Or I may find them at book stores.

One example of changing the cover is what the industry calls repackaging or repacks. It’s actually a fairly large part of my workload. For one reason or another a publisher will change out the the cover of an existing book. It’s often done with successful backlist books who’s sales have begun to fall off over time. Even though the content may not change, a fresh look can reinvigorate sales. It can be very intimidating when asked to repack a cover that’s already very successful and looks great. My friend Charles Brock did this when he repacked Henry Sene Yee’s cover for “The Resurrectionist”. Henry’s cover was beautiful, I don’t know what Charles was thinking when he accepted the job, but he pulled it off.

Books sometimes have different covers for different formats as well. The hard cover jacket, paperback, and mass market versions will often have separate designs. And sometimes a book that was expected to do well but doesn’t, will be given a facelift. If a book does well it’s because of the content, if it fails... maybe it was the cover.

I’ll defer to Malcolm Gladwell and his 10,000 hours rule on that one. I’m not sure which is more important, talent or time, but to be good at anything certainly requires both.

The price range is fairly broad. It mostly depends on the publisher you’re working with. Independent publishers and self published authors usually pay less than the big dogs but will hopefully allow for more creative freedom in return.

I still get a kick out of seeing my work at book stores, websites and every now again on television. I admit whenever my wife and I are at someone else’s home, I scan their bookshelves looking for my covers. And I’m usually not humble enough to keep it to myself if I find one or two. My poor wife.

I’m not bankrupt at the moment, I am a bit pudgy, and I love to read. When schedule permits I like to spend an hour plus every morning reading, but usually not books I’ve designed. I wasn’t much of a reader until my late 20’s so I’m trying to make up for all the books I should have read in college. I can now say I’ve finished War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, and The Brothers Karamazov. Biographies are a favorite as well.

Back to the blasted Kindle huh' I actually don’t know how ebooks will affect the design industry. Like I stated earlier, the cover gives a book a literal face. Even when you buy a digital book, it still has a cover image. As far as self publishing, there’s certainly been an explosion on that front. I’m actually kind of scared of self published authors. My friend and fellow designer, Chris Tobias, posted an article in his November 2008 blog entitled “Five Reasons you Might Want to Avoid Self-Publishers”. He said it better than I ever could. I’ve had wonderful experiences with SPAs but I try to be pretty careful before accepting those jobs which have become more and more numerous.