Why Your Book Cover Is So Crucial
A session at JLF
Here I was at the forbidden Jaipur Bookmark zone once more, but my heart rate was considerably calmer this time. It’s spooky how fast you get used to a good thing. Prepare to be blown away by how important all of this actually is.
This was a real time talk I attended at the JLF 2017 with esteemed designers, publishers who can gift plenty of true information about the industry. I got my seat in the front row minutes before the panelists came down to sit at the round table. It was always pleasantly cool in this chamber, out of the hot sun, the booming speakers of the festival grounds. This was another trade talk. And I was about to learn bucket loads.
‘Designs get simpler if you’re a big name,’ said Aman Nath. He was a smart bearded gentleman. Writer, designer, hotelier, architectural restorer — the host had described him as somebody who put other people’s productivity to shame. ‘If you’re a huge author, I just want to see your name on the cover. Even in simple typeface — I’ll pick it up. The readers’ trust is that high.’
‘But if you’re a new author, which is how most people begin, you’re invisible. Your cover is the first thing I notice about you. It’s what entices me as I’m walking by the bookshelf. And I’m going to stop only if the images speak to me.’
‘Good covers sell bad books and bad covers can ruin good books,’ said Namhita Gokhale, a warm voiced, bespectacled lady who was director(!) at the Jaipur Lit Fest. She’d recently published a book herself. ‘We have so many first-time authors who are conscious about this, and possessive as well. You’ve got to keep the emotion out of it.’
‘Definitely. The kind of book you’re writing dictate what style your cover will have. Thrillers, horror, romance, historical, fantasy — all these genres have different codes,’ said Aman Nath.
He looks thoughtful for a moment.
‘Like look at Dan Brown. All his books have a classic caption and image. As a regular reader, I’d immediately glance at his book on a shelf & the layout would jump out at me. I know this whole lane of books is Dan Brown.’
Book designs comprised a whole world of secret likings & smart choices. Think of white space on a page for example. You flip through the book and if it’s too spread & big, you know it’s a light read. Airy as a creampuff. If you have tight, packed paragraphs instead — it’s going to be a long night with the bedroom light on. Book designing puts instant recognition in the reader’s eyes.
Writers themselves, were apparently terrible at all this. ‘We as publishing teams really do love our authors,’ said Alka Pande. She sounded amused and tired. ‘But when it comes to designs, authors know worst.’
‘They do have an image, a depth of the story nobody else does,’ said Namhita Gokhale. ‘But market research wise, their choices would make a complete nightmare. Even when a book takes place on the store shelf, if you require bargaining. Unfortunately, writers can be crabby about this.’
It was blowing me away now. How technical writing a book was. Not a labor of love which ribbon laced & blew out into the world. It seemed like by the end of it all, you’d want to get away from the old thing already. Get it out into the world.
All these people championing the print experience did have an e-booker in the crossfire though. Those deeply involved in the making of a book weren’t the biggest fans of technology. And here was an ebook publisher. ‘Less is more in the e-book design,’ said Margarita Guerrero. ‘You want clean, readable, contrasting material.’
All this design talk, it turned out though, was well-timed. The end of the session led up to an award announcement. The Oxford Wordpress book cover award. The shortlist was out. Now a few eye-catching design finalists flashed across the screen. One white postcard cover with a melting red stamp. Another was a pop art, funky design. But the cover which won, was Pinaki De’s Kalkatta, authored by Kunal Basu.
‘It’s magnificent. The undertone of the city of Calcutta. Its canined symbolism of a dog eats dog world. You could definitely not miss this walking by a bookshelf,’ said a judge on the roundtable. Then Pinaki De was handed to the mike. He seemed like a very cultured, calm person. He had seen many days of creative work.
‘Thank you so much. We illustrators and graphic designers are very unsung heroes. We worked incredibly hard for every single cover design. This very one I have received this award for, was a hard pass. I did read Basu Sir’s manuscript twice and formulated my ideas, practiced and go to ton of them rejected. It was rather painful actually.’ he chuckled.
He thanked a friend of his who had gotten him to the Kalkutta opportunity. And she was smiling in the back row, holding a camera in hand. He was planning to call the writer just after this. He shared his story as a young boy growing up, about his designs & the designers who’d influenced him. People I’d never heard of. All unsung heroes & that hidden magic in the world.
‘I’d never like to accept this on my own. There’s struggle and creativity to what we do — I dedicate and except this award along with all my fellow nominees & designers.’ I was touched by his story but couldn’t congratulate him once he got off stage, caught in a throng of admirers. This completely different side of the publishing world had been revealed to me. And I wouldn’t be forgetting it anytime soon.
