Q&A: Designing a Book Cover with Linda Huang and Jack Smyth

People actually judge books by their covers. Designers share how they make sure it’s a good first impression.

For many readers, whether they’re browsing in a bookstore or scrolling on Instagram, a book’s cover is their first encounter with a book, making cover design a crucial part of the process of getting a book into readers’ hands. But for many authors — especially first-time authors new to publishing — the design process can feel opaque. In two separate conversations, Study Hall Creative correspondent Meghan Racklin spoke with Linda Huang, a graphic designer and the Associate Art Director at the publishing house, Alfred A. Knopf, and Jack Smyth, a freelance graphic designer, about what it takes for a book cover to succeed in a highly competitive market, the impact of social media on cover design, and how much say authors really have in the ideation process. 

These conversations have been condensed into a single Q&A below and have been edited and shortened for clarity.

Study Hall: What is the process like when you’re designing a book cover?

Linda Huang: We start by reading as much of the manuscript as possible. When I was younger, I thought that it was all about trying to be faithful to the writing: how do you distill the book’s essence on a cover to attract an audience? But it’s much more than that. The publisher might have a strategy about how they want to pitch that book. If it’s a front list book, then they want it to look like a big book, and so there are different tropes that one employs when designing. It’s really about how the publisher wants to sell the book, and how you as a designer can convey that message on the cover.

Jack Smyth: My focus is always on the book itself, less so what the publisher wants. I’ve worked in-house in three different publishers and had a fantastic experience with some brilliant people; but working in-house, I got the impression that sometimes the direction decided on by the publisher didn’t always seem to run parallel with the actual book. So, I try to concentrate as much as I possibly can purely on the manuscript, as opposed to leaning too heavily on what the marketing aspirations are for the book. Sometimes, the publishers will try to help by suggesting things that I often feel have nothing to do with the manuscript, and have more to do with their aspirations of what the book can be in terms of sales based off of previous publications. I find myself saying in different ways, that’s not this book. There are a lot of books that are mispackaged, and even though that package might get it into people’s hands, those people are going to have a bad experience with that book, because it’s packaged in a way that doesn’t represent the actual book. 

SH: Is there a difference in the process when designing for a big publisher as opposed to a smaller one?

LH: Generally, the bigger publishers have more money to spend in-house on the books. There are bigger expectations for those books and more eyes will be looking at the covers, so the cover process might be more involved, and everyone’s going to have an opinion. That can make it hard to do something amazing and different. I am grateful for my art director, John Gall, because he still tries to push us to do work that’s interesting. With the smaller presses there’s less money in-house to spend on each book and to pay the designer, so the designer has more power to do something that they believe is good, and the publisher will be grateful for that. I think smaller publishing houses appreciate more distinct designs. 

JS: When I left in-house to freelance, I assumed that working for smaller publishers would allow for more expressive, exciting work, but it’s different every time. Some small publishers who don’t pay as much are the worst clients because they don’t want to hear anything you say, and you end up doing 10 times more work than you probably should. And then some of them are brilliant and some big publishers are fantastic to work for, and really want to hear your opinion and your voice. I haven’t found that there’s a rhyme or reason between bigger or smaller publishers.

SH: There seem to be a lot of books with similar covers. Where do these trends in cover design come from?

LH: They probably emerge through internet culture and social media, especially Instagram, because everyone’s taking pictures of the cover and posting them online. When they’re at that size, you have to figure out what jumps, and what jumps is usually what’s more important: the title and author. So, the typography usually comes first. That means big type, and then something abstract to try to make a book stand out. And because those books tend to do well, other people try to replicate that. But when every book looks the same, you don’t know what the book is actually about. 

JS: There are a few reasons that happens. It’s partially because we’re all seeing the same visuals online, and that pushes people to go in the same direction. Sometimes you’ll design a cover and then by the time the book is published, it turns out that you’ve done something that’s now a trend. Part of a publisher’s role is to try to work out definite systems for success, even though that’s impossible. And one of those things is repeating previous success, so if some book does well, they might say, Why’d that do well? The cover was x, so we’ll do a similar version to that.

SH: Do the market’s design trends figure into your own process?

LH: I always find it helpful to see what else is out there. Sometimes subconsciously, it does creep into a design. I always try to do my research and see what’s out there, and then try to do the opposite, or do something that isn’t as expected.

JS: I try to keep an eye on trends, specifically because I don’t want to replicate them because that’s not good for the book. People respond to the new, but they respond to the new when the visual language of the familiar is considered. I try to consider what visual language is correct for a crime book or a comedy or a horror or literary fiction and try to use that language in a novel way. The best way to stand out is to do the exact opposite of everything around you.

SH: Who makes the final decision about the cover of a particular book? How much input does an author typically have?

LH: As designers, we try to translate into a successful cover what authors are trying to convey in their writing. Usually, someone has to compromise. Designers generally compromise a lot in the division between art and commerce. We’re always trying to make something that looks more interesting, and as a result, people might not be used to what that looks like. In-house, the decision is made between the editor and the publisher, and we’re fortunate that generally those parties tend to agree and have good taste. But for us, the person who has final say is the author. 

JS: The publisher will usually decide, and then it’ll go to the author, hopefully. Sometimes the author has no say. Usually, the author does get the final say, but sometimes it’s kind of heavy-handed like, What do you think, but we actually don’t care what you think. My opinion gets voiced in the visuals more so than anything else. I have found myself pushing back a bit more, and having conversations about why I think it’s very important to go down one route as opposed to another. Someone might say, Yeah, whatever. We don’t care, but I think there’s value in voicing that opinion and making sure that they know that the reason you’re pushing back is because you want the best result for this book.

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