The Hows and Whys of Cover Design
From the desk of Anne Diebel, Senior Creative Director of FSG and Roaring Brook
After more than twenty years designing books, you would think that I would be able to recognize a truly challenging project at first glance—and avoid it—but I did not see this one coming.
Nancy Mercado phoned me this past summer while I was still freelancing for Roaring Brook to tell me about a book she wanted me to design. She said it was called The Baby Quota. I accepted without hesitation, not so much because I needed the money, but because of the letterforms. A capital Q is a real treat for designer and the proximity of the lower case y to that Q was almost too much to hope for. Happily, happily, I took the assignment.
Now, in the first pages of this book a mother gives birth, the midwife drugs her, then takes the baby to hand it over to The Enclave, a privileged portion of this future world that lives within a walled section of the city. This scene and others like it describe what the baby quota is.
In very short order I sent Nancy a comp that I thought was pretty nifty. It showed the graphic profile of a pregnant woman with the title curved into the shape of a womb. The whole cover was flat black and red to convey the harrowing tone of the book. Seemed like a winner.
I was mistaken. "We've changed the title," Nancy said. "It is now The Baby Code".
I stifled a little gasp thinking of my capital Q.
"Not a problem," I tell her and start kicking around new ideas.
Shortly thereafter I sent some solutions utilizing black and white photography and the title The Baby Code. They were interesting, but not resoundingly received. So I did another round of comps, but we decided the word "Baby" was working against this cover. A list of new possibilities goes back and forth and then the author provides the title, The Orion Tattoo.
Hmmmmmm. . . .
The tattoo refers to a mark that this midwife and her predecessors put on the ankles of babies that are turned over to The Enclave, a series of four tiny pin pricks. The depiction of this tattoo may sound like a solution, but in point of fact it was kind of a dead end.
More titles, more images. Suffice it to say that over the course of weeks and months I created dozens and dozens of options for this cover. That is not a proud admission for a designer. It is so much more satisfying to say that you dashed off one design on a Post-it that sent everyone into an ecstasy, but that was not the case for this one.
At a certain point we decided that showing a baby in any form was as bad as saying baby. So I focused my attention on the books heroine, Gaia, who is the young midwife. Gaia bears a scar across one side of her face. I suggested the title Birthmarked with the taglines "The Scars You Bear Set You apart, And The Circumstances of Your Birth Chart Your Future", referring to both Gaia and the babies. With modified copy, this seemed like a terrific idea—until one of our major accounts saw the cover.
So, to make a long story short, and as cheerful as it can be, I re-assigned this title. (I could do that now because in the midst of this project I was hired on as the Senior Creative Director for RBP and FSG). I assigned it to one of our cracker-jack freelancers, who was gallant enough not to resolve the whole thing in one round, but resolve it he did. It is a beautiful thing too.
Some of the dozens of covers created are shown here. No blood, sweat, or tear stains remain, just the memory of a hard-fought fight.
Birthmarked is a terrific book, by the way. My hope is that you and 75,000 others will want to give it a look, cover notwithstanding.
Staff Post
Reader Comments (12)
This was a very interesting post to read especially since this is a book I am looking forward to reading.
It's interesting to see the phases a novel goes through in getting published. Also an important lesson as an author, never be too attached, title, words, etc. I love the end result with this book though. Sounds very good.
Okay, the third cover picture you posted (The Orion Tattoo with the baby face behind the letters) is SERIOUSLY creeping me out.
It sounds great and I just added it to my TBR list. Thanks for sharing your process!
I got an ARC of the book that has the first cover of Gaia. Frankly, I really liked the cover and was disappointed when I saw what will be the final cover. The book was great reading, but I think the girl on the new cover looks too young. The whole thing is too gray and dreary looking and I really don't know what the colored squiggles are meant to represent--they certainly don't look like the code or the birthmark pattern. I'd be curious to know more about why the major account didn't care for the ARC cover because the new cover will be a harder sell to the teens in my library.
I actually like the ARC cover better... Gaia is just so pretty portrayed in that picture, an the scar is depicted perfectly... but i like the colors on the last one, the strings hanging down like the silk threads.
I just finished reading birthmarked, and was really curious about the charging cover. I had agreed to read an ARC of it, after the cover(the blue one) drew me in to read what it was about. When I received it with the girls face front and back, i was taken aback. it no longer appeared like a book that would interest me(I hate to say this, knowing how hard you worked on all the covers). I didn't like the font of the title, it was too sci-fi, and I usually would say "I don't read sci-fi". (the problem with that is, I love dystopian books, which are pretty much sci-fi).
I do agree with a previous commenter though, that the girl on the final cover is too young.
I like the girl on the ARC though, and I think ideally the perfect cover would have had a mix of the girl and the blue tones with the obelisk and the strands....Which seem like DNA to me? Thanks for this post, really interesting to see how the process goes. And thank god the book doesn't have the word baby in the title or have a baby on it. ick.
Thank you so much for posting this article! It was fascinating to see "behind the scenes" work on the creation of a cover. Truly work! I'm a big fan of both the ARC cover and the published cover, although I probably prefer the published 1st (my husband liked the ARC better). I'm definitely glad you decided to go "baby-less" as I think you wouldn't have appealed to the audience quite as well as with the other two. Thanks again for sharing! I absolutely love the cover and the book...just reviewed it in fact.
Speaking as a teenager, I definitely agree with Jen and Haley. My friends who have read the book that I've shown the covers to all agree with me.
I have to admit I don't admire him too much, but if there is something is true is that he has strong reasons to choose these covers, apart call the attention of the costumers more than viagra without prescription do it.
I didn't imagine that choosing a book's name was so complicated! I personally think that your job is the best in the world! Do you need any assistant, anyway? I'm planning to publish a book about the side effects of generic viagra pills, but I can't decide the title yet.
nice :)
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