Writers and Editors

Aug 24, 2017 8:02 AM EDT

I was surprisingly impressed with this little how-to video, which Joel Friedlander promoted: Ed Lewis's 5 Minute Covers. He's talking about covers for eBooks, which are just as important as book covers for print books, but aren't usually considered to be. What I like about the cover is that the title and the author's name are VISIBLE and there's a great and simple image. All that can show up even in a thumbprint image, which is all the potential reader may see.

- PM

Mar 20, 2018 8:39 AM EDT

'A literary agent once told me that she, when new to publishing, asked her colleagues to see all the data on which books succeed. “Data?” they responded. “What data?” Many parts of the industry are merely the judicious bets of bookworms—and this keeps the business humane.'The Agony and the Ecstasy of Taking Author Photos (Tom Rachman, Literary Hub, 3-19-18) "The writer on the book jacket and the writer in store often differ by more than a decade. We chortled about vain authors. Didn’t they realize they’d be unmasked at every public event?"

- PM

Jun 29, 2018 6:39 PM EDT

Apparently publishers are going for large and highly visible titles on book jackets. See Is This the Biggest Book Cover Trend of the Year? All the Cool Books Are Wearing It (Emily Temple Lit Hub, 6-18-18) "If 2017 was the year of the pink book (and it was), 2018 is the year of the all-caps typography—or to be more precise, big, blocky, sans-serif type treatments, usually somewhat condensed (or at least more vertical than they are horizontal), usually in white or black (but sometimes in warmer colors) against either a riotous, black-based background or a neutral one." Many covers are shown, including several from Riverhead.

- PM