Article content

We’ve all heard the phrase: you can’t judge a book by its cover. Yet, oftentimes, that’s literally what we do.

Article content

Last year, 52 million English language books were sold in Canada, according to BookNet Canada. And publishing industry insiders say what makes a book stand out is, in large part, the cover.

Article content

“There’s nothing like that initial impression to help you decide, ‘Am I going to give this book a chance or not?’ ” said Suzette Mayr, author of the Giller Prize-winning novel The Sleeping Car Porter. “It’s kind of sad, but I think we’re visual creatures. I think humans apprehend an image way quicker than they do words, so I think that covers are super, super, super important. I feel really lucky I have had some great covers.”

The cover of The Sleeping Car Porter is one of those ‘great’ covers. On it is a well-dressed man. But, upon closer inspection, you notice there are woodland animals around him including a frog in his breast pocket. The image is Stratford painter Janet Hill’s piece titled Unapologetically William.

Article content

“I bought the print, and I showed it to Coach House (publisher), and they ran with it,” said Mayr, who came across the painting while surfing Etsy. “What their designer did was she took that painting and she superimposed it with a railway timetable from the time (1929). It looks like a ghost presence.

“I love that cover so much. I think it reflects the book perfectly.”

Shuswap area author Gail Anderson-Dargatz — not surprisingly for a thriller writer — wants a little intrigue with her first impression.

“It’s the cover that is going to draw the reader in and it certainly draws me in,” said Anderson-Dargatz, whose latest suspenseful offering is The Almost Widow. “The books that grab me are ones with more complexity on the cover. Things that make you pick it up and go: ‘Oooh, what’s going on there?’ ”

Article content

Article content

But Karine Hack, editorial assistant at the Gibsons-based publisher Nightwood Editions, says it’s important to avoid anything so obtuse that nothing about the book’s contents is conveyed.

“Covers communicate meaning through the combination of images/esthetics and a book’s title. A really successful cover will give a reader a sense of what the contents of a book may be. And it will also say something about the book’s style or atmosphere. Covers that reach out and grab you often suggest a story or maybe pose some kind of question,” said Hack by email. “Covers are the first step in a reader’s imaginative journey. For me, a cover that sparks the imaginative process is a successful cover.”

The steps toward a successful cover for designer Jazmin Welch begin with a “really deep dive into understanding the content of the book.” After that, Welch, who is based in Hamilton and works with Vancouver’s Arsenal Pulp Press, checks in with the publishing group to talk concept and options. From there, two-to-five ideas are typically sent on to authors.

Article content

“I love thinking up concepts. A book has so much within its pages. You can come up with many different ideas, so I often go overboard,” said Welch.

At Vancouver’s Greystone Books, creative director Jessica Sullivan says the cover process begins with a discussion with the author and editor. And those conversations can, at times, be tough.

“Sometimes the author’s hopes and dreams don’t match the vision of the publishing house, and they aren’t thinking about the cover as a sales and marketing tool. But we always try to figure out a way to reference or weave their desires into a design,” said Sullivan. “The ideal end result is one that everyone loves, from all the various perspectives and desired goals.”

For Vancouver author Robyn Harding, whose 13th novel, The Drowning Woman, will be released on June 13, the cover sometimes speaks volumes to the author about what the publishers think about the book.

Article content

“How much effort they put into that cover is how much they believe in that book,” said Harding. “If a publisher or an editor really believes in a book, they will work their butts off to get a great cover. They realize how important it is.”

The cover is also a key area of concern for those tasked with promoting the book.

“Your cover and your title are going to be your most important sales tools because those are the things readers are going to encounter first,” said Cynara Geissler, director of marketing and publicity for Arsenal Pulp Press. “You want to make a good first impression. I know people are like, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover,’ but I feel like that’s an outdated sentiment from when all book covers looked the same.

Article content

“The designers put in so much effort, so we do look to book covers to be sort of directing the reader to choose what they want to read next.”

In today’s world, a book cover has to do double-duty, working well both on physical bookshelves and online.

“One of the challenges now, in this market, is that we know people will encounter books through algorithms and online and probably on their tiniest rectangle — their phone,” Geissler said. “If a reader can’t very quickly figure out what a book is, there is a chance they will pass on it.”

Book covers, much like pretty much everything today, are also affected by trends.

“The whole publishing machine supports trends by the constant cross-referencing of books that have succeeded,” Sullivan says.

Article content

And those trends often stick around until they’re tired and overused.

“For the thriller, for a long time, it was a woman running on a cover. Very often a woman in a red jacket on the cover. And that’s exactly what I had in The Almost Wife,” said Anderson-Dargatz. “That was one of the prototypes we looked at for The Almost Widow, a woman running through the forest. And we all went, ‘We’ve seen that too many times.’ ”

Instead, the cover of The Almost Widow is an aerial view of a dense forest with a distant figure in a red jacket near a campfire.

Harding said cover-style trends are definitely something she has clocked during her long writing career.

“This year, yellow type seems to be it. I have seen it everywhere. The Drowning Woman came with yellow type, and I said, ‘Could you do the gradation like the sunset,’ which they had sent me on something else and so they did. I think it looks a lot better and original.”

Article content

Welch laughs a bit when asked about trends and points to the overuse of something called “unicorn frappuccino.”

“A lot of natural organic shapes in really bright colours,” Welch explains of the term. “Circular blobs in bright splashy colours. Lots of colours on the cover to grab attention. That became a designer’s answer to how we make this cover impactful in a small scale, then we’ll throw really big bold white type on top of that. That started to appear everywhere in the last few years and now … we are starting to see a bit of trend shift away from that.

“I am seeing a return to minimalism.”

dgee@postmedia.com

twitter.com/dana_gee

Spring subscription sale: Our in-depth journalism is possible thanks to the support of our subscribers. For a limited time, you can get full online access to the Vancouver Sun and The Province, along with the National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites, for just $40 for one year or $1 a week for 52 weeks. Support our journalism by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun.

Article content