Let's Talk About Book Covers

As some of you know, one of the things I do is run a tiny publishing house here in Israel. We're 4 books in, and hope to have 3 more done by the end of 2018. This is quite a challenge. I do a lot of the work myself. I pick the books, I translate some of the books (I've been a translator for about 25 years), I edit the translations I don't do, I paginate for print and prepare the ebooks.

But there's one thing I definitely can't do: covers. I am not an artistic person. I can't draw a straight line to save my life, and my mind just doesn't work that visually. I'm a words person, and I am always very impressed by people who can do both.

But I do have very specific views on covers. I've been in this business for many years, and not all the covers I have been involved with have been great. So when I started my own publishing house, I knew I wanted to work with a designer who was both gifted and had a mind for branding. Someone who would actually read the books, and not need a brief from me on what they're about. Or Rosenstein was my first and only choice. She doesn't just draw the covers. She designed the logo, the spine, the whole look. She even threw in business cards!

The Cover ofTao

Nova's first books was Wesley Chu's THE LIVES OF TAO. This is a science fiction book, and we wanted to get that across, but we're both averse to "classic" sf covers. This one had a BUNCH of very different iterations, and at times looked VERY different. For reasons too complex to go into, the book was published first in ebook form by a different publisher (where I used to work) and had an entirely different cover. You can see that one here(https://www.getbooks.co.il/חייו-של-טאו/). We wanted ours to be distinct. This is what we ended up with:

I love the overall design, which carries through to the next books, but I'll admit this one suffered for being first. It's nice, and I still do love the red, but it's not visually powerful.

The Cover of the (Three Parts) Dead

We had a better idea of what we wanted for this one, Max Gladstone's THREE PARTS DEAD. Neither of us likes photorealistic covers. We like to let the readers imagine the characters. But there were elements of the main character, Tara, I wanted to come through. Also, this cover has an Easter egg. You see, in the original name, the word "Three" represents the fact that although the book is the first in the series, it's actually 3rd in chronological order. This did not work in the Hebrew translation, which ended up being literally "mostly dead," and an unintended Princess Bride reference. So if you look closely, you'll see the cover features a sign with the number 3 on it.

I love this cover.

Putting Up Roots

Naomi Novik's UPROOTED was the first book selected specifically for Nova, and I knew it was going to be a big book for me. This is a book I expect to still be selling well in 20 years. And we wanted a cover that's timeless. This one also had many iterations. But the basis for it is an actual picture of a village in Poland. As the novel takes place in the magical land of Polnya, separated from neighbor Rosya by a dark forest, this was perfect. There's something deceptively simple about this cover, which reveals subtle meaning when you read the book.

This was also the first time we encroached on the title square. I just needed to happen.

Every Heart A Cover

I've known for a long time that I want to publish Seanan McGuire, and when EVERY HEART A DOORWAY came along, I knew I had the perfect first book of hers. For the cover, I wanted a door. Or maybe a key. Or put her foot down. Those were played, she said. She wanted pomegranates instead. For reasons you'll see if you read the book. When you work with a genius, you listen to her. So I did.

I love the colors in this one. I think it is actually the prettiest one. The book is coming to stores soon. Let's see how well this cover does. For me, every cover has been better than the last.

I'm keen to here what you think. What's the best one, do you think? And if you read the books, how well do you feel the covers work as covers for these books?