By Sukhpreet Chana, Misha Manani and Joe Pilbrow
When you visit a bookshop and see a cover you are completely blown away by, there is a
design team behind it working their magic. They are involved early in the publication
schedule liaising with editors, illustrators, production etc. trying to create a package that will
appeal to and reach the intended demographic. They have an important role because first
impressions count! There are different roles, including Design Assistant, Senior Designer
and Studio Manager where you can work on a range of books. We hope this article helps
demystify the terminology, so you have a better understanding of applications, interviews
and job roles.
● Art Director: Usually the head of the art and design department, they oversee a
whole team of designers and are responsible for guiding the vision of a project. They
can be less hands-on than the designers, but they’re integral to the smooth running
of the department.
● Audience: When designing a book cover, it will have to appeal to the target reader in
several ways, including the genre, title, colours, display and illustrations. It should be
eye-catching and enticing to a specific demographic.
● Canva: An easy-to-use online graphic design tool. It can be used to create social
media posts, presentations, posters and book covers. We even use it to create our
Publishing Post article thumbnails! Try it for free here.
● CMYK: This stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black in the four-colour printing
process, which forms the basis of most inks to create hundreds of colours. It is used
for the majority of book covers.
● Cover Brief: This tends to be written by the editorial team for the art team or
freelance illustrators that design the jacket cover with comparison titles, mood
boards, imagery, the audience, book blurb, character profiles, key plotlines etc.
● Cover File: The digital version of the jacket cover is uploaded to Biblio (book
management system) for Amazon, other retailers or distributors such as Lightning
Source.
● Cromalin Proofs: The product of a proofing process. They are used to approve
offset CMYK printing before going on press.
● Dummy/Filler Text: A randomly generated text that shares characteristics with real
written text. It can be used to display font samples or simply to fill the gaps in a
design if the actual copy isn’t available. Lorem Ipsum is the industry standard.
● Foil Blocking: This is usually applied on the spine or cover of a hardback book that
involves coloured foil lettering using a stamp. It is done with a heated pressure block
tool.
● Holographic Laminate: A thin matte or glossy laminate film with a holographic 3D
pattern to amplify the effect of a book cover. This could be on special edition books
or a revamped version.
● InDesign: Adobe’s industry-leading software specifically for creating layouts and
page design. In publishing, it can be used for everything from creating promotional
material to cover design. Get a free trial and practise your design skills.
● Jacket Cover: The packaging of the book includes the front cover, back cover, spine
and, if it is a hardback, the inner flaps as well. These can include illustrations and
metadata like the price, the publisher, title, author name, pull quotes etc.
● Plates: An eight or sixteen-page section in the middle of the interior text file with
images and their captions. This mainly appears in non-fiction books or film tie-in
books with behind-the-scenes photos of the film. This used to be popular in the late
nineties and early noughties.
● Portfolio: A collection of various book cover designs that demonstrate creative flair
and your own skills. You can enter the British Book Design and Production Awards
events sponsored by literary agencies, or even sign up for the Penguin Cover
Designs Award.
● Pull Quote: This is usually a quote from a media review, provided by the publicity
team, which can be included on the jacket cover. It’s meant to grab the reader’s
attention and give them an idea of what they can expect from the book.
● QuarkXPress: An online application used for design and layouts. Ideal for
professional publishing on macOS or Windows. It allows you to experiment and try
out new ideas. Get a free trial now to unleash your potential.
● Special Editions: A huge demand in the Science Fiction and Fantasy (SFF) and
romance fiction book communities. The two biggest players responsible for selling
these are FairyLoot and Illumicrate. There are also separate special editions sold in
bookshops with sprayed and stencilled edges like Yellowface and Lessons in
Chemistry.
● Typography: Refers to the arrangement of written words on the page, ensuring it is
eye-catching but still legible. It includes selecting a typeface, point size and line
spacing.
Thank you for reading issue eighty-one! Join us again for issue eighty-two where we will
cover Upskilling Tips for the Finance Department.