The Cover

By Stephanie Mueller – Head of Global Rates Trading, TDT Capital.

“Never judge a book by its cover,” must be the most inappropriate metaphor of the English language, Alexander sighed. We had been reminiscing about what we had expected to be the most exciting part of the book production: releasing our artistic creativity into the book cover!

“In the end, it’s probably been the most successful part of the end product and, frankly, it’s where I’ve made the least contribution,” he continued, wryly.

For sure, the design agency had asked Alexander about his preferences, as well as elements of the plot, characters, the locations and some adjectives that conveyed the story. He had sent through some pictures, photos of record sleeves and book covers he liked, requesting something classical, abstract, and something that captured the ominous aspects of the storyline, as well as the global locations, the love stories with the backdrop of financial world.

What he certainly didn’t want was large leary fonts. He was more likely to be put off by an ugly cover, than attracted to an appealing one – other than that, it wasn’t something of much importance to him. He was to discover that he was very much in the minority there.

And indeed, he was to learn the most important driver for his book's success was to get the best cover designer available.

The initial advice, though, had come from the local bookstore manager. The rules were clear:

1. If it’s a thriller, it needs to look like a thriller – large leary fonts et al; and

2. If it looks like a thriller, it needs to stand out against the other thrillers – cue larger fonts!

And so, the designer produced a picture of ominous looking mountains with a house in the centre, purporting to be the primary location of the plot at a Swiss hotel. Within the house, your eyes are guided, upon focusing, to a lit window framing the silhouettes of two individuals, possibly plotting, perhaps planning, potentially confessing. Their lit image reflects in the shadowy water in front; the rest is left unsaid.

Alexander was adamant not to let the fonts get too large – instead he added spot UV, and even though it was blatantly obvious, he thought it fashionable to add the words ‘a novel’ to fill some space.

All of us beta readers were excited to contribute to the drafts, but interestingly so were a much wider group of friends; many, it seems, with hidden and unknown artistic talents.

At the end I asked him about the wonderful classic designs that he had aspired to – it was clear the cover wasn’t quite what he had imagined and maybe even wanted.

“Maybe, one day, when you’re famous you can sell the cover; until then, the cover very much sells you,” he opined.