299. What to Look for When Hiring a Cover Designer with Rachel Rosen

Author and cover designer Rachel Rosen discusses the importance of a good cover design, the dos and don'ts when it comes to covers, and the benefits of hiring a cover designer.

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Visit Rachel's website:
http://rachelrosen.ca/

Find her Wrong Genre covers here:
http://nightbeatseu.ca/

Listen to her podcast:
http://wizardsandspaceships.ca/

Check out her Mastodon:
https://wandering.shop/@youseeatortoise

Follow Rachel on her socials:
https://bsky.app/profile/darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
https://www.instagram.com/rachelashrosen/

Transcript

Jennia: Hello, I'm Jennia D'Lima. Welcome to Writing and Editing, the author-focused podcast that takes a whole person approach to everything related to both writing and editing. Authors often have multiple questions when it comes to cover designers, like what to look for and why they benefit from using one instead of say, hiring a friend with some art skills. Cover designer Rachel Rosen is here to tell us all about these questions and their answers, and how having a professional cover can help your book stand out in a crowded market.

Jennia: Well, I'm so pleased to have you here!

Rachel Rosen: Yeah, thank you for having me, Jennia!

Jennia: Yeah! So how did you get into cover design?

Rachel Rosen: Well, my background is in graphic design, as in, I went to school for it for four years and suffered greatly. And when I graduated from a degree in graphic design, it was at the mid.com bubble bursting.

Jennia: Ohh, that's wonderful timing.

Rachel Rosen: Yeah. There suddenly wasn't a lot of work in graphic design, so I went back to school briefly. I did about half of a publishing certificate before I got hired to design textbooks. And between the publishing and the editing side and the graphic design side, I was able to kind of cobble together a living doing it. And when I started writing and publishing my own books I really got into reviving my freelance business and actively seeking clients again. I'm also a high school teacher, so for a number of years I kept a couple clients from the old days, but I mostly focused on teaching. And in the last couple years I really wrapped up the freelance business again.

Jennia: I think that's pretty typical for a lot of freelancers that we might do something else during the day and then on the side or on, you know, the weekend, we do something else.

Rachel Rosen: Mhm.

Jennia: Do you have certain genres that you specialize in or do you just leave yourself open to whoever comes to you?

Rachel Rosen: I do all kinds of things. I am not at all a snob and I will do everything and anything (laughs). Like I said, I got my start doing textbooks which were their own kind of fun. I spent a lot of time photoshopping snot out of baby fox faces, and poop out of fish (Jennia laughs), and all kinds of, like not at all glorious things (laughs). It's not a glamorous professional at all.

Jennia: (laughs) It's not something I ever thought about!

Rachel Rosen: Yeah, when you see those textbooks for little kids with animals on them, sometimes the animals are having biological functions and it is somebody's job to make that photo look perfect. And for a couple of years that was my job.

Jennia: What a way to get into the industry.

Rachel Rosen: Yeah (laughs). So I can't say that I have a favorite genre. I really like doing things that are inspired by old pulps. That's kind of a thing of mine. I quite enjoy doing sci-fi, fantasy romance. Like doing literary fiction, it's a little bit trickier, but it can be a good challenge.

Jennia: Yeah, I'd love to hear that why it is trickier and also just so listeners hear with that answer too.

Rachel Rosen: Yeah. So for most genre fiction, there are really defined styles and looks. You can look at a sci-fi cover and you know it's a sci-fi cover. You can look at a romance and you know it's a romance. But with something like literary fiction it's a little bit more of a grab bag. And you often have to convey a story that's more character and vibes than plot. And coming up with something that will capture both the tone and the genre—because literary fiction is a genre—just tends to be a lot more challenging because you can't rely on the sorts of tropes and visual shorthand that partial genre fiction has.

Jennia: Yeah, I think that's one thing that maybe some people don't think about is that they do have these distinct styles. So sometimes when someone makes their own cover or they hire someone from some online marketplace and maybe that person isn't familiar with those special elements that go along with, say, fantasy Is that something that you see, for instance, when people come to you? And even if they have ideas about what they'd like their cover to look like?

Rachel Rosen: Yeah, all the time. That's probably one of the most common errors that I see when somebody has designed their own cover, is they haven't looked at what the market looks like. And it's a really challenging thing to say as a designer, because of course we want our books to stand out. We want to be original, and we're not like all of the other books in the genre.

Jennia: Right.

Rachel Rosen: But it does need to look like it belongs on the shelf with the other books in the genre. And, yeah, so a lot of really beautiful covers just don't fit the market. I worked on one cover where the author had gotten some designs made on Fiverr. And they were very competent designs. The covers looked really nice. They didn't communicate anything about the book. And so he was asking, you know, "Which of these do you prefer?" [I] said, "What's the book about? Who's the audience? What's the target market? What are the vibes of the book?" And I ended up redesigning his cover because even though they were [professional] looking covers, they weren't the right covers for that book.

Jennia: Yeah, so you sort of just covered what a good cover should have. But is there anything that it shouldn't have. That maybe you have seen some amateur cover designers include?

Rachel Rosen: Oh, that is a good question! It shouldn't have certain color combinations. I see that a lot. I see a lot of really messy typography that looks just sort of sloped on in an afterthought. It shouldn't have—and this is really—I would think that it's obvious, but it shouldn't have "By: The Author's Name"—

Jennia: Yes! (laughs)

Rachel Rosen: —and I see that all the time with self-published work. It hurts my soul. Please don't do that (laughs).

Jennia: So why do you think a good cover can help the audience gravitate toward that book?

Rachel Rosen: It is a marketing tool, it's art, it can be really creative. But, bottom line, it communicates to the audience that you know the kind of book that you've written, you know who's going to buy the book, and you take it seriously enough to invest in a good cover. I've gotten into arguments where people say, "Well you shouldn't judge a book by its cover," and yeah, you should because it is showing you that the author, or, in a lot of cases, the publisher really believes in this book, really wants to sell it, knows who they're selling it to. Knows the kind of people who are gonna love the book and knows how to speak to them.

Jennia: Well there's that whole difference, too, between something we should or shouldn't do versus what we actually do. We definitely—I mean all you have to do is go to Bookstagram or BookTok and look at cover-buys. And it happens all the time. 

Rachel Rosen: Mhm!

Jennia: —You know, I think every other day there's a question of the day or whatever it is on those little calendars or prompts, and it's, "What's the last book that was a cover-buy by for you?"

Rachel Rosen: Yeah, I was at a book festival on Saturday. I was at Word on the Street, which is the huge literary festival in Toronto, and some covers grabbed my eyes and some didn't. And unfortunately for the world of indie authors out there, a lot of their covers just don't grab anybody's eye. You walk past them because they all look the same, or they all look very amateurish, or it's very unclear what sort of book it is. And at a literary festival you have tons of time to hang around and browse and talk to the authors. But when you're flipping through Amazon or you're in a bookstore, you have a matter of seconds.

Jennia: Mhm.

Rachel Rosen: And if the cover doesn't grab you in those seconds, it's not an effective cover.

Jennia: When an author comes to work with you, what are some of the things that they should already have prepared? Or what are questions you like them to ask you?

Rachel Rosen: I do like it when the author comes to me with a vision for the cover. It can be fun going from scratch, but quite often they know the story best and they have some kind of an idea. An elevator pitch is nice. So coming to me with a sense of why somebody would buy the book, a tagline, anything like that . . . little blurb. One thing that I really like is a central image or a metaphor. So some sort of visual that is really important to the story. And they should know their genre. It's shocking how many people write books and can't tell you which genre they're in or say, "Oh, it's a little bit of this, it's a little bit of that." It's nice when they have comps. Personally, like, on the author side, I hate coming up with comps. I'm, like, "No, my book is unique and it is cross-genre and there's nothing out there like it." But if I have comps to work from—

Jennia: Mhm.

Rachel Rosen: —it's a really quick way for me to see what's out there and how we can both fit into that market and stand out from that market.

Jennia: So you were talking about genre and how there are these typical elements you'll see in a cover based on which genre that book is in. So what is something you can do to make it clear that it's in this genre but help your cover still stand out?

Rachel Rosen: Yeah. So, really, when you're looking at a cover, you're looking at three things. You're looking at the overall layout, you're looking at the type of image, and you're looking at the typography. People always forget about the typography. They often forget about the overall layout too. They're think—Everybody is focused on the image—

Jennia: Mhm.

Rachel Rosen: —and, I mean, color as well. You're looking for what tends to be used in that genre. So taking fantasy it will tend to be more illustrative. There's not typically photos on a fantasy cover. There tends to be some sort of decorative or old school looking font. Something has to give away that magical element. Tends to be a little bit more image forward than say, like, literary fiction. And so I would be looking at the comps in the genre, kind of filtering for cliches, but also seeing which elements are consistent throughout that you really need to have for that genre.

Jennia: Mhm.

Rachel Rosen: —And then I would be talking to the author about what makes that book different.

Jennia: And how long does it take to usually make a cover? Or does that differ depending on the genre, for instance, or even the type of cover? Like, if it's for a paperback versus a special edition hardback versus an ebook?

Rachel Rosen: Oh yeah, it's wildly different. Some of my covers are: I found the perfect photo or the perfect piece of art, and we're going to slap on some typography and I absolutely know how to integrate it, and it's done in an hour or two (laughs). I've totally whipped together covers that fast. Like, sometimes I just know, and there might be a little bit of refining. And then I recently did a cover for a book that's coming out next month where I would say it took me months because I had to learn a new software and (laughs) I was starting from kind of sketches . . . freehand sketches, to 3D modeling and trying out different lighting situations and just going absolutely hogwild with it. So it's really individual book to book how long it takes. But that's something that you have to communicate right from the beginning.

Jennia: So when someone's looking for a cover designer online and they're looking at their portfolio, what should they be looking for in that portfolio?

Rachel Rosen: You should definitely pay attention to the person's style. So I work in a lot of genres so you can look at my portfolio and see how I do a romance cover or how I do a sci-fi cover. And I'm not an illustrator. I can draw, but that's not my primary thing. I don't do a lot of illustrative covers. And so if that's something that you're looking for, like, say you're a YA or children's author, I'm not going to be your designer. So you definitely want to see this style that this person works in. You do want to pay attention to whether they're primarily an artist, illustrator, painter, versus whether they have graphic design training. I have seen some really, really beautiful illustrations with god-awful typography. And that's still going to look really amateurish. So make sure that they get what they're doing with the design end as well as the art end. Make sure that they get your genre. You know, also probably want to figure out how much they generally charge for commissions. And it's okay to contact somebody and have that conversation and tell them a little bit about your book and see if you're a good fit.

Jennia: Mhm. And then are there any red flags that they should watch out for when it comes to someone promoting their cover design services?

Rachel Rosen: These days, I would definitely—It's like the old fae rules. You want to check the teeth, check the ears, check the fingers and make sure that your designer is not using AI. I keep seeing a lot of cover art scams and character art scams all over the internet where somebody is very quickly typing in prompts in Mid Journey and coming up with something that, at a glance, looks acceptable, but closer not so much. So you do want to be wary of that because I do want to be wary of amateurish-looking typography. And that's something that can be really hard to tell if you don't have that training. But you kind of know. You can see it. When there's something off about a cover, it tends to be that more than it is the art.

Jennia: Yeah, I've seen that in groups where people will say, "Well, what genre do you think this cover looks like?" when they're kind of trying to get that other opinion on a cover that they've had commissioned. And they obviously know something is off or something doesn't feel right. And even though they might not have the vocabulary to articulate why and it's just that gut feeling, yeah, just getting that response from other people saying, "Oh, here's this and this and this."

Rachel Rosen: Mhm. Yeah. And, I mean, one really quick, dirty way to tell is where is the type positioned on the page? Because a lot of times they'll sort of squish the author name at the bottom—

Jennia: Ohh.

Rachel Rosen: —and there'll be kind of a lot of dead space in it. And that to me is a dead giveaway that it's an amateurish cover.

Jennia: What about the spine and then the back of the book? What are some pieces that people should be looking at for those areas?

Rachel Rosen: That's changed a lot. So when I first started doing book design, one of my flares was doing really cool spines with the rationale that the sorts of books that I was working on, which tended to be small press and medium press, these weren't going to be displayed cover out.

Jennia: Ohh.

Rachel Rosen: Bookstore spaces at a premium. I was mostly doing poetry books and literary fiction. So these are going to be spine out. So I wanted to something really, really different with the spine. And I have this whole shelf of really cool spines. But most people do their book buying on the internet, so that is way less important now. It's still important, you still want it a look good. But, I mean, even for me, I'm a book designer and most of the books that I buy are in eBook format, so (laughs) less important than it used to be. With the back cover, you want to make sure that you're not crowding yourself. Again, one of the big amateurish designs that I see involves, the blurb is way too long—

Jennia: Yeah.

Rachel Rosen: —and the back cover has some kind of an image on it. And then they have realized that it is unreadable, so they've slapped a drop shadow on the back cover text, and that just makes it unreadable and ugly. So pull back your back cover copy. You don't need to give away the entire plot on the back of your book. Be subtle, keep it kind of minimal in terms of the illustration. If somebody has picked it up, and they're reading the back of it, you've already done a good job on the front of it.

Jennia: And then how many revisions do you do? Or do you ever check in as you're doing the work just to get their input and see how they're feeling the design?

Rachel Rosen: So I'm not typical in this regard. I will just keep going until the author's happy with it—

Jennia: Yeah, that's definitely rare! (laughs)

Rachel Rosen: Yeah, a lot of designers give maybe three revisions, and if I was doing this as a full-time job, I would probably limit myself a lot more. But I'm freelancing and I'm doing it as a side gig. So I'm more concerned with getting it right than getting it done within a certain period of time. So I'll often go back and forth. One author, I must have come up with 20 different designs before we hit on one we were happy with. But it looks great!

Jennia: So what do you do when an author might disagree with you? So let's say that they write in one genre and you've chosen a cover that's a good fit, but then they want a look that is like the exact opposite. Is there any way that you try and dissuade them from doing that? Or what do you tell them?

Rachel Rosen: Yeah, I mean, I would tell them to look at their comps, go through Amazon, have a look at similar book—

Jennia: Mhm.

Rachel Rosen: —and notice how the thing that they want is very different than that. And I have had authors just really not like the thing that I came up with. And that's meant going back to the drawing board because like I said, I'm not going to release something that the author's unhappy with. But I am going to do my best to guide them towards something that they're going to be happy with, but also will hopefully sell their book (laughs). I think generally we have the same interests here.

Jennia: And do you think there's a difference between the covers that are made for traditionally published books versus self-published books?

Rachel Rosen: I don't want there to be (laughs). One of the things that I know is that in traditional publishing, there's generally an art director, and the cover designer is typically not reading the book.

Jennia: Mmm.

Rachel Rosen: So that is a huge, huge difference. And I don't read everything that I design. I often do, or at least I'll read part of it to get a vibe. But when you're working in traditional publishing, you've got full-time designers and what they're getting is kind of a design brief from an art director with how they want the book to look. What's the visuals? Quite often, what's the color palette? And they're sort of working from that. And you get really professional results when you work that way. It's collective, you have a team. But it also means for that author that they don't always get a final say.

Jennia: Mhm.

Rachel Rosen: And I have seen some traditionally published authors who just ended up with the wrong cover. There was a really good article—and I wish I had thrown it up before I came on this call—but it was from an author of color, who was really objecting to the source of visual cliches that, in particular, women of color get when they traditionally publish. And it's kind of like the colorful blobs (laughs). It's, like—

Jennia: Oh.

Rachel Rosen: —You know what I'm talking about, audio-medium, but still you can picture the colorful blobs. And she had said, you know, really specifically, "I don't want these elements on the cover." But the marketing department had felt that these sorts of elements sell and so that was what she got. And I think with an indie author or small press author, you have a little bit more say because it's coming out of your pocket.

Jennia: Yes, I've heard the same thing. So I went to a few, well, I've been to quite a few panels and author talks. But yeah, that's pretty much what I've heard, too, that you have a lot more leeway when, even if you are working with a small press and that back and forth. And even being able to say, very specifically, "I might want this right here and this over here," and they'll find a way to incorporate that as long as it matches what's expected for that genre and it's not going to just feel totally out there. But yeah.

Rachel Rosen: Mhm.

Jennia: Well, do you have any parting advice?

Rachel Rosen: Don't do your own cover. (laughs) I can't stress this enough. Unless your background is in graphic design . . . Maybe if your background is fine arts. But even then I would hesitate. There's a site called Cover Critics, which I would urge everybody to check out because it's great, it's hilarious, it's really instructive. It's helped me a lot with my design. And their tagline is, "There's nothing more expensive than a bad cover." (laughs)

Jennia: Ah yes. That's so true.

Rachel Rosen: Your book may be brilliant, but if the cover is bad, nobody will read it. I'd also caution people away these days from pre-made covers. I was noticing a lot of them have gotten very samey samey. And you do want to stand out. It's worth engaging a graphic designer. And there are graphic designers out there who will do swaps. So if you are an author, if you have written a book, you probably have some skills that a graphic designer needs. Maybe—

Jennia: Oh that's good to know!

Rachel Rosen: Yeah! So my really ambitious, took-me-several-months-long cover that I learned a new software for, this was an author who was also a developmental editor. And so the exchange was he did a developmental edit of my, at that point, 130k novel in exchange for I did the most ridiculous cover that I've ever signed (both laugh). So it doesn't need to break the bank. There are definitely artists out there who will charge you thousands of dollars for a cover and it'll look like it and it'll be worth it, but that's not within the budget of most indie authors. So talk to people, meet people, see what's out there, shop around, strike up internet friendships. Graphic design is a very lonely profession and we often just really like somebody to talk to, so (laughs).

Jennia: I think that goes for pretty much everything in publishing.

Rachel Rosen: Yes!

Jennia: You do this all alone. You do this all alone. This is also done all alone.

Rachel Rosen: And we love talking about it! We love talking about it. I struggle to talk about my books sometimes, but I will talk about my cover for days.

Jennia: (laughs) Yep. That's pretty much how I feel about editing. I'm, like, "Hey, would anyone like to hear that about the difference between this type of editing and this type of editing? No? Well, too bad."

Rachel Rosen: No! I do! I do (both laugh).

Jennia: All right, well, thank you again! This has been very helpful.

Rachel Rosen: Thank you so much for having me on!

Jennia: And thank you for listening and be sure to check out the show notes for additional information. And please join me next week when Molly Lupo will be here to explain how to manage your well-being through nutrition when you're going through one of those stressful times that comes along with being an author, like when you have a pressing deadline. Thanks again!