The Director Dish: Judging a Book by Its Cover

You can judge a book by its cover; in fact, I hope you do because we spend a lot of time honing the titles and cover designs for our books. With more and more people purchasing books online, it’s even important than ever to grab them with a good title or compelling cover.

In the online world of search engine optimization (SEO), a title needs to come up if a consumer is looking for a book on a certain subject. That’s why I’m such a stickler for non-fiction book titles (except perhaps, memoir) to say what the book is about.

In a recent meeting about titles for forthcoming books, I raised the point that a particular title didn’t tell you what was the book was about.

“Well, if you read the book,” someone said, “you’ll know why the author wants this title.” I countered, “With that title, I’m definitely not going to read the book.” We settled on keeping the title, but with a very descriptive subtitle that captures what might come up when someone searches that subject online.

Different genres have different conventions for titling. It’s okay to go for a snazzy title paired with a long, long subtitle on a sports or business book. (That seems to be the acceptable approach now, anyway.) Personally, I love it. A recent favorite of mine: Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan. How could you resist a book like that? Apparently you can’t because it’s been a hot seller for us. Of course, some books don’t need a subtitle; the title says everything. I love 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. End of story.

Religious books are tough to title. You have to convey why the book is unique but remain respectful, while explaining what the book is about. I’m particularly proud of the title we came up with for —well, I don’t have to tell you what the book is about because the title and subtitle say it all: From Gods to God: How the Bible Debunked, Suppressed, or Changed Ancient Myths and Legends.

Fiction and literary memoir are a bit more challenging. We seldom change the title that the author submits; it would be like changing the title of a painting. Our memoirists, in particular, seem to be quite skilled at titles. For example:

 

What makes these books even more enticing are the incredible covers our designers created. On Borich’s book, a tattoo of the world; on Schrand’s book, a wonderful graphic of eyeglasses with book pages instead of lenses; on Castros’ book, a beautiful seashell against a soft blue background.

As hard as it is to nail down the title, sometimes the cover can be a bigger challenge. The design team, in conjunction with marketing and the acquisition editor, start with the author’s cover and design notes. Then we rank the importance of the title, subtitle, and author name. A well-known author gets his/her name more prominently featured than an unknown one. A baseball book with a long subtitle might be designed around accommodating all those words. A biography?  We favor the subject’s name, either in the title or subtitle as that’s who the book is about, after all we favor a photo of the subject on the front cover.

At the end of the day, the most important part of a book is what lies between the covers. But one of our jobs at the Press is to make you want to pick up that book and read it—and that’s why we get judged—at least partly—by our covers.

-Donna

Comments

[Susan Blackwell Ramsey]

You do a nice job on poetry, too.