I just discovered your Substack Phoebe and am chewing through all your OG content. Thank you for sharing all of this! I wish I’d discovered you earlier this year cause we just wrapped season two of our writing podcast that was themed around the publishing side of the industry. Your insights are so practical and straight forward, I so appreciate it!
Really enjoyed this series, would you be able to do a post please on books when they are being reviewed by book bloggers/reviews before they are published and what happens to the reviews and also how you get to choose who gets to review the book for instance on netgalley as I am a book blogger and I am interested to see how it works thank you
Thanks so much for continuing this series. I would love you do to a post on what to look for in an agent, how to go about the process of researching agents. I think that would be so interesting from an editor's point of view!
Another fascinating read. Loving these peeks under the covers of publishing (pun intended!)
One quick question - what are the differences between the UK and US markets that often require different covers? And in an increasingly global marketplace & review space, particularly online, does it still make sense to have different covers (& even sometimes different titles) for the same book in English?
Thank you and good Q! Honest answer is that yes more and more the jackets are becoming similar but that’s mainly because more self-published authors (especially in the romance and fantasy spaces) are being picked up by traditional publishers, so the covers already exist, and often something is already doing well in the US and then we pick it up in the UK so want to keep the global recognition. But aside from that it’s a case of different trends in different markets, so most of the thrillers I work on have different jackets in the US and it’s about what consumers seem to respond to, what competitor covers are like, etc. I hope that helps. You make a great point!
Fascinating again - thanks! From a retailer perspective, even though I run an indie bookshop, I’m not sure my approach is all that different to the supermarkets you mention in terms of how crucial the cover is. I’m shown about 1,000 books a month (more like 2k for Christmas) and have to choose a tiny selection. So I probably look at the cover for about a second, which is still more than most customers will, as you say. (If I like the cover, I’ll then read the pitch to decide whether to stock it. If I don’t, I won’t.) I very occasional stock a book with a cover I don’t like but I have to have read it and it has to be brilliant. Far more often, if I’m honest, I’ll stock probably not a brilliant book that has a great cover.
Really informative. It’s interesting what you say about the decision on whether a cover design will lead or follow the market. Personally as a reader I find sometimes that every book in a genre ends up looking the same. Books on nature and place are examples. They all have the same woodcut/linocut illustration style on the cover. Maybe that’s to help the reader identify the genre but it turns me off as it doesn’t suggest any originality.
This is so informative. I really think these posts should be obligatory reading for all debut authors. So often we come in with very little information and lots of anxiety and this would really help. I've had 4 children's book covers designed by the amazing Thy Bui - each one has pretty much brought me to tears as she manages to encapsulate the atmosphere of the book so beautifully. And she reads the book before she designs, which I find hugely reassuring. Happy Easter!
I just discovered your Substack Phoebe and am chewing through all your OG content. Thank you for sharing all of this! I wish I’d discovered you earlier this year cause we just wrapped season two of our writing podcast that was themed around the publishing side of the industry. Your insights are so practical and straight forward, I so appreciate it!
Really enjoyed this series, would you be able to do a post please on books when they are being reviewed by book bloggers/reviews before they are published and what happens to the reviews and also how you get to choose who gets to review the book for instance on netgalley as I am a book blogger and I am interested to see how it works thank you
Hello! Thank you for reading and yes I will try to incorporate this perhaps into a wider post about marketing etc. x
Thanks so much for continuing this series. I would love you do to a post on what to look for in an agent, how to go about the process of researching agents. I think that would be so interesting from an editor's point of view!
Oh yes great idea- I will! Thank you for reading.
Another fascinating read. Loving these peeks under the covers of publishing (pun intended!)
One quick question - what are the differences between the UK and US markets that often require different covers? And in an increasingly global marketplace & review space, particularly online, does it still make sense to have different covers (& even sometimes different titles) for the same book in English?
Thank you and good Q! Honest answer is that yes more and more the jackets are becoming similar but that’s mainly because more self-published authors (especially in the romance and fantasy spaces) are being picked up by traditional publishers, so the covers already exist, and often something is already doing well in the US and then we pick it up in the UK so want to keep the global recognition. But aside from that it’s a case of different trends in different markets, so most of the thrillers I work on have different jackets in the US and it’s about what consumers seem to respond to, what competitor covers are like, etc. I hope that helps. You make a great point!
Fascinating again - thanks! From a retailer perspective, even though I run an indie bookshop, I’m not sure my approach is all that different to the supermarkets you mention in terms of how crucial the cover is. I’m shown about 1,000 books a month (more like 2k for Christmas) and have to choose a tiny selection. So I probably look at the cover for about a second, which is still more than most customers will, as you say. (If I like the cover, I’ll then read the pitch to decide whether to stock it. If I don’t, I won’t.) I very occasional stock a book with a cover I don’t like but I have to have read it and it has to be brilliant. Far more often, if I’m honest, I’ll stock probably not a brilliant book that has a great cover.
Great insight, thank you!
This is such an interesting read! Thanks
Thank you for reading, Emma!
Thanks, Phoebe, for another fascinating and informative insight.
Thank you for reading!
Really informative. It’s interesting what you say about the decision on whether a cover design will lead or follow the market. Personally as a reader I find sometimes that every book in a genre ends up looking the same. Books on nature and place are examples. They all have the same woodcut/linocut illustration style on the cover. Maybe that’s to help the reader identify the genre but it turns me off as it doesn’t suggest any originality.
Yes - it’s always a balance! Thanks so much for reading.
Thank you for such a clear and detailed explanation.
My pleasure - thanks for reading!
This is so informative. I really think these posts should be obligatory reading for all debut authors. So often we come in with very little information and lots of anxiety and this would really help. I've had 4 children's book covers designed by the amazing Thy Bui - each one has pretty much brought me to tears as she manages to encapsulate the atmosphere of the book so beautifully. And she reads the book before she designs, which I find hugely reassuring. Happy Easter!
Thank you that’s such a great compliment! And yes lots of designers are so talented!
This is such a great post! Thank you.
Thank you and you’re so welcome!
Thanks for this. I am waiting for my jacket design - excited and nervous in equal measure!! X
Exciting!