How To Get Your Dream Book Cover

Jonathan Bush on designing Kaplan's Plot

Whether you’re putting out your first book or your fifth, every writer deals with the same series of tasks and decisions that can really break a person down. I always tell writers that you put in the work, get an agent, write the book (or proposal), then after you sell the book the work begins. It’s a long and intense process, and the one part of it I always go into with a mix of excitement and total dread is picking the cover. I’ve had plenty of people tell me that landing on art for your book sounds like fun, and it is…but it’s also a massive decision. That cover is going to represent the book you put your heart and soul into, so it’s got to look just right. And for my debut novel, Kaplan’s Plot, I knew I wanted something that not only reflected what was inside the book, but also my own personal tastes. I love covers from the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s with big fonts and colors that pop. Portnoy’s Complaint yellow, Catch-22 blue, Beloved red, and anything that was done or was influenced by Paul Bacon. That look hasn’t exactly gone out of style, but it’s not something you see as often. Lena Dunham’s Not That Kind of Girl came out in 2014, and I recall that and a few other titles harkening back to the covers of yesteryear, but for the most part I get the feeling it’s something the author and editor of the book both need to agree on.

When it came time for my editor and I to talk about the look of Kaplan’s Plot, he started the conversation, mentioning a handful of covers of books by authors like E.L. Doctorow and Saul Bellow. Obviously I was excited to see the people publishing my first novel wanted a book that looked like some of the classics that influenced me as a writer, but those Bellow and Doctorow books came out decades ago, I was worried it would look like a pastiche. Thankfully, the most talked-about novel of the last year, Percival Everett’s James, has a big font, old-school feel, so we were able to get past the discussions of the book looking too retro.

But who was going to get the assignment for my book? That’s obviously the important part since you want somebody who gets what you’re doing, and since designers are tasked with coming up with covers for all kinds of books, that isn’t the easiest thing. Thankfully, Jonathan Bush got the gig. Since I pay (maybe a little too much) attention to this sort of stuff, I gave a little fist pump when I heard the news since I was already familiar with Jonathan’s work on covers like Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog and Margaret Sullivan’s Newsroom Confidential. He’s a pro whose work I admire, but there was still that painful period of waiting to see what he’d come up with, especially since I’m a believer in letting artists do their work and not trying to dictate and micromanage them. I sent my editor a few covers I like with a couple of little notes, and about a month or two later, the cover was waiting for me. The design itself was perfect, the only thing was nailing the right color scheme. Blue and black, purple and black, and orange and blue were the ones that they sent; I said since the book is set on the South Side of Chicago that maybe it should be black and white (White Sox) or red and black (Bulls). The orange and blue looked almost exactly like the Chicago Bears colors, which I loved, but it wasn’t the right fit. After a few tries, we landed on red and blue, my only worry being it would look more Cubs and less Chicago flag colors, and I couldn’t have that since the main characters aren’t Northsiders. We finally got to what I considered the perfect combo, and after hours of looking at it and mumbling, “I can’t believe this is my novel,” I decided I wanted to ask Jonathan a few questions about his work and the process behind making the cover.

And before you read that (or maybe after you finish), please consider pre-ordering a copy of Kaplan’s Plot. It’s out in September, and pre-orders can be vital for a book (especially a debut novel) to have success. You can go to my publisher’s site to buy it from your favorite place, or stop into your indie and tell them you want it. If you do, hold onto your receipt because I’m announcing some giveaways in the next few weeks.

I was pretty excited when I heard you were doing the cover design since I'm pretty familiar with your work. How do you approach each book cover you're given? Is it a similar process for each title or does it depend on certain factors like if it's fiction or non, subject matter, etc.?

Each cover is different, depending on the subject matter and themes in the book and the initial directions I receive from the publisher. Designing fiction is very different from designing nonfiction and designing commercial covers is very different from designing literary covers. I design everything from commercial thrillers to rom-coms, literary fiction to upmarket nonfiction, even crossword puzzle books (I started art directing the New York Times' puzzle books a few years ago and design a handful each season). But differences aside, I typically start by looking for stock imagery of things that come up in the manuscript, putting together mood boards with type samples and art that has the feel that I think is similar to the feel I'm looking for, and sometimes making rough sketches so I don't waste too much time getting the basic layout together or trying out simple ideas. Then I get on the computer and put some elements on the page, move things around, swap pieces in and out, and mix parts or ideas from different covers I'm working on together until things start to get interesting.

I notice you're also a painter. Sometimes you work with fonts or old photos for covers, but how often does your own art make it onto books?

Fairly often. I have a degree in fine art, and I spent a number of years working as a sign painter before I found my way into graphic design, so I like being able to incorporate my own art into my design work. Occasionally I have to stop and ask myself if I wouldn't be better off using stock images or hiring someone more qualified than myself to do the artwork, but I've gotten faster at it over the years, and I have a lot of failed comps with illustrations I've made that haven't turned out well sitting on my hard drive. The experience of trying and failing to make the art myself has helped me get better over time, and being able to manipulate stock art and modify it to my own taste and turn it into art has been invaluable as a graphic designer, which I wouldn't be nearly as good at if I didn't have some traditional art background.

I collect books, and I'd also say I've judged a few books by their covers. What should a good book cover convey to a potential buyer who might not be familiar with the subject?

Some covers are really good showing you visual cues to what the book is literally about, especially if it's nonfiction, some are great at giving you the feel of an author's writing even if the art has no literal connection to the content (I'm thinking about all of the amazing covers for David Sedaris), and others are great at being arresting and visually distinct, even if it's an unusual treatment of a visual very familiar to a book cover, like a house or a neighborhood or a person. I think the combination of a surprising or clever visual style with some cue to the narrative is key. And it helps to have a great title to work with, too. It can be extremely difficult to make a great cover if the title (and subtitle) aren't doing their share of the heavy lifting to tell a reader what the book is about.

So let's talk about me. When they came to you with Kaplan's Plot, how did you start putting together what would end up being the final cover?

I had a few ideas to work with initially, but one was to make some kind of graphic that visualized the contrast between the iconic Chicago skyscrapers going up into the sky against the burial plot or shovel going down into the ground. That immediately tells you the setting of the novel and the double meaning of the word "plot" in the title. I tried a number of versions of this for the publishing team using different elements interacting with the type and the shovel incorporated different ways, but I think the final one turned out nicely. I also really wanted you to choose the comp with the Orthodox rabbi standing in for the Statue of Liberty, which was I think my first idea while I was reading the manuscript, but I understand why you didn't go with that direction.

I'm a fan of old-school "big font" book covers like you saw in the 1970s, and I think the cover you did has a little of that feel, but it's modern. What's the trick to finding that balance so it doesn't cross into pastiche territory? Because the cover has a feel that calls back to the '60s or '70s, but it's very 2025.

Fonts and color palettes. Some of them really scream "OLD," but not in a good way.

I love how the colors look on your covers and I don't think I saw many others you've done with the color scheme like mine (red, blue, and white letters). Do you have particulate colors you like working with?

This is probably the least conscious thing about my design process. The red for Kaplan's Plot looked gangsterish, which I liked, but, going back to your last question, black and gold and other colors I'd associate with the mafia looked very old-fashioned, so I wanted some more unusual palettes that didn't seem as dated. You mentioned that my original palette reminded you of the Chicago Bears, but I really wasn't thinking of that at all. I don't mess around with colors all that much unless something really looks off, or old, or doesn't read very well.

What are a few of your favorite book covers that you didn't design?

I've been admiring fiction covers lately that incorporate illustrations but that still look adult and sophisticated. I saw a cover recently for Faber titled Winter in the Air & Other Stories by Sylvia Townsend Warner, one for Ecco titled French Exit by Patrick deWitt, and Hotel Splendide by Ludwig Bemelmans for Pushkin Press. Each manages to use cartoonish illustrations that feel very warm and vintage without looking old-fashioned or childish. There's something about this style that feels timeless, but I can never pull it off in my own work, or if I try something like it, the response from any publisher is an immediate "No."