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Jim Cox Report: August 2025
Dear Publisher Folk, Friends & Family:
Doug Seibold is the founder of Agate Publishing -- and a publisher that has had a good many Agate Publishing books reviewed by the Midwest Book Review over the years. Now he has kindly given me permission to share with you his views on the subject of the significant role, purpose, value and creation of a book's 'cover art'.
What Publishing Is: What Covers Do
By Doug Seibold
https://dougseibold.substack.com
Let me own upfront to a bias -- I am not the kind of reader who puts great stock in covers and cover designs. I tend to look at this as the legacy of having been a library kid. A great many of the books I devoured up through college had been re-covered in "library bindings" in particularly unappetizing (though sturdy!) shades of dull greens and browns. When I started buying books -- strictly used, at first -- I was never discouraged by covers that were out of date, damaged, or missing entirely, if the book was one I wanted. And I am by nature a little less interested, broadly, in trends and fashions (as opposed to, say, constants and standards), and cover designs have been driven by trends and fashions for decades. I like to shed books' dust jackets when I'm reading them, though I habitually preserve them rather than discard them all together.
As a publisher, though, I look at covers as an essential part of the publishing process -- though one I maybe sometimes begrudge for its outsize prominence in the retail sales effort. Covers are a much bigger deal in US publishing (and in the UK) than they are in continental Europe or East Asia, for example, where it's not uncommon to see novels emblazoned with a monochrome photo of the (usually unsmiling) author's face. I've got to admit, I love that kind of cover. I also love the plain text treatment -- the plainer the better. I am envious of those presses like Fitzcarraldo that make their way using straight uniform cover designs. The branding is brilliant. NYRB Classics, same. And of course, everyone's still gaga over the old Vintage Contemporaries line, and who doesn't appreciate the Penguin Classic look?
What follows here are some only semi-organized notes on book covers from a publisher's perspective. These are offered in contrast to what authors might think about covers. I have seen some authors (not all of course) get a little overcommitted to the book cover as an integral expression of their book -- rather than as a more ephemeral though still very important element in helping that book find and appeal to readers. If these notes help some authors inclined that way to think differently, I hope it might help those authors and their publishers find productive common ground on the cover front.
1. Publishers tend to see covers, in the broadest sense, less as an expression of the work and more as a tool to serve specific purposes at retail.
2. Covers can be considered as having a branding purpose for the book as a commercial item -- to that extent, the cover should complement the work.
3. A bad cover can turn off readers, but readers motivated to buy the work by what they've previously learned about it will be indifferent to the cover.
4. It's unlikely any cover design will entice a reader who doesn't know anything else about the book to buy it.
5. Covers are probably more important to retailers, in terms of decisions to make about what books to stock, than they are to reviewers or readers.
6. It's probably a mistake to over-identify any one cover design with the work -- the most successful books, which is to say those that sell over the longest period of time and are published in multiple different formats, editions, and languages, have the greatest variety of different cover designs.
7. The more successful the work, and the more covers it's given in different editions, the more clear it is that those covers are chosen specifically to appeal to the different audiences those editions are pointed to.
8. Retailers, because of the sheer volume of books they carry, tend to favor covers that clearly express messages they see as expected by a book's target audience -- romance covers, fantasy covers, cookbook covers, and business covers all tend to resemble the covers of other books in their category.
9. As such, covers function as signifiers to both retailers and consumers that a given book with a given cover will meet their broader expectations.
10. Retailers tend not to favor books with cover designs that don't meet those expectations.
11. Thus, it's a good idea to survey the covers of comparable titles, to understand how and why they work as they do -- though this is not the end-all, be-all of cover design.
12. Photos of authors on front covers tend not to be favored unless the author is a celebrity.
13. In terms of digital retail cover considerations, cover designs with clearly legible imagery and type function much better at the small "thumbnail" size encountered on those websites than covers with more elaborate, detailed designs
14. Covers with the above digital-retail-friendly qualities also have the benefit of being easily legible in a bricks and mortar store.
15. We've learned at Agate that a cover/jacket design has a few crucial purposes in terms of stimulating the behavior of every potential purchaser of a book in a store who didn't come in specifically looking for that book (obviously other considerations apply at digital retail):
a. It should prompt the purchaser to pick up the book.
b. It should prompt the purchaser to turn the book over to look at the copy on the back.
c. It should prompt the purchaser to open the book and look at the info on any flyleaves or other key places for info pointed at purchaser.
At bottom, I feel if a cover does the above, it's met its key purpose. If a cover/jacket doesn't prompt these behaviors, it's unlikely that the purchaser will take it to the register. And if a cover turns off retailers, it will never get in front of most purchasers.
A word about vision, design, and expression -- a good cover can be beautiful and also truly capture what a book is about, though it's unlikely that any one design can express every aspect of a work -- books are lengthy and complex experiences and covers are meant to be more immediately intelligible. But I think anyone trying to develop a good cover for a book shouldn't simply focus on realizing those qualities without being informed by key comp titles in its category. I recommend to our authors (who we tend to give a big voice in cover design, though not final approval) that they survey the comp landscape and figure out what sorts of things appeal to them, or turn them off, about various comps -- always keeping in mind the points I raise above about retailer expectations. If a cover is beautiful and expressive of the author's vision, but does not appeal to retailers, it may be failing in one of its key purposes.
Ideally, a cover design will be expressive of the author's vision of the work *and* effective at retail, and with every potential audience to which it might appeal. Everybody wins! But I don't think there's any such thing as "perfect" cover design that meets every ambition of an author and fulfills every expectation of the retail community, any more than I believe each human has an individual "soul mate" among the 8 billion or so other people here on the planet with them.
Thanks for reading What Publishing Is! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Copyright 2025 Doug Seibold
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agate_Publishing
I also recommend the Doug Seibold interview by Joseph Doyague -- "The Agate Age: A Conversation with Doug Seibold as his Publishing Company Marks Twenty Years":
https://lit.newcity.com/2022/10/06/the-agate-age-a-conversation-with-doug-seibold-as-his-publishing-company-marks-twenty-years
For those interested, here is a link to all the reviews of Agate Publishing titles that are archived on the Midwest Book Review website:
https://search.freefind.com/find.html?id=8779737&pid=r&mode=ALL&n=0&query=%22Agat+Publishing%22
Quote of the Month
"What you write can change someone's life." -- Keiko O'Leary
Website of the Month
Jason Brick: Your Business and Writing Sensei
http://www.brickcommajason.com
Here are reviews of books with a special interest for authors, publishers, and dedicated bibliophiles:
The Villain's Journey
Debbie Burke
https://www.debbieburkewriter.com
Media Management LLC
9798988070580, $9.99, Kindle, 263pp
https://www.amazon.com/Villains-Journey-Create-Readers-Love-ebook/dp/B0F2SFQ13T
Synopsis: You've read about the Hero's Journey but what about The Villain's Journey?
Every good drama needs a good villain if you, as an author, want to write mysteries and thrillers that will keep your readers up nights with the lights on?
The secret lies inside the Villain of the story.
With the publication of "The Villain's Journey: How to Create Villains Readers Love to Hate ", the aspiring author will discover Debbie Burke's new DIY craft-of-writing 'how-to' guidebook to creating interesting, memorable, and plot advancing villains
Follow the steps to the darkest depths of the human soul. Trace a character's descent into malice, mayhem, and murder as "The Villain's Journey" covers:
The many flavors of villains, from funny to fearsome to fanatical.
How to drill inside the brain of a criminal.
Is someone born bad or do they learn to be bad?
Reasons why an ordinary person changes from law-abiding to law breaking.
Tips for an antagonist who challenges, threatens, and terrifies your hero.
How compelling criminals keep readers turning pages.
And so much more!
Of special note are the Build-a-Villain worksheets to help an author create unique, multi-dimensional villains specifically tailored for original stories. Even if it isn't a crime fiction, "The Villain's Journey" shows techniques to bring antagonists to life in any genre ranging from the cozy mystery to psychological thrillers, to any and all action/adventure novels.
Critique: Impressively informative, exceptionally 'reader/user' friendly in organization and presentation, "The Villain's Journey: How to Create Villains Readers Love to Hate" by Debbie Burke is a complete course on creating villains that will fully engage the reader. Especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Writing/Publishing instructional reference collections, and writer workshop curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Debbie Burke (https://www.debbieburkewriter.com) is a writer novels, short stories, and articles, Debbie also teaches craft classes and workshops where she shares hser hard-won experience from almost four decades in the writing trenches. She is also a longtime contributor to the award-winning crime-writing blog, The Kill Zone.
Backstage: Stories of a Writing Life
Donna Leon
Atlantic Monthly Press
c/o Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
www.groveatlantic.com
9780802165374, $26.00, HC, 288pp
https://www.amazon.com/Backstage-Stories-Writing-Donna-Leon/dp/0802165370
Synopsis: Donna Leon's memoir, "Wandering through Life", gave her legions of fans a colorful tour through her life, from childhood in New Jersey to adventures in China and Iran, to her love of Venice and opera. Nowhere, however, did she discuss her writing life.
With the publication of "Backstage: Stories of a Writing Life", Donna reveals her admiration for, and inspiration from, the great crime novelists Ruth Rendell and Ross Macdonald, examining their approach to storytelling as she dissects her favorite books of theirs.
She expresses her love for Charles Dickens's Great Expectations and her appreciation for Sir Walter Scott's generosity of spirit. And she chronicles the amount of research she undertakes to be able to present authentically, through Guido Brunetti and his colleagues, places and characters far from her own experience -- from interviewing a diamond dealer in Venice to open up the world of blood diamonds, to meeting, through back channels, a courageous sex worker and women's rights activist to depict accurately the trafficking of women in Italy.
By contrast, the idea and opening scene of one of her novels came to her as she was walking through Venice.
Venice is central in her memory, whether recounting the semi-comic irritation of a noisy elderly neighbor or the origins of the city's Carnevale. Her teaching career yields memorable tales: helping a young Black boy in a Newark, New Jersey, elementary school; instructing young Iranian pilots in English just before the 1979 Iranian Revolution; and taking her students at a Swiss private high school to the famous Frank Zappa concert in Montreux interrupted by fire.
Throughout, she is as good a storyteller about herself as she is a chronicler of Guido Brunetti's crime adventures. Readers will be as caught up in her world as she is in his.
Critique: Raising her memoir to an impressive level of literary excellence, "Backstage: Stories of a Writing Life" by Donna Leon is highly recommended reading for both her legions of fans and anyone who aspires to a career of writing 'best selling' fiction. Especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library Contemporary Biography/Memoir collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that this hardcover edition of "Backstage: Stories of a Writing Life" from Atlantic Monthly Press is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $24.70, Amazon).
Editorial Note: Donna Leon (https://groveatlantic.com/author/donna-leon) was born in New Jersey in 1942. She has worked as a travel guide in Rome and as a copywriter in London. She also taught literature in universities in Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia. Commissario Brunetti made her books world-famous. Donna Leon lived in Italy for many years, and although she now lives in Switzerland, she often visits Venice.
Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!
Richard Wolinsky, editor
Tachyon Publications
https://tachyonpublications.com
9781616964429, $17.95, PB, 264pp
https://www.amazon.com/Space-Ships-Guns-Martian-Octopods/dp/1616964421
Synopsis: Today, depictions of aliens, rocket ships, and awe-inspiring, futuristic space operas are everywhere. Why is there so much science fiction, and where did it come from anyway? Radio producer and author Richard Wolinsky has found answers in the Golden Age of science fiction, between 1920 and 1960 and shares them in the pages of "Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!: Interviews with Science Fiction Legends".
Wolinsky and his fellow writers and co-hosts Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson, interviewed a veritable who's who of famous (and infamous) science-fiction publishers, pulp magazines, editors, cover artists, and fans. The interviews themselves, which aired on the public radio, Probabilities, span over twenty years, from just before the release of Star Wars through the dawn of Y2K.
Probabilities was the home of a vivid cross-section of the early science fiction world, with radio guests offering a wide range of tales, opinions, theory, and gossip. It speaks to how, in the early days, they were free to define science fiction for themselves and push the genre to explore new ideas and new tropes in creative (and sometimes questionable) ways.
"Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!" is ultimately a love letter to fandom and aspiring science fiction authors. Science fiction wouldn't have survived as a genre if there weren't devoted fanatics who wrote fanzines, organized conventions, and built relationships for fandom to flourish and science fiction writers to get published!
Critique: Fascinating, informative, 'behind the scenes' insightful, and a fun read from start to finish, "Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!: Interviews with Science Fiction Legends" A compendium of succinct interviews for radio with a wealth of writers ranging from Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and Fletcher Pratt, to A.E. Van Voght, Leigh Brackett, and Isaac Asimov -- and so many, many more, "Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!: Interviews with Science Fiction Legends" is especially and unreservedly recommended as a prized and original pick for personal, community, and college/university library Science Fiction Literary Criticism & History collections. It should be noted for anyone aspiring to become a successful science fiction writer that this trade paperback edition from Tachyon Publications is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99).
Editorial Note: Richard Wolinsky (http://www.richardwolinsky.com) co-hosted and produced Probabilities, a half-hour public radio program devoted to science fiction, mystery and mainstream fiction, from 1977 to 1995 on KPFA-FM. He took the program solo in 2002, renamed it Bookwaves, and it is still running. Along the way, he has spoken with most of the English-speaking world's leading authors, including Peter Carey, Joseph Heller, William Kennedy, Margaret Atwood, Anne Rice, Gore Vidal, James Ellroy, Joyce Carol Oates, Norman Mailer, Salman Rushdie, E.L. Doctorow, and many others. Wolinsky's interviews have been published in numerous venues, including the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Heavy Metal, Mystery Scene Magazine, and in such books as Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King, The Louis L'Amour Companion, and Macabre II: Stephen King & Clive Barker.
Writing Together: A Year of Meaning-Making and Friendship
Penny Williamson and Darcy Shaw
Creative Courage Press
https://creativecouragepress.com/writing-together
9781959921066, $12.99 Kindle, $21.99 PB, 228 pages
Suzie Housley
Reviewer
Synopsis: Writing Together captures a deeply reflective and emotionally rich journey shared between Penny Williamson, a leadership coach and former professor, and Darcy Shaw, a veterinarian and educator.
Over the course of a year, the two engage in weekly writing sessions, using prompts, poetry, and open dialogue to navigate life's pivotal moments, foster a deeper friendship, and uncover new layers of personal insight.
Rather than focusing on publication, the book emphasizes writing as a meaningful process of connection and self-discovery. It highlights how engaging in creative reflection with a trusted companion can cultivate authenticity, emotional growth, and mutual understanding.
Through a combination of thoughtful prose, poetry, and accessible writing exercises, the authors provide a supportive structure that invites readers to begin their own reflective writing practices -- either individually or in partnership. The tone is compassionate and relatable, making it a valuable resource for anyone interested in storytelling as a path to personal growth.
Critique: Writing Together is more than a guide to creative practice; it is a heartfelt tribute to the transformative power of friendship and shared expression. Williamson and Shaw offer an inspiring example of how writing can nurture connection, purpose, and emotional resilience.
Williamson draws on her experience in leadership and coaching to bring clarity, courage, and emotional depth to the narrative. Shaw, with his background in veterinary medicine and education, brings a thoughtful and observant voice, blending analytical perspective with honest introspection. Together, their collaborative storytelling creates a sincere, balanced, and enriching reading experience.
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James A. Cox
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