Sunday, August 10, 2008

Cover Stories

Most authors don't have any say in the cover design for their books, but some of the big names do. This essay from the New York Times features three authors, Philip Roth, Haruki Murakami and Chuck Palaniuk,who have chosen to stick with particular designers.

I have to say that I really love John Gall's retro covers for Murakami ... but the other two do rather leave me cold.

2 comments:

Amir Muhammad said...

How terrible that most authors have no say when it comes to covers. We at Matahari Books do not operate that way at all :-)

Lydia Teh said...

Sharon, I like Murakami's book covers too - they're bold and beautiful. Roth's type-only cover design is boring and Palaniuks' too plain.

A pity most authors don't get to have a say in the cover, after all it's their baby and they should have the right to 'clothe' it. I'm glad that MPH went along with my idea of Honk! If You're Malaysian and Pelanduk for the new cover of Life's Like That.