Developing a Brilliant Book Cover

How do authors design their book covers?

I will publish my 12th book later this year. The general public will see the final book cover and will not know anything different. I wanted to share some insights about book design evolution and decisions made along the way …

Here are the book designs I have to hand, in chronological order, with some thoughts along the way.

100 Ideas, Outstanding Lessons (2013)

When I published my first book, I was so grateful to be asked! I signed the contract immediately and spent three months at my desk!

Soon after, I accepted the book cover design. It was a rebrand of the original series. You can see an old version of the book cover style.

I cannot remember being part of the process other than approving the blurb on the back cover. However, I do remember Bloomsbury asking me into their headquarters three months after publication to celebrate being one of the top 20 books on Amazon!

One of the first teaching books to have a hashtag in print!

If you’re interested in the process, here is how I set up writing 100 separate ideas.

Teacher Toolkit (2015)

This book was a labour of love. The concept and layout were developed over 3 to 6 months.

Since the design had no structure, I had to create it myself, so much of the development time was spent back and forth playing around with the content – and the design – to see how it would all fit together. I remember laying out the entire printed copy on my dining room floor.

Before writing was actually a job, I used to sit on a very uncomfortable chair while my son played with his Thomas the Tank Engine trains at my feet! I’ve captured this in-depth overview of the book process from start to finish, plus a summary of the content.

Organising the book launch party is fun too! This book took two years from start to finish …

Mark Plan Teach (2017)

I loved writing this book, but it was an intense process during a period of difficulty. As things came to a head, I remember being more honest as the publication date drew nearer. Having lived the book and its ideas in hundreds of schools, it was clearly a message resonating with thousands of teachers.

The book cover design was quite radical at the time. We went for a black cover with a bold icon. The simplicity of it was effective. We played around with the positioning of the ‘tick’ for days!

Just Great Teaching (2019)

This was the first book I saw printed at the factory. It was a fascinating process, especially being a design and technology teacher.

The book’s concept was born from all my experiences visiting many types of institutions across the United Kingdom. As a lover of maps, I wanted a map on the cover; pinning the ten school locations on the cover located the case studies inside the book. However, it wasn’t to be!

Just Great Teaching was an important book because it captured some of the significant problems our schools faced before the pandemic. This was exposed in all its glory when COVID-19 reached the UK.

Mark Plan Teach 2.0 (2021)

This was the first time I agreed to update a past title. It was easy to do, but still hard work (if that makes sense).

About 50% of the content was updated, but I don’t think anyone would know that judging by the cover.

Many teachers tell me that they read the first version. My assumption was they felt they didn’t need to read the new copy! In conclusion, I don’t think updating a book title is worthwhile.

The only change in the cover design was where to place the 2.0 icon! This small detail was a lengthy discussion …

Guide To Memory (2022)

This is my favourite title, and I’ve probably said that before somewhere, but this one genuinely is. Although it is my favourite, it isn’t necessarily the one my audience would choose!

The book marks a point in time about some of the things that I was teaching myself, plugging in the gap in my teacher training.

Today, the journey hasn’t ended, and I still spend all my spare time learning more about neuroscience and neuropsychology. I wanted the book cover to represent the brain and be a bright and bold icon/image.

The decision was taken early on that the following books should have a ‘The Teacher Toolkit Guide To … ‘ to offer a series of books or a collection of titles that teachers could gather in a library. One key decision about the cover was that the icon was to be luminous in colour.

I love the bright icon on the black background. Several book titles later, this is how I have created a book brand.

Guide To Questioning (2023)

Now that the title series was established, it was simply a matter of choosing a new book topic and ensuring the cover icon matched the title!

Questioning was pretty straightforward, but many conversations were involved about the book colour and shape of the question mark. This also included ‘How many question marks should there be?’ and where they should be positioned.

Even the simplest icon required lots of small decisions.

Here are a few later samples of the final cover. The book’s colour is luminous green.

From publishing this book, I have learned that people often assume they know a lot about questioning.

However, you would be surprised how much more there is to discover when pushed.

Regular readers of this site will know some of the answers to the following questions, but here they are as a reminder:

1. How many questions do you think a teacher poses in a typical school day?
2. How many questions and strategies do you know, and can you name them?
3. How should your favourite questioning strategy be adjusted when working with primary or secondary students?
4. What questioning strategies do you use when working with adults?

When you explore any subject in greater detail, you discover a significant breadth of information.

 

Guide To Feedback (2024)

As I write this post, I’m in the final stages of the edits before I receive the typeset for final approval.

For readers who have never published a book, the typeset is a PDF version of ‘what a book looks like on paper’ before it goes to print. Depending on the publisher, this can happen between 3 to 12 months before publication.

Guide to Feedback will be published in September 2024. This topic and ‘Questioning’ have explicitly followed Guide To Memory because of what I now know about the brain. In some respects, changing my perspective on how teaching and learning should happen has made me revisit all the teaching strategies I know, looking at them in a new light.

I have included several graphic edits for you to look at below.

I’ve gone around in circles with this cover design. We were clear that the colour would be luminous orange, which was an easy decision.

However, the icon evolved between having another head silhouette to match the memory title and ensuring I had three icons representing written, verbal, and nonverbal communication. I was tempted to go with the cover that just had the three icons (with no head), but together, we decided that the head silhouette (not coloured in) would ensure the title matches the graphics without being too closely related to Guide To Memory.

Other publishers and publications

I have included images from four other titles published with John Catt. You can see how the covers have evolved …

Hairdresser or Footballer?

Toxic Schools

60-Second CPD

Revision Revolution

Tips for other authors

1. Visuals: It is best to describe any thought process and iterations with your editor. Gathering a range of icons and images has worked for me when passing on my vision to the designers.

2. The Blurb: The blurb is not just a summary of your book but a compelling invitation to the reader. it’s a huge marketing decision, so spend a lot of time getting key messages in the right places. This might include posing a provocative question or presenting a challenge the book addresses, highlighting unique insights or strategies the book offers. Always end with a strong statement that encapsulates the book’s promises.

3. Tone and Language: Consider your audience. For me, it’s school teachers and leaders. How does your book design strike a balance between credibility and accessibility? The blurb should speak your audience’s language, resonating with their experiences and aspirations.

4. Engagement and Feedback: Share any feedback or observations you’ve gathered about the impact of your blurb and cover design. in the past, I’ve shared draft covers publicly and allowed my audience to vote, but there’s also a danger of those draft covers becoming what the public associate with the final book. I’ve since decided to share draft cover designs with my network behind the scenes. This means my newsletter database gets to see everything first. it also means that draft designs remain private.

5. Personal Insights: Finally, all book covers should have an internal cover. I’ve not shown any of them to you in this post, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Consider whether your image will be there when someone opens the front cover. Your biography? Or something a little bit more engaging …

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