When MJ Buckman (Em) was thinking of what to put on the cover of her new book, she consulted a graphic designer. When he had several drafts ready, Em asked her social media followers which one they liked best. A while later, Em revealed this result.

The professional graphic designer Em asked to make her cover is Howard, someone she’s known and worked with for years. Em: “Howard’s skill was to take all of the ideas on board from me, my publisher, Uplit Press, and others on Facebook and Instagram who commented on the drafts, and turn them into this fine cover.”

Howard: “The aim was to create a cover that is intriguingly eye-catching, yet familiar enough not to deter further investigation.” For Howard, it’s crucial to keep the reader at the forefront of the design concept. “You’ve got to consider the reader’s point of view,” he says, “and make it easy for them to understand what the book is about.”

Em agrees. “It’s important not to be led by the author’s preferences when it comes to the cover. There were things I suggested because I liked them, but they just wouldn’t have worked well from a design point of view.”

I know what Em and Howard mean. The author’s preference may not be in the best interests of their book. For my own, Becoming Janice, I wanted to use this photo that I’d found on AWL Images. The girl on the bike made me think of Janice and that bridge can only be in Amsterdam, the main setting of the novel. Yihaaaa, I thought, riffing on the old saying, this one picture will sell a thousand books….

Jonathan Relph, the graphic designer my publisher Iguana Books assigned to create the cover for Janice, faithfully interpreted my idea. But when we ran the draft past my publicist, Chris Houston of The Idea Shop, Chris tactfully pointed out that although the image was attractive, this cover could make my book look like a travelogue, which would give potential customers absolutely the wrong idea. After all, Becoming Janice is a (sapphic) coming of age story and although exotic (for some), the Amsterdam setting is basically incidental.

Drafting the design

Creating a cover can be quite a deliberate process.
From Em’s perspective as an author, it helped enormously that Howard had read the manuscript before starting on the design.

Em says, “Howard’s process involves starting with a series of draft designs for discussion. For the customer, this is so beneficial. I have learnt from watching him work over the years that often the customer doesn’t really know what they want. If you are given some choices, it’s easier to see what you don’t want and can reject quickly. It’s also easier to see what you like, and what you love.”

For me, it was a question of finding an image that told the reader the book was all about Janice. Jonathan suggested we’d find a suitable vector of a girl on Shutterstock and he was right. And again, I took Chris’s advice on the choice of colors. I mean, initially, that ghastly khaki green whacked me out of my comfort zone. But, I quickly grew used to it (quite like it now) and, more importantly, judging by readers’ responses, the colors chosen for the final cover work really well.

“As readers and shoppers,” Chris says, “we have emotional reactions to colors, and shapes and images, all of which come into play on a book jacket. Overall color is key. It’s a clue to what awaits within from a #Mood point of view.

“Secondly, the typeface is key,” Chris continues. “Typography is a shorthand to what kind of book is on offer. It’s as important as the subject category or BISAC code that determines in what part of a bookshop (real or virtual) a book will be spending its time.”

“You should always avoid poor typography,” Howard adds, “and you should never use design elements protected by copyright without seeking permission from the owners.”

Note that photos fall under copyright so you are well-advised to get the owner’s permission, even if it means paying for the photo, or use your own as Em did with her first book Bent Is Not Broken (Uplit Press, Nov 2023).

Avoiding clutter is key

The eye relaxes when there are a few things to take in, preferably arranged in a pleasing fashion. Putting too many things on a cover has the opposite effect. Avoiding clutter is essential. Book title, author name, blurbs, seals, subtitles, taglines—all this and a memorable image? It’s a lot to fit in a small space.

To be safe, a professional designer will suggest picking any three or four items from this menu. Good designers like Howard and Jonathan can juggle several of these graphic elements at once by judicious use of type size and font selection, not to mention image management.

Chris concludes, “Whatever words and images are on the cover, they should be attracting attention and make someone think ‘I like what I am seeing here, I’m intrigued, I’d like to learn more about what I am looking at.’ If a cover has that effect, you’re in a good place.”

Em and I are happy with the intriguing appearance of our books. Thanks to the skills of Howard and Jonathan, our graphic designers, all three covers look clean and professional, modern and attractive, and give the reader some clues about the genre and story without giving too much away. We think our books are in a good place.
Do you agree?▼

 

All about Em (MJ Buckman)

Born in the 1960s, Em grew up desperate to be liked, yet often feeling an outsider. She spent much of her life “creating and hiding behind a mask, presenting to the world a confident person, while inside I was often really struggling.​ In my fifties, I finally came clean about who I am, warts and all.” Now retired, Em lives on the coast of England with her husband. “We live a quiet life with our cool as anything cat and our anxious as anything dog.”

Of her two books (so far), Em says, “My first looks in depth at how I learned to manage myself better and also discusses LGBT+ culture and history. The second explores women’s history through the lens of a middle-aged woman searching for meaning in her life. They both highlight themes I feel are important and relevant to this day: accepting ourselves, accepting each other, and celebrating difference.”

Bent Is Not Broken is a non-fiction work about LGBT+ culture and history, mental health, and acceptance. Since publication in November 2023, it has won two awards:
– Readers’ Favorite 2024 International Book Awards: Gold Medal Winner
– Queer Indie Book Award 2023: Winner, Best Non-Fiction

Women Of Note will appear in July 2025. This work of historical fiction takes a unique and refreshing look at the changing roles of women in a series of imagined letters written by real historical figures.

Howard designed both of Em’s books. They are published by Uplit Press, a new indie digital-first publisher of novels that “inspire hope and make you glad to be part of the human race.”
This is Em’s new website, MJ Buckman-Author. You can also find Em on Facebook and Instagram.▼

 

All about the jargon

Vector: A vector image is created using mathematical formulas to represent the image, rather than using a grid of pixels. This type of image is often used for logos and illustrations because it can be scaled to any size without losing quality.
BISAC code: BISAC is an acronym for Book Industry Standards and Communications. Want to find a code to categorize a book? The BISAC Subject Codes List is the US standard topical categorization used by companies throughout the book supply chain.
Typeface: A typeface is the underlying visual design that can exist in many different typesetting technologies, and a font is one of these implementations. In other words, a typeface is what you see and a font is what you use.
Copyright: As a universal rule, most images are protected by copyright laws around the world and you need permission to use an image as-is or to adapt it.▼