Evan Johnston’s previous work for The Toast can be found here.
Tags: artwork, book design, cartoons, evan johnston, publishing
Evan Johnston’s previous work for The Toast can be found here.
Tags: artwork, book design, cartoons, evan johnston, publishing
I love your style.
Cosigned.
this is amazing.
this is also what copywriting is like.
Sometimes less polite, though.
We’re starting our catalog copywriting cycle soon. Not excited.
Coverwise, our host institution prefers that we do that sort of thing in-house, but every now and then we get an author whose cover art suggestion is “I have a friend who wants to do it.” This strikes fear into our hearts, but the amiable persevering excellently-bespectacled protagonist of this comic makes me less afraid.
We’re starting our catalog copywriting soon, too, and I’m dreading it. I’m the one that coordinates everything, and every department has competing interests and stakes in the catalog. It’s fraught with tension, and it all falls on me. So much publishing drama.
So much drama! I’m also this person. Also there is a development department that uses the catalog as a donor tool. So much drama.
“But it’s so easy, I mean you just use Photoshop, right? Also I’m telling you exactly what we need, so why is it taking so long?”
ARGH.
I work for an indie publisher and I am chagrined to admit that yes, this is exactly what the process is like. And we are similarly jerky to interior designers.
“This is great, but can you make it, I don’t know…pop more?”
Web design works the same way, which is why I now charge billable hours instead of flat rate.
“Oh, it’s only going to be a portal page!”…
So what I’m getting from this is that book cover design is just like all forms of freelance design — slow torture that you get paid for.
The agonies aside, I just really like how supportive and helpful her cat is. And brave, to ride in a boat!
The agonies aside, I just really like how supportive and helpful her cat is. And brave, to ride in a boat!
Relevant to freelance illustration.
Things I may have said to my cover designer:
“You’re the expert!”
“I’ll figure out that part later!”
“Can you make that bit in the corner bolder?”
“Something like this or this or this or this or that or this would be super!”
“My deadline has changed; can you handle that?”
“Thanks – I can’t wait to do more work with you!”
(Note to self: maybe give her a little more heads up this time.)
Haha. Her face after the comment about the nude picture 😀 Brilliant.
Haha. Her face after the comment about the nude picture 😀 Brilliant.
Can you make it more dynamic?
What do you mean?
You know….?
“I’m no designer, but…”
Followed by very specific, micromanage-y tweaks. Followed by death stares.
Based on the five seconds I spent learning about book cover design at school, this is definitely very accurate.
Based on the five seconds I spent learning about book cover design at school, this is definitely very accurate.
Contract, specifying deadlines and number of Change Orders allowed at that rate. I hate that artists aren’t taught this. Someone, quick, create a Lynda.com course covering this. I work in a field that this is prone to as well, and there are no problems as everything’s in the Deal Memo. One-third of fee in advance. Learn to write Net 30.
In defense of the authors (not the ones sending naked pictures), the cover process can be super hard because the publisher may ask ALL sorts of questions and then never, ever share it with the designer. And sometimes the designer is in-house, and doesn’t actually have any design background, just a handiness w/ Illustrator (this is super fun if the author did go to design school, but can’t make the cover because he/she is busy working on edits/next book/promotional blogs, for pennies).
The whole thing is like having your child dressed by someone else for Kindergarten Picture Day. Sometimes it works out fine, and sometimes it’s gutting.