by Jenny Kimura, Senior Designer
Image courtesy of Unsplash
Picture it: You’ve placed the last period on your latest manuscript. You’ve stopped typing and you finally think, This is it. You send your book off to your copyeditors and proofreaders, and very soon, this plain-text document is going to become book shaped. You’re 70 percent of the way through to a finished product on the shelf. And then, you think, what’s next is the fun part—the cover design. That’s when your cover designer hits you with the question, “Can you send me some design comps for your book?”
What does that even mean, you think, panicked. Books I like? Books that sold a hundred million copies? What if I hate what all books look like in the sci-fi genre, but my book is sci-fi? HELP!
If that’s ever been you, or is about to be you, I’ve got you covered! Design comps are a lot like editorial comps, which you may or may not have put together earlier on in your writing process. If you haven’t, a “comp” in publishing terms means a book that’s already published and that is comparable to yours, a way in which someone can understand where your book fits within the current, existing market. Editorial comps are books that may have a similar theme, genre, or plot elements to yours. Thus, good editorial comps help others in the publishing industry (such as agents, editors, publishers, marketers, designers, and booksellers) figure out how to sell your book based on the record and reach of those comparative books. Similarly, then, design comps help your designer understand how your book’s cover should look next to others on the metaphorical shelf.
Now, design comps are not necessarily the same as editorial comps. There may be some overlap, but where editorial comps focus on the themes and elements of the story itself, design comps take into account cover aesthetics—such as photographic vs. illustrative vs. type-driven covers, major color themes, objects vs. people, even the kind of fonts used. All of these elements help your designer understand what kinds of covers your cover should feel in conversation with. There are so many different cover styles even within one genre—so, giving your cover designer a place to start with the design gets you one step closer to covers that will fit both your vision and the market.
So, how do you go about choosing design comps? If you don’t know where to begin, start with the genre and age category (if your book is for children/teens) of your book and the central themes that you might want to highlight on the cover. Those key words are now tools to help you find other books that are similar to yours—try putting those words into Google or a bookstore site like Bookshop.org and see what titles come up. You don’t need a ton—just choose 3-5 examples with cover styles that you like and gravitate toward, and ones that have ideally been published within the last 5 years. Is there a theme or pattern to the ones you like? If you can verbalize what that is, that too will help you figure out what kind of cover you’re ultimately looking for.
You can also do this the analog way—by spending an afternoon in a bookstore! Find the section where your book would be shelved if it were published today and see what’s popular or eye-catching there—what stands out to you, and why? And conversely, keep note of what you don’t like, and why.
Some final thoughts and takeaway advice:
- Your editorial comps may also include a design comp! If that’s true for you, search up that book and see what books are suggested as similar to that title and you’ll start to get a better sense of what kind of books and covers are already out there—what’s different, what’s being overdone, what hasn’t been tried yet. This is also a great time for you to get acquainted with the genre you’re writing in, if you haven’t already.
- As with editorial comps, try to avoid comparing your book to the covers of megabestsellers and classic novels—try to find comparisons to books that were recently published and have done well in their genres.
- Other media, like movie posters or album covers, can also be a design comp, as there’s lots of overlap! Just be sure to specify what it is about those examples that appeal to you.
- You don’t have to have all the answers up front. Maybe there’s a cover style you really like, but isn’t really used in your book’s genre. You can still show it to your designer—perhaps it’s a starting point that will help you get to a cover that feels fresh and different. All cover trends, after all, stem from just one person taking a risk with an unusual design approach. That could be you!
Finally, remember that design comps are just a jumping-off point and they are useful tools to help you verbalize what you like in a cover for this book project specifically (and not just you, personally), and possibly more importantly, what you don’t like or want to avoid. Your book cover can still be its own unique piece—the design comps are just its foundation.
Happy comping!
Jenny Kimura is a book designer by day, and also, a book designer by night. A resident of Brooklyn, NY, she is constantly comparing her book covers to other book covers she likes a lot. You can learn more about her and see her work here.
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