Influences of cover design

This post is in reference of a lecture given by Deborah Kaplan, art director of the teen section at Penguin Book publishing company.

Who will read it?

Ms. Kaplan explained the difference between boy cover art v. girl cover art. There is a weird phenomenon that girls can read boy books, but most boys are not willing to read a girl book. This affects that design of the cover art. Boy book covers are generally neutral, inviting everyone to read them. Girl book covers are most definitely for girls, which alienates the male audience. That's OK because girls are more likely to read.

A great example of this is with the second book in the Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor called Seeing Redd. Originally the illustrator had drawn Redd as feminine. But this book is aimed to teen boys, so the cover art was switched to a darker and less feminine cover.

Ms. Kaplan explained that J.K. Rowling used her initials instead of her name, because she did not want to alienate her male audience.

The New Look

There have been a few new changes to cover art for teen literature. The design has changed to photography. A lot of girl covers nowadays are designed with cropped body parts as the cover. You will only see the feet, or hands, head or eyes. The whole form is not shown.

Here are some examples:

Also Kaplan related that the reason some book covers now had metal elements, embossing or special designs is because it draws people to these novels. People, like birds, like shiny things.