More Rejected Book Covers
Every book cover you have ever seen is a gladiator.
If a jacket makes it to the shelf at your local Barnes & Noble, it is a battle-tested beauty that has defeated its same-named rivals and survived the colosseum known as Sales & Marketing. If a book cover makes it to publication, there are undoubtedly “killed,”or rejected, covers in its wake.
It happens less frequently these days—which I take as a sign of my improvement and having some great clients—but I often design rejected book covers I like more than, or at least just as much as, the published cover. Thanks to the internet and this newsletter, these book cover rejects don’t need to live in obscurity, collecting dust on some hard drive. I can share them with you.
Rejected covers are on the left, approved on the right. While I like a lot of these rejected covers more than the finals, that is not always the case.
Did you miss the first time I shared my rejected book covers? Read it here.
Our Fragile Freedoms
Why was it rejected? This was less “rejected” than there was a particular painting that the author and editor wanted to see on the jacket of this book. I was asked to try a few other options, but I think they were always going to be a long shot.
Why do I love the rejected version? I just love this illustration. It felt perfect for the brief—what says American freedom more than a bald eagle? It is a long-standing goal of mine to use an image from CSA Images and this was as close as I have ever gotten.
Appropriated Tales
Why was it rejected? The press actually loved this rejected cover featuring Neuschwanstein castle—the basis for the Disney castle—but the author had concerns about it being too campy.
Why was it rejected? Not sure! The publisher didn’t speak about this draft specifically.
The Pink Scar
Why was it rejected? Because the final cover was chosen from the first round of covers—which is rare, let me tell you—I don’t really know why any of the others weren’t chosen. I loved the process on this cover and I think this reject is clever, but I do wonder if it prioritized cleverness over content.
Rhetoric, Inc.
This was my first university press book cover design. I love the final cover and it is still one of my favorites, so no complaints there. But I do like this rejected cover’s subtle representation of the Ford assembly line through repetition.
Why Teach?
Why was it rejected? Sometimes good covers just aren’t the best fit! That was the case here, and I do really like the final. The mission to use “bad” fonts (Times New Roman, here) in clever ways continues.
Cinema Ann Arbor
I don’t like this reject more than the published cover, but I still love it. And I’m sentimental toward it because designing this cover led to the final cover, which I adore.
Dali/Dalai
Why was it rejected? Simply put, the author had final say, and he preferred the cover on the right. I don’t agree, but the illustration on the unused cover does appear inside the book.
Empowered!
This may be a result of the sunk cost fallacy because I stayed up into the early hours of the night writing these words by hand with a giant paint marker. The final cover is probably better for book sales, but I still love the concept of turning the book cover into a literal protest sign. This was a terrific experience in combining analog and digital processes.
I’ll leave it there for today. What do you think? Do you prefer rejected or published?
Thanks for Reading!
Thank you for reading! I mean it.
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I find seeing the rejected ones quite valuable. I also think some of the rejected ones should have been chosen. Thank you for sharing.
The most egregious mistake in this series is the author’s clueless demand that that blob of a painting replace the compelling illustration on that first example. A total buzzkill. And I bet it sold fewer books, too.