Book Covers & Life

[BLAND - II]

There are three mistakes in designing a book cover:
1) Too busy (messy),
2) Poor art (unprofessional), and
3) Idiosyncratic (special meaning to a very limited number of people).

This is common knowledge.

And yet tomorrow, a 100 (or 10,000) hopeful authors, after thousands of hours of hard work, will self-publish a book that, at first glance, will discourage would-be readers away from buying.

Doing beautiful work does not mean you “stick to your guns” at all costs, turning a blind eye to the information that’s available. Another set of (professional) eyes ought to “disarm” us.

Sometimes, to do our best work, we need someone else to point out the overly busy, the unprofessional, and the idiosyncratic.

That’s true for life, too.