Spare, Busy or Retro? In Search of the Right Book Cover

By Ronnie Blair

The graphic artist wanted me to judge a cover for my book.

Here we go, I thought, with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.

I clicked on her email attachment.

A lot had led up to that moment. After all, covers are a big deal. Since childhood, we have all heard, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Also since childhood, we have all happily judged books by their covers.

But judging is one thing. Creating a cover from scratch is something else altogether, which i...