Book Covers, Marketing, and Authenticity: An Interview with Laura Duffy of Laura Duffy Design
A better book cover improves sales and author exposure. But does working with a professional have to feel like a trust fall? Designer Laura Duffy doesn't think so.
Annie Mydla, Managing Editor
This year, Laura Duffy Design is providing free benefits to all entrants and winners of the North Street Book Prize. All entrants receive a detailed PDF about book cover design, and winners receive customized book design and marketing services.
Today Laura Duffy joins Winning Writers managing editor Annie Mydla to talk about helping indie authors get the most out of her services, from the cover to essential marketing elements like metadata, Amazon keywords, and copy.
Watch the entire interview with Laura Duffy or read this lightly edited transcript.
Key moments (links lead to the YouTube video):
0:55 Why do authors settle for a subpar cover?
2:34 Why working with a professional can feel like a trust fall
3:54 Why self-publishing is even more crucial in today's world. "That's what I want to be part of."
5:33 "This cover is gonna be strong, because this is a badass book": Honoring authors' authenticity
6:21 Book cover design is not one-size-fits-all. It's personal
8:05 "We're all creatives, just in different lanes": Designers and authors working together
9:16 Why improving a book cover improves sales
10:03 Why a good cover increases marketing opportunities, like merchandise
10:30 How Laura raises sales with SEO, Amazon keywords, and more
11:43 Expressing our truth vs selling books? It's a balance
13:23 Laura's free customized services for North Street Book Prize winners
14:33 How merchandise increases authors' exposure
15:38 Considering a cover now? This message is for you
Introduction
ANNIE MYDLA: Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in. I'm Annie Mydla, managing editor of Winning Writers. Joining me today is Laura Duffy, former art director for Simon & Schuster and Random House, now independent book cover creator and North Street Book Prize co-sponsor. Laura, thank you so much for being our co-sponsor, and thank you for talking with me about all the ways that book cover design can be important for a book's success.
LAURA DUFFY: Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here.
Before we begin, I'd just like to point out to everybody that Laura Duffy Design is providing a free detailed PDF guide about the book cover design process to all North Street entrants in 2025. She's also providing free merchandising and book cover design services for winners, as well as some other things which we'll talk about in a little bit. So let's just dive into the interview.
0:55 Why do authors settle for a subpar cover?
We receive many books in the North Street Book Prize each year. Now, of course, we don't judge a book solely by its cover, but it does make an impact on the book's competitiveness with other submissions. Why do you think authors settle? What are some of the mental stumbling blocks that keep authors from striving for better covers?
Perhaps it's just that they don't know how to find a designer, or they don't know they need a designer. Perhaps they've designed their own cover, and they don't want to be told that it's not good enough.
But I think that they also need to be shown. They have their ideas. And I say, "Yeah, I'm going to do your idea. But then I'm going to show you my idea, because that's what you're hiring me for.” And then they have that, “Ohhh, okay, I get it,” whether it's a really impactful design, or it's the details on the back, or on the spine, or in the interior. It becomes this, like, “Okay.”
And perhaps it's budget, finances, and stuff like that. In that case, they could maybe try to learn from other designs, or designers, or what they see. But I think that, like any other trade or business when somebody's been doing it for a long time, you want to really rely on their expertise. Especially with a book cover. You know, it's interesting, because it's artistic, it's art, it's creativity, and we've got artists here, but it's also a business thing, a marketing tool. There's a lot of technical things going on. You have to find the right combination.
2:34 Why working with a professional can feel like a trust fall
Sometimes I get the impression while working with people who are self-publishing, they have to do so much of it by themselves. When they meet a professional, especially a relatively affordable professional like yourself who does such a good job and has so much background and experience, it can almost feel like doing a trust fall. It's the first time that they've been able to put their work in the hands of another person. And they don't really know how it's going to come out. They've had experiences that burned them in the past, maybe.
Well, that's a good point, too. I do get a lot of clients who've come to me after working with an agency. I don't want to badmouth anybody, but there are lots of places out there that, for instance, don't read the book, don't really want it. They just want to produce a cover. And that's not how I work. I don't know how I'd get my ideas if I didn't read as much as I could of an author's work. So yeah, it's all about trust.
I know that you probably don't feel comfortable saying this about yourself, but it's not just your expertise and your experience and your skill. It's also that you're a very warm and lovely person. So I think if somebody needs to learn to trust, you're probably a good place to go.
I know what you mean, because there are a lot of companies that are very slick. You don't know who's behind it. Is this one person? Is this a team? Is this a group? And I'm one person, although I'm branching out, and I've got people who are helping me out. But people are reacting to my site because it looks like I'm a human being.
Because this is such an incredibly personal thing that these people are doing. Maybe they're sharing in a memoir some of their most personal details. For them, it's a huge thing, finally publishing this book. It's just really intimidating in a lot of ways. And I think what I'm realizing is that they appreciate my patience.
3:54 Why self-publishing is even more crucial in today's world. "That's what I want to be part of."
And I feel personally, with the way the world is, especially in the United States, I'm starting to really appreciate the role I'm playing, the role we're playing, in helping people get their stories out. Because I know that there's a lot of fear everywhere. So that leads to even more gatekeepers, more people saying, “I don't want to publish this book. We’re not talking about this anymore.” But you can do it. Yes, you can talk about it. And how incredibly important that is. I'm working on several books right now that I know are topics that are just really, it's really important for people to get their voices out.
People have been telling them all their lives, you can't do this, you can't do that. And now it seems like society is telling people more and more, you can't do this, you can't do that.
I feel like people are being a lot more authentic, whether it's because we came through a pandemic… People are looking for places to rest, be creative, or have support. You know, we've just got so much coming at us.
5:33 "This cover is gonna be strong, because this is a badass book": Honoring authors' authenticity
And I mean, I think that's the positive thing about nowadays: that people are talking about things. We're seeing the underbelly of a lot of things, but those things were always there. They were just hidden. You know, the Me Too movement and all these things. And now it's like, “Okay, I can talk about my family trauma,” that before was—you just didn't bring it up.
And so that's another thing. I'm like, "This cover is going to be strong, because this is a badass book.” And that's what I want to be part of.
6:21 Book cover design is not one-size-fits-all. It's personal
This is just another reason why you as a book cover designer are, in my opinion, preferable to organizations that are bigger, slicker. Because the bigger the company is, the more standardized things have to be. Somebody who's got so many clients, they don't really necessarily have the time or the emotional bandwidth to engage with people on that level.
There are so many different kinds of self-published authors. They have different needs, different comfort levels, different expectations. It's not a one-size-fits all situation.
How do you think we can get authors to appreciate the value of a good cover and evaluate their cover designs more critically?
I think that, again, it's that seeing is believing. I think that once you show them what can be done, and how others react to their books—you know, once they put it out there on social media and there's oohing and aahing—yeah, you know. That's the fun part.
I think that's also a step towards, "Oh, this is going to be a good experience." I think that fear, that terror of, "Oh my goodness, I'm putting my baby out into the world for the first time," and then it's like, "Oh, no, this is a party." Everybody's chiming in. I think that's when they realize, if they're working with somebody like me, or another professional with a lot of experience, "Okay, we're running with the big guys now. We can hang with the big guys and gals." And it feels good.
8:05 "We're all creatives, just in different lanes": Designers and authors working together
Book covers are one of the most accessible parts of books. People look at that image, and they just get an immediate sense of something about your book, something about you.
Everybody now is exposed to design. Good design, bad design. More and more people, I would say, maybe think they can be designers, and they can be. There are tools, and they might find out that they're very good. It's worth educating yourself and looking around.
But you do want to do something that's really good, whether you're doing it yourself—there are people, there are authors, who've done good stuff, and they've used Canva. It's pretty impressive. They've taught themselves InDesign. And I like that too. I love seeing people expand and discover things about themselves.
Maybe they try it and they find an amazing talent. But do they have the time? Do they have the bandwidth? Do they have the resources? I could make a book cover, but would it have all those really subtle little touches that subconsciously communicate to viewers of that cover, "This is the real thing"?
I think that another thing is, that what an author is doing is very creative, and what I'm doing is very creative. Yeah, we're all working with creatives, but in different ways and different lanes.
9:16 Why improving a book cover improves sales
Can you tell us a little bit about how improving a book cover can improve sales?
Well, that's a good question, because I think that there's a lot that goes into improving sales. The book cover, of course, is important. When you're writing a book, and you're considering the cover, you're stepping into the world of marketing. It's just like any other aspect of the world. If you're looking for a job, and you want to stand out, how do you present yourself? Regardless of how you get to a book, what's going to make you stop, pause, and look at that book and pick it up? On some level, if a book cover is doing its job, especially with a lot of competition, a well-put-together cover represents and indicates a well-written book.
10:03 Why a good cover increases marketing opportunities like merchandise
How can a good cover contribute to marketing opportunities like selling book merch or building an author's web presence?
I think that people like to see good-looking things, right? What's really fun is when you start integrating other elements from the cover onto the website or onto the bookmarks, and it kind of pulls it out—you know, it's all of a piece. And I think people really appreciate that.
10:30 How Laura raises sales with SEO, Amazon keywords, and more
I have a very entrepreneurial mindset, and I love thinking about how to grow a business, how to market. I get very excited about that. And I try to convey that to authors. "Okay, we're going to do this, let's do this." Like, "Who's your target market? Who's your audience?"
What should be done early on is, keep your audience in mind. You know, SEO, search engine optimization, these keywords that help the cream rise to the top are important. The algorithms. It's the game we're playing. And so even early on, making sure that you're using words, whether it's in your book description, whether it's on the back of your book, or that's even in your book, or anywhere, that you're using words that will attract your audience. You know, "You're not using your title enough," or "Let's get these words into the subtitle," or "Let's get these words into a blurb." We've got to do it. We've got to do it if you want to really stand out.
I think that is a little bit of something, like, you know, that's hard for authors to adjust to. That's where I come in, like, "Okay, no, we're going to do this. You just relax. You wrote your book."
11:43 Expressing our truth vs selling books? It's a balance
We're getting into some core human issues here, with this balance of, "We want to be ourselves. We want to express ourselves. But we also want to get these certain benefits from what we're producing." Sometimes I wonder whether this is one of the things that makes self-publishing difficult for people. This conflict, this tension, between expressing yourself, and getting what you want from other people in terms of their response, in terms of their money, their time, their attention.
It's awesome that you can help them with the covers, which is, in most cases, how people really meet the book, but also that you can work on these behind-the-scenes elements that have to do with marketing on Amazon, keywords, and all the things that we don't really think about.
When I have the discussions, whether I'm giving them my initial pitch or it's during the process, there's a lot more going on than just the talk about the design of the cover. Over and over again, I'm encouraging authors to get out there. I feel that feeling of, "I want everybody to be successful and confident." I think there's a lot of people starting out. I mean, 99% of the authors that I work with are newbies. And "I've never done this before, I don't know what…" "Okay, yeah, you're not alone." I hope that that comforts them, that they don't feel like they're the only author in the world that's starting out and never done this before. I feel like it's a cool place to be, the indie publishing world. It's really neat.
13:23 Laura's free customized services for North Street Book Prize winners
You're a North Street co-sponsor. You're actually working with last year's North Street Book Prize winners at this moment. Can you tell us a little bit about how it's going, the kind of things that you're working on together?
So I've been working with a lot of the first prize winners, right? And I've done work with Angelino Donnachaidh. He wrote Tamiu: A Cat's Tale. And when I spoke to him, you know, he didn't really know what he wanted, how he wanted to utilize my services. He just wanted it to sell more. So what I offered to do was work on his metadata, work on his copy: for his cover, on Amazon, and keywords. So that was an interesting project, and I'm interested in seeing how that does because that's what I've been doing for a lot of my clients nowadays.
And then for Stephen Pollock, I did a bookmark for [his poetry collection, Exits]. And that might also lead to a postcard. And then Bryan Wiggins, who I said, "I think your cover [for The Corpse Bloom] looks great," but he wanted to make some changes to the layout and add all of these wonderful awards he's gotten. So I'm doing that.
14:33 How merchandise increases authors' exposure
Actually, can you tell me some of the other kinds of merch that you provide? Because I'm not sure I know.
So, the bookmarks and the postcards. I've been asked to do tote bags, and t-shirts, and any kind of swag, toys, business cards that are just specifically for the author. More and more people are asking for those stand-up banners that they'll have at a reading, and they retract. I've got a picture of one woman on my website standing next to one, and it's got her cover on it, and it's got the quotes.
You know, a lot of media sheets. I try to encourage people. I say, "If you feel like you're going to go out in the world, and you're going to be hitting people up for podcasts and this and that, you want to put together a media sheet, or a white sheet." People call them all different things. But they don't know that that exists, so I show them examples.
Whatever anybody wants their book cover or anything on, I'll do it. It’s just a matter of designing it. There are lots of printers, so it doesn't really cost that much money. And it’s fun.
15:38 Considering a cover now? This message is for you
I was wondering if you have any advice for authors who might be considering the cover for an upcoming book.
I would say, yeah, just write your book and let me read it. I think that if you're working with somebody who's going to read the book, which apparently I feel like I'm one of the few people that do, then you don't have to really do much regarding the cover. When I look through a story, a novel or something, I'm looking for maybe a specific moment. Some kind of tableau, something that might lend itself to color. But yeah, just focus on writing that great book. Hire that developmental editorial editor and let them take their time doing it.
Sometimes I think that books, or the part of books that authors produce, is like the raw material. Like they are creating a raw diamond, or a lump of raw gold, or something like that. Alchemists are real if you're a self-published author. You do produce the gold. You do produce the diamonds. But then, you're the alchemist. You're not a blacksmith. You're not, like, a goldsmith, or a diamond cutter. There are other people who do that stuff to turn it from that really valuable, rare raw material to the finished product.
Let the creative people that you've hired do their job. Because they're coming at it from many different vantage points. I've rarely been able to say to an author, "You're just too close to this" and "Just back off." But, you know, sometimes, yeah, I'll be able to say that, and they'll get it, and they'll be like, "Okay, yeah, I'll talk to you when you're done. You just do your thing." And I'm like, "Yeah, I love you."
Laura Duffy, thank you so much for sharing your book cover and marketing insights with us today. And thank you so much for providing these excellent benefits for North Street Book Prize entrance and winners.
Well, it is my pleasure. I love working with you and this has been a really great experience. I hope that people find these helpful.
Categories: Advice for Writers
