Deciding how you want your book to look is a big deal. As much as we often repeat the ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ adage, the reality is… we do. It’s reported that a staggering 80% of us are initially drawn to a book because of how it looks. And… 60% say they may buy/read a book simply because of its visual appeal.
So, let’s gently sidestep the broader implications and focus on the story of how we went about choosing our approach.
We think business books have a distinct look. They tend to be a big headline with a small graphic that emphasizes the subject. Or… a picture of the authors looking convincing. It is tempting to conform. There is some well rehearse logic and rationale about why business books take the form they do. However, we have just written our second book on the dangers of following the crowd, of being swept along by ‘conventional wisdom’ without deeper reflection.
Plus… we are very much about producing something that has a distinctly different appeal, for a more modern, more ‘Tik Tok’ zeitgeist. Now, obviously, we are still writing a book, so there are limitations (currently) on how multi-media you can go and still embrace the beauty and uniqueness of the written word.
However, making our cover distinctive… well we can do that. And that’s what we have tried to do.
In some ways we might describe our approach as non-binary. We are trying to produce writing with a new appeal. Something that uses storytelling and aspects of mentoring/coaching, while doing so in a way that piques interest from a population that have been ignored. Business books have served a small slice of the population. Largely those who are hard core reading champions or those who have no choice and are forced by a school or business need to read something.
We want to broaden the tent. Invite some others who want to enjoy and be entertained while reading something that might help them find something elusive in their professional lives.
So, our goals for A Groundhog Career’s book cover was to create something distinctive, something unique, something fun. Something that merged career traps with the deeper psychological and behavioral challenges we must navigate during our professional lives.
This is where working with Andy is an amazing experience. We talk through the story, our goals, and bridging from A Career Carol to the second book, and he provides a sketch book. A series of iterations follow, and a few weeks… something magical seems to happen. And… of course… when you approach this not as ‘work’ but as something that brings you genuine wonder, it’s just very compelling.
We hope you enjoy the artwork as much as we enjoyed working with Andy to create it.
Comments