I know we’ve all had a time when we looked at the cover for the latest novel in our favorite series and realized that the main character depicted on the cover doesn’t look like the character described in the book. How do these things happen? And who decides on the cover anyway?

Sometimes the development of cover art is a glorious thing that fills the author with glee, other times it's a tragedy over which they have no control. Science fiction author Tobias Buckell is so excited about his newest cover that he recently posted the progression of cover images for his book, The Sly Mongoose. In his case, Buckell sent his editor a scene that he thought would make good cover art. His editor forwarded the scene to the artist, and the series of sketches were made. Voila, we have a cover.

The process of designing a cover varies from publisher to publisher and across genres, but here’s a breakdown of how covers are developed.

First the art director or executive editor chooses an illustrator or designer. Some publishers work entirely in-house, while others have a list of freelance illustrators or use a combination of in-house and freelance work.  The author, editor, sales and marketing compiles a small packet of information detailing what the book is about (including a writing excerpt), the tone of the book and the basic feel they want for the cover and gives it to the illustrator/designer.

The designer goes away and comes up with a couple different options. The editorial team looks at the covers and decides which one they like best and make suggestions for improvement. The designer goes back and revises the chosen cover. Once the editorial team approves the cover, it is presented to a larger committee that includes sales and marketing personnel, who then give the final approval for the cover, or send the designer back once again for revisions.

Sometimes this process is very quick and the first design is perfect and few revisions are necessary, while other times the designer goes through 5-6 major revisions before finding a concept that works, and then the designer gets to fiddle with details for weeks.

The author usually gets to see the cover either just before or after the final approval. This is where the agony comes in. Sometimes the cover looks nothing like you expected. At this point, unless the cover is ridiculously off (there's a huge dog on the cover and no dog in the entire book), there's not much to be done and you just have to trust your publisher. Fortunetly, the Buckell experience of glee is much more common.

That's your basic “how covers are made.” One exception to this outline is when the illustrator/designer reads the whole book and works with the author to develop the cover before ever sending it on to editorial/sales/marketing. However, this generally happens when you work with the Stephen King or Margaret Atwood of cover art.

What are your experiences with the cover development process at your publisher? Does anyone have an experience where they hated the cover and then grew to love it?