Book Cover

Thank you for all the feedback on my upcoming book release! I am very happy about the interest. Thank you also for the positive feedback on the cover. Yes, the cover was designed according to my ideas😊. 

I actually started by finding out how other authors design their covers on this topic. And since it was not a purely academic book this time, I was able to let off a little more steam with the cover. With my dissertation, I had no choice at all because that was what the publisher had specified at the time. My dissertation was published in a series edited by a professor who decided what my book should look like. In Germany, academic books are always very boring anyway, so I did not complain about that. Besides, it was my first book, I had no idea and did not feel particularly qualified to say anything about book design. That is why my dissertation looks the way it does: boring, not very appealing and typically academic.

And this despite the fact that I had to pay 3330 EURO to publish it. This is common practice in Germany - doctoral candidates, who are already short of money, have to pay for their publication themselves. Without the publication, the procedure would not be completed and you would not be allowed to use the title. In other words, you have to publish. Of course, publishers exploit this mercilessly. In addition, the University of Hamburg did not and does not provide any subsidies for printing costs, so I had to pay for everything. Fortunately, I was able to apply for a grant from a foundation and they recognized my work as worthy of support. I therefore received 3,000 Euros from the foundation. The remaining 300 Euros were covered by my private supporter 😉. So, I would never have been able to complete the promotion project on my own and all my work would have been in vain.

But now back to my current cover! I looked at my colleagues' books and researched covers. Many books on my subject area are either totally academic (boring!) or confusing because they use photos and different fonts that are barely legible.

The book I liked best was one that was designed in black and white with large font and black bars. It was easy to read and understand, not intrusive and also sober and clear. Exactly how I imagined it. I still had to think about how to implement the idea in relation to my specific content, because in my first attempt I thought a Star of David on the cover might be a good idea. I wanted to create a direct link to the theme. This design looked okay, but it conveyed completely the wrong message. The book is not about historical events or a specific label. It is about how Holocaust education can continue and be used to fight hate. Without any image motif, the cover would have been too bare (too academic) and the black bars I had in mind would have created the impression of limitation. I do not want to lock up my thoughts, ideas or my name!

That is why I chose the barbed wire. Incidentally, this is called NATO wire, S-wire, Z-wire, Klingendraht or Bandstacheldraht, officially Widerhakensperrdraht in the Bundeswehr - another lesson learned. Since NATO was of course only founded after 1945 (namely in 1949), the question arose as to whether this barbed wire should still be on the cover. The answer was yes, because this type of barbed wire had already been in use since the First World War (1914-1918). Back then it was just called ribbon barbed wire.

The back consists of 2 texts from colleagues who sent them to me. They had to be formatted and shortened by me. The other text on the backside is mine and provides information about the content and me as the author. The back cover was proofread at least three times by two different native speakers. Then I sent it to the two colleagues again and obtained their final approval. Finally, the space for the ISBN and the barcode was included. The spine itself is inverted. I really like this because the same element can already be found on the back of the book. Incidentally, the fonts are adapted to my website layout or are partially identical. This also makes it visually clear that this is a book by me. When everything was ready, the version went to the publisher. The feedback came promptly:

I would recommend that you do not use a contrasting spine. This means designing the cover in one way or another so that the spine does not stand out in color from the rest of the cover. Small shifts in the spine or variations in the size of the book would otherwise be very noticeable and look unattractive. With your cover, for example, I could imagine intentionally letting the color of the spine protrude 1 or 2 centimeters on both sides of the front and back. Otherwise, the spine could be left completely white. 

For similar reasons, I would make sure that the text on the spine doesn't stick out too close to the edge of the spine, so that slight shifts don't cause the text to stick out onto the front or back. 

What format would you like for your book? I would recommend that you print out the back cover in real size and check that the text on the left is not too small to read.

Ok, so everything went back to the graphic designer. The publisher's suggestions were implemented and everything was put back together nicely. In the meantime, I had made a printout that was roughly the same size as the finished book and realized that everything would be legible and we could leave the font size as it was.

So, the cover was finished. The last step now is to adjust the correct size. This means that the thickness of the book, the exact number of pages, naturally influences the dimensions of the spine. This is the very last step before printing.

So much for my information on the subject of covers. As you can see: Publishing a book means so much more work than just writing a book! And that is exactly why I am so glad that the cover has already been so well received😊.

By the way... as part of my research into book publishing and marketing, I came across the following review of my Geography book:

For those who are not proficient in German:

Top rating from Germany, 5 stars, “Nice ideas for a varied lesson. Definitely an asset for every geography lesson”. 

Thank you very much for the great rating! I am delighted.