How I Designed the Cover of My Self-Published Book

Advice from a TV writer/author

You can’t judge a book by it’s cover, right?

Of course you can. That’s just something an author with a shitty book cover would say.

My self-published book, A Paper Orchestra, was just named one of Vulture’s “Best Comedy Books of 2024.” This is how I made the cover.

Coming up with ideas

Even as I was still writing my book, I began studying the covers of comparable books in my genre. I was inspired to write my book because of David Sedaris. I’ve long enjoyed his work, and I wanted to write my version of what he does. Augusten Burroughs is another terrific author in this genre. If you enjoy either of them, you’ll probably love A Paper Orchestra.

Here are a few of their covers:

I love all these covers for a variety of reasons, but mostly for their sense of irony. A great book cover doesn’t literally depict the title. That would be redundant. Instead, it adds to the conversation.

For example, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim doesn’t literally show a family getting dressed in corduroy and denim. Instead, it shows almost the opposite — an undressed doll.

Naked also depicts almost the opposite — someone dressed.

Similarly, Dry shows something wet.

The problem with my title

I loved the title of my book, A Paper Orchestra, because of what it evokes. Orchestras are many instruments working together to create something greater. That was my intention with this collection: many short stories working together to create something greater... but on paper.

But my title doesn’t easily lend itself to a cover. Despite having “orchestra” in the title, I didn’t want any musical references on it, because it’s not a book about music.

Finding a cover designer

Because tonally my book is similar to David Sedaris’ books, the first thing I did was research his cover designers. If they understood this writing, they’d understand mine.

One of his covers was designed by a man name Steve Snider. I reached out to him on Instagram and told him what I was doing. I figured he’d be out of my league, but maybe he could recommend someone.

Steve asked to read my manuscript, and a week later he wrote back to me saying how much he loved it. He was now retired, but said he’d come out of retirement just to design my book cover. That’s how much he loved it.

Because my book was self-published, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to afford him, but he offered to design it for free because he wanted A Paper Orchestra to be his last book. What a tremendous honor!

In the end, Steve had to bow out for personal reasons, but there’s a lesson here: if you want greatly talented people to get on our board with your project, it really helps to have a well written book or script.

Steve did refer me to one of his former co-workers, a very talented cover designer named Jenny Carrow. (She shares her work on Instagram under the handle @jennycarrow_covers.)

Jenny came up with several concepts. One in particular caught my eye. It featured a piece of art by a Dutch artist named Toon Joosen that she was going to license. The artwork was close, but not quite right for my book.

A few days later, I was reading an article about art. Incredibly, the same exact piece of art was featured in the article. It was like the Universe was talking to me!

I went to Toon’s website to check out some of his other artwork and immediately fell in love with a different piece of his: this one below.

We licensed the artwork from him, and Jenny turned it into this.

It was Jenny’s great idea to make the title and tagline cut outs as well, which really pulls it all together.

What I love about my cover is that it’s creative, playful, and thoughtful. It completely describes the tone of my book, without literally describing it. In other words, it says it without saying it.

Self doubt crept in

Weirdly, as I pushed towards publication date, I began to second guess my decisions.

Part of the appeal of self-publishing is that I got to make all the creative decisions. (Including cover design and title.) Traditional publishing takes many of those decisions away from the author because publishers want to protect their investment. And that’s fair.

Because I’m already a professional writer, this project was never about the money. It was about creating art.

But like every author, I also wanted my book to be a best seller.

Once again, I studied the covers of some New York Times Bestsellers. Check out the ones below.

They all look alike, don’t they?

And the titles are also very similar. I’m not knocking any of these authors. Writing a New York Times Bestseller is a giant achievement. Good for them!

And maybe these covers helped make them a bestseller. It’s entirely possible that traditional publishers know what they’re doing.

Several professionals in traditional publishing cautioned me against using my title. Without explanation, it’s hard to know what A Paper Orchestra means. Because I was a sitcom writer, they suggested having a title that leaned into that. Something horribly goofy, like “The Hollywood Adventures of Michael Jamin.”

There was also talk of putting a photo of me on the cover, which I was 100% opposed to. Even though it’s a memoir, the book is NOT about me!

It’s about finding meaning in life’s smallest moments — moments we all share.

So I agonized over this decision. Maybe A Paper Orchestra doesn’t sound wacky enough. Should I change it to fit in with the proven winners?

I had a long conversation with grown daughter about this, and she gave me some terrific advice. She said:

Papa, we don’t know which version of your book would sell more copies. The only thing we have is the present. Which book would you rather hold in your hands right now?

It was such a smart thing to say.

One version was my baby. The other, I didn’t even want to touch.

Supporting other artists

Shortly after publication, I reached out to Toon and asked his permission to put his design on merch. (Posters, T-shirt, mugs, etc)

He said that as long as his artwork includes the book title, then the license fee I purchased from him included merchandise.

I paid him extra money anyway.

Why? Because I think it’s important that artists support other artists… even when you don’t have to.

Hope this helps!