Katie Roden - AKA: Julia

When fixabook was launched, the founders  kept their identities secret in order to give the site time to stand on its own two feet. Now that it has established itself as the foremost blog on design strategy, the moment has come for them to reveal themselves.

Katie has taken part in over 1,000 covers meetings during her twenty years as a publisher – and only remembers a couple where no one got cross.  She has worked on some of the book trade’s biggest brands.

Katie is passionate about the importance of good covers and – most importantly – the way they make the reader feel. She knows how hard it is to get it right when designing by committee… and how easy it is to lose sight of the consumer when every department is clamouring for a say.

Fixabook will help you to get back in touch with your readers and rediscover the art of persuasion.

The Duff

Author: Kody Keplinger
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books

the-duffThis is one of our favourite sorts of jacket — ugly… but very, very effective.

What we love about this cover is the fact that the title is allowed to do all the talking. Very few people are likely to know what it means at first glance, but its brashness forces you to pick up the book and find out more.

The use of a very understated font to spell out the meaning of DUFF is absolutely brilliant, too. It takes the reader from the big, confident statement of the title to a sudden anticlimax and a sense of something shameful, brilliantly mirroring the arc of the story.

The natural image is also really well considered. In a market swamped by Photoshopped partial faces, this makes a refreshing change. Its downbeat style actually gives the book far more shelf presence than many of its stylised — and generic — competitors.


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Posted by: Katie
Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

Feminist Pink

Actually, this is really depressing.

Pink must have seemed like a good idea at the cover meeting for each of these books. “Let’s subvert the Barbie stereotypes…” — that sort of thing.

But put them all together and these covers do nothing new at all. In fact, they make each book look far less important than it actually is — just another title in a rather unimaginative genre.

When even the iconic cover of The Female Eunuch has been recoloured, you know you’re in trouble. No wonder Caitlin Moran has sold more than anyone else — grey is now the most subversive colour in this section.

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Posted by: Katie
Monday, May 7th, 2012

Just My Type

Author: Simon Garfield
Publisher: Profile

just-my-type001By our new Fixabook blogger… Ampleforth

This could have turned out a right mess, but in fact it’s brilliant. It communicates one message — “fonts have stories to tell” — with total clarity, while a secondary message — “… and you care about them” — develops slyly in the background.

From a design point of view, setting each font’s name in … er, itself is both obvious and dangerous. The danger is that the reader’s eye is repelled by visual chaos, but that’s avoided in two ways. Firstly, with a bit of restraint: eight different fonts are used, and that’s plenty when they’re as different as Helvetica and Baskerville. Secondly there’s a really nice, and rare, example of the copy actually helping the design. Because the blurb starts with an unexpected and punchy claim — “Just My Type is a book of stories” — then develops its argument in short, rhythmical steps, you’re drawn to carry on reading. And because you’re reading it, rather than just looking at it, each of the fonts plays its part in the argument rather than just sitting there looking messy.

The blurb’s secondary message is beautifully judged. Your interest has been aroused by the font stories mentioned at the start (why did Obama choose Gotham?) now the blurb reminds you what that interest might mean about you: that you care about fonts. It even cutely allows you not to have quite realised that fact up till now, with “… typefaces became something we realised we all have an opinion about”. The subtext is  “it’s ok, we were surprised too.”

My only gripe with this blurb is with the two promises which close it — that you’ll discover the best and worst font in the world and “what your choice of font says about you”. They’re superfluous. The reader has just been cleverly reminded that they care about fonts, so there’s no need to bolt on more ‘benefits’, for them in such a Cosmo quiz way.

This is a blurb that assumes a bit of sophistication in its audience — it expects some of us to know that Helvetica is ubiquitous and Comic Sans is a joke — but it doesn’t take it for granted that we’ll shell out money for a book about them. It sidles up alongside our mild font-interest and nudges it into £9.99 (before discount) worth of curiosity. No wonder the book is selling.

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Posted by: Katie
Friday, March 30th, 2012

The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs

Author: Christina Hopkinson
Publisher: Hodder

24NovPileOfStuff Bpb.inddAt long, long last… a women’s fiction title that hasn’t resorted to a headless woman, romantic urban purple or any of the other slavishly followed trends in the genre.

Instead, this is a cover that treats its potential readers as intelligent beings with a sense of humour and an eye for good design. And by doing so, it gives itself enormous impact on a crowded shelf.

The designer has, quite rightly, let the title do the talking, as this is what resonates so cleverly with anyone with a family. This allows for a clean and bold approach.

We have two quibbles, though. The first is the girliness of the hand at the top, which suggests loss of nerve about doing something so different. It’s a shame, as to make it more neutral would have given this book One Day-style crossover appeal to both men and women.

We’d also question the need for the strapline here. It does nothing to explain the title and clutters up the design. Again, it feels as though someone at Hodder has had a panic about being too bold - as many publishers seem to do these days, judging by the recent proliferation of straplines on fiction. In this case, the title is absolutely strong enough to carry this book and attract readers on its own.

But overall, this is a big success both on the shelf and online. It’s perfect, too, for getting recognition on the daily commute as it looks so striking and original. Nice work.

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Posted by: Katie
Monday, March 26th, 2012

Stolen Souls

Author: Stuart Neville
Publisher: Harvill Secker

stolen-souls-1-1Straplines… shoutlines… copylines… Whatever we call them, and whatever we use them for, one thing is consistent — the inordinate amount of time, energy and heartache we spend on them.

This is a really neat example of a publisher using a big fat spine to get as much value as possible out of a copyline. The horizontal positioning immediately breaks up the flow and catches the eye. It’s a simple question — “When you are alone, who will protect you?” — but it gives the book an extra hook in addition to the relatively unknown author. It also adds depth and intrigue to the title.

In a genre whose spines are dominated by spooky Shadow Men, this is a refreshing and intelligent approach.

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Posted by: Katie
Friday, March 9th, 2012

The Baroness

Author: Hannah Rothschild
Publisher: Virago

the-baronessAt first glance, you might be surprised we picked this one. It’s very lovely, but rather recessive and understated.

But that’s just why we like it. Historical biography of women is increasingly falling prey to the unstoppable rise of the Headless Woman phenomenon. Not content with decapitating fictional heroines, publishers are increasingly lopping the heads off people who actually existed, from Catherine of Aragon to Effie Gray.

So hats off to Virago for having the courage to do something completely different with this one. Its cool, retro approach, line drawing and flat colour will stand out a mile amongst the velvet-clad, headless horrors on the covers of its competitors.

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Posted by: Katie
Friday, February 24th, 2012

Fish: Recipes from the Sea

Author: Carol-Jane Jackson
Publisher: Phaidon

fish-recipes-from-the-seaIt’s just so refreshing to see a cookery title that is a covetable design object in itself.

By challenging convention, with a simple graphic and a non-glossy finish, Fish immediately stands out in a crowded market.

This stunning cover has turned it from the functional to the desirable — a coffee-table cook book that everyone will want to display as well as use.

Phaidon’s design pedigree is serving it incredibly well in the cookery section. More conventional publishers would do well to learn some lessons from this.

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Posted by: Katie
Monday, February 6th, 2012

The Flame Alphabet

Author: Ben Marcus
Publisher: Knopf

flame-alphabet_0At Fixabook, we usually like to look beyond lovely design and unpick the points of communication on a cover.

But this one is just beautiful. It looks astonishing at actual size.

And, what’s more, it works really well as a thumbnail — the incredibly strong pattern more than compensates for the small typography to give it real shout and an instant identity on a web page.

We have just one complaint, which many of you will have predicted already… We KNOW it’s a novel. You don’t need to tell us.

Losing that totally unnecessary central insert would give the designers a bit more space to up the font size of the title a little, which would only increase the cover’s impact at a small scale.

But it’s a stunner.

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Posted by: Katie
Friday, January 13th, 2012

2011’s Best Cover: Ed

Author: James MacintyreAuthor: Mehdi Hasan
Publisher: Biteback

ed_0It is hugely enjoyable to indulge in the beauty of great book covers and what better excuse than a review of your favourites of the year?

And if you want to immerse yourself in a world of great aesthetic beauty and design then we highly recommend the selection posted by The Casual Optimist.

However that is not what we are trying to do here.…
Our job at Fixabook is to focus more on the cover communication process and its effectiveness. While, of course, great, jaw-dropping design is fundamental to this, we feel it is important to highlight those covers that aren’t just ‘beautiful’ but which can teach us something about tight messaging, overcoming difficult hurdles and quite simply being brave.

Ed is a wonderful example of a bold title, a strong layout and an incredible photographic treatment all coming together as a piece of packaging.

Each feeds into the other and makes the whole much greater than the sum of the parts.

Our only gripe is the totally unnecessary strapline.

Here is what we said about it earlier this year:

We’ve featured some fantastic examples of the use of photography to tell a story in political non-fiction — take a look at A Journey or The Third Man.

This cover, however, takes it to a whole new level. For those who know about the Milibands’ rivalry, this image says everything and tells you immediately that this is not a straight biography of Ed but an analysis of a bitter struggle, hidden behind public displays of unity. This is the story that most people want to read and it’s cleverly communicated by this choice of photo, which would work even without the strapline.

The book’s approach and conclusions, however, are rendered ambiguous by this image. Has Ed emerged triumphant from his brother’s shadow? Or will he be haunted and hampered by David for the rest of his career? Any reader will want to pick this up to find out which angle the authors have taken.

For anyone unfamiliar with the story, this picture is both striking and intriguing. Why, on a biography of a political leader, are there two people featured on the front? There must be more to this than a straightforward political profile.

Striking, communicative and well chosen — the perfect approach to a cover image.


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Posted by: Katie
Monday, December 19th, 2011

The Marriage Plot

Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Publisher: Fourth Estate

the-marriage-plot-1Hardbacks are having a pretty rotten time at the moment, with rapidly diminishing sales and rising cover prices. Publishers have to work harder than ever to make their hardbacks covetable things of beauty that justify the price tag. They need to be stunning and tactile, with beautifully written, compelling text to draw the reader into their world.

How depressing, then, to see this lame excuse for a hardback — and particularly this utter waste of a back cover. Surely, SURELY, the days are gone when a couple of generic quotes were considered enough to make someone spend money on a premium book? Blurbs need to sell, to convince, to enchant. This text does none of those things… and it looks unbelievably boring as well.

Can you think of any other product category in which this sort of thing would be acceptable? This makes us want to weep.

Come ON, publishers — put some proper selling copy on the back of your hardbacks. Build the design around that copy to make it sing. Get us excited by what we see there. Show us that you believe in your book and we might believe in it enough to shell out £20.

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Posted by: Katie
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
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