New Wrox Covers

UPDATED Sept 4: Please see this new post with the final new covers

We’ve really enjoyed the author cover photo discussions over the last few years. Despite programmers telling us it’s what’s in the books that matters most, covers are fun to talk about. But most of the discussions we’ve had about covers have involved the tiny fraction of people who are most passionate about our books - user group leaders, authors, their coworkers, and other “influencers”. We’ve thought with this influencer audience the faces of authors have been a good branding point. Especially iconic authors like Dave Sussman, Alex Homer, Bill Evjen, Scott Guthrie, Scott Hanselman, Ivor Horton, Michael Kay – authors whose faces to this crowd are just as recognizable as (no offense guys) a particular camel or rhinoceros.

But to the bigger audience who don’t travel to tech conferences, don’t follow author blogs or twitters, our author photo covers have become a liability. No good programmer makes their book decision solely on a cover, but if there are 2 good books, why not pick the one with a cover that doesn’t scare you?

In the 6.5 years I’ve been involved with Wrox, I’ve been slow to change things I think are important to Wrox customers. I hope with that in mind, you’ll recognize the amount of work and time we’ve put into the new Wrox cover design here we’re announcing today. I’m including 2 mock books so you can see the general look and feel:

  

Edited: The image on the right is much pinker than the real covers. They will still be "Wrox Red" and consistent, not pink!

You’ll note, I didn’t design these. I’m really happy with the great work that marketing and the designer did with these. Our programmer authors are great authors, now we’re enhancing the great content they write with beautiful new covers. You’ll start to see these new covers on books publishing at the end of September. (Please note it will take a few weeks from now to filter the new designs on affected covers out to wrox.com, wiley.com and other online retailers.)

We’ve also switched to a new whiter, smoother paper. The 2nd printing of Professional ASP.NET MVC 1.0 was the first book to get that, all reprints now get that and all new books as of the end of July are printed on it too. At the same time as the cover design change, we’re changing to a stiffer, more durable cover stock that will stay flatter and won’t curl like the old covers did.

And as always, we’re continuously looking at ways to improve what’s really important to you – what’s between the covers.

If you’re a Wrox author and you’ve got questions about the changes, I hope you’ll contact your acquisitions editor or me. If you’d still like your photos used with the book, authors will have the option of including their photo with their bio in the interior of the book in the “about the author” section. If you’re a fan, customer, or other programmer who found this, we hope you like the changes too.

Comments

[Bill Evjen]

I really like these Jim. Do you have a backcover design you can share with us? Would it be multi-color offerings as you show with the two examples? I like the Wrox decal (black background). The books should include a laptop sticker decal for everyone inside. :)

The images (the man chasing a bus in London and the valve are pretty random --- will there be a theme?

[John Rudy]

As someone who owns and has owned several Wrox books, and assuming this cover design style change is not a joke, may I please ask that you NOT do this?

Assuming the two sample covers show photography reminiscent of what would appear on real books, I have to say that they tell me nothing. They do not make the book more approachable than photos of the authors. Yes, perhaps the author isn't known, yes, most of us aren't on the conference circuit. I'd argue that technical professionals probably DO follow blogs with great detail; at least those who care enough about our technical professions to buy books for continuing self-education.

I'd also argue that it's irrelevant. Comparing a book with the photo designs above to one of the many on the left, neither photos are more or less approachable. While I like the rest of the new cover design, the photography samples leave much to be desired. Personally, I think the author photo branding used in previous Wrox books WAS your identity, and was one of the items that made your titles stand out from a sea of books with abstract, meaningless or simply bizarre cover artwork.

At the end of the day, it won't matter. Those of us technical professionals who buy these books typically do so for the content. We make our publishing house choices based on said content, and past experience. I won't stop buying Wrox books just because you change the cover art, simply because Wrox puts out many of the finest books available.

But seriously. Reconsider the photography piece. What makes one photo more approachable than another? It's not like any of your authors are horribly non-photogenic, and it's not like the photos look like mug shots, so keep the authors there. (Plus, if I were an author, I'd certainly appreciate that kind of attention.)

[Richard York]

Meh. I don't like these at all. I also think that the cover matters less than the content in the book. But it feels like a very radical change. I like the current Wrox brand, because, if anything, it's very consistently presented.

On the other hand, I've never been too fond of my own picture on my own Wrox books, but I accept that because that's what Wrox is I guess.

I like O'Reilly's branding too and I think for the same reason, it's consistent.

I think the photos on these books feel random. There's no theme. I think it's better to have a theme than not to have a theme, whether it's author photos or animals. A theme is very smart marketing, I believe, because it appeals to this obsessive and collective nature of people. You want to collect all of the items associated with a series. It's what drives certain massively popular social networking games like Mafia Wars, for example. Speaking for myself, I'm more compelled to participate in something like that because of that desire to collect.

[Scott Spradlin]

I think Jim's photo should be on the cover of every book. Maybe as the last guy in the lineup -- but on every book. Hands down this one decision will triple sales. Hey, I might even pay money to have his photo there INSTEAD of some of the real authors.

[Bill Evjen]

Yeah - I agree with Mr. York - a theme I would think would be a requirement.

[Scott Hanselman]

Ya, I totally don't like these. And the dude "missing the bus." That's scary.

ASP as "turning the crank?"

Leave the obscure clipart to O'Reilly. Keep the nerds on the cover.

[James Hart]

There is a theme, and I'm going to take a guess that it is: red things. Maybe will take more than a couple of examples for it to be established...

[Scott Cate]

As a Wrox author - I think the you are correct in updating the look/feel of the covers. But ... I think this update could be done with the author pictures, not random photos. Not because I like "my" photo on the cover - but I just think it makes the books more personable.

There is plenty that can be done maintaining the same theme of author photos, while upgrading the look/feel of the covers.

This may be hard to swallow since you've already invested time in the covers. On the right track with the update, but I think it's leaving your brand behind.

My $0.02

[Bill Evjen]

I do have to say that I think the author photos did bring a personal feel to the books - that the saying 'Programmer to Programmer' was actually true. The photos you have are bad examples - true. The color schemes are nice and vibrant. The gradients are nice as well in the photo transitions, coloring. I like the honeycomb on the red one (should put it on the white one as well).

If you go with something like this - why not create a smaller version of the author pictures on the back cover with a gradient down to a red background with the text. That might be quite nice.

If you keep the author photos (which I lean towards quite a bit more than these photos), use the same look and feel you have there - but replace that photos with the author set of photos.

Though I have to agree that some of these photos are scary - http://s40.radikal.ru/i090/0810/5b/41625998f149.jpg. Some of these photos actually might hurt sales - http://delpiccolo.com/wp-content/themes/glossyblue-1-4/images/ProK2Cover.png.

[Shelley]

So MUCH better than the mug shots. Hip, fresh, active -- I think its a significant improvement. Very nice.

[Shelley]

PS I read the other comments, and there are good points. A general theme for the images would be good. I like the black and white and then picking out a single item for bright coloring is good. But the black and white images probably need some kind of consistent theme running through them. Something that carries over to the spine, when the books are organized on a shelf with only the spine showing.

Then you can put the authors photo in the back. How large you make the picture can depend on how scary the person or people are...

(PS "Obscure clipart to O'Reilly" Hey, Scott! I resemble that ;-) )

[Jim Minatel]

Thanks for all the feedback. Keep it coming. I'm not going to comment on any of the feedback yet. I want to see as many raw reactions as possible before I jump in. Thanks. And thanks for caring enough to comment!

[Peter Lanoie]

Like several others who commented, I am in favor of sticking with the author photos while updating the overall format of the cover design. Most other technical books have random and seemingly meaningless pictures that have nothing to due with the technology. A boring picture of Internet Explorer for an ASP.NET book or a simple 'Hello world!' desktop screenshot for a winforms book would at least be relevant if not visually exciting. Like @shanselman said, "Keep the nerds on the cover" to help reinforce the "programmer to programmer" theme. But perhaps the covers can be made a bit prettier while keeping the headshots.

[Scott Spradlin]

For crying out loud, who in their right mind (except me) judges a book by it's cover? :)

I think there's some value in occasionally taking a look at rebranding. Especially if you're trying to reach a new segment of the market. Maybe something like this would be good for beginner books or a 100 level? However, for us old guys that know the crowd, we actually do trust the contents a little better when we see someone we know on the cover. If Hanselman or Evjen are smiling at me on the cover, I don't even have to read the reviews to know it's good stuff.

The old red with mugshots might be dated but it's what we've grown to know and love. I vote against change. (Wow, I do sound like one of those outdated old guys.)

[Jay Glynn]

I never liked having my mug on the cover. Always felt a little creepy for some reason. Perhaps the answer would be new style on the front cover, but the mugshots on the back or inside.

[Ryan]

Please keep the current style. I really do not like this new concept at all. I prefer to see the pictures of the authors on the front.

[Travis Illig]

I like the fresher feel of the little header line at the top with the Wrox logo. I also like the more dynamic feel that the curve of the bottom half provides and the typeface with the serif.

That said, I've never really understood the random photos that get stuck on the front of tech books. There's that engraved look O'Reilly's got going where you have to look up an explanation in the back or whatever, and while there's a theme going, I'm not sure it makes sense when you have to look up what the picture means in the back. If I have to look it up... well, it's like having to explain a joke after you've told it. (I guess it also leaves things open to interpretation. The guy on the XHTML book - he missed the bus? Did readers of the book also miss the bus? Not what the intent is, I'm sure, but something to consider.)

On the other hand, the authors' pictures always made sense - I don't wonder what they mean or what they're doing on the cover.

I wonder if some of the new design might be used along with the author pictures. Or maybe some other way to incorporate the "mug shots" with the new look. Maybe highlight bits of the mug shots in red. I mean, ScottGu's polo on the front of the MVC book should have, by all rights, been just as Wrox-red as the rest of the cover.

(OK, I just now scanned through the other comments and it looks like I wasn't the only one to pick up on the "missing the bus" bit. Glad to know it's not just me.)

[Sierra Inman]

Personally, I like something a little more updated than the block-y boring covers with author pics (used to seeing them behind a display/monitor not out in front). But, if the author's want to be out in front and personal, please don't make me yawn, update it and excite me to inquire within. Thank you.

[Rob Sutherland]

I like the idea of an update. I even like the covers presented above. Not sure that it is the right approach though. They do look more appealing than a low contrast poorly clipped portrait.

I think the time and money could be spent in getting better pictures of the authors. I really hate the fact that on some of the group shots the lighting is different on each of the faces. And sometimes the mask that clips the authors out is, uh, just kinda sloppy. I've done enough design to know that clipping masks are hard and getting 4 shots in 4 different locations by 4 different photographers of 4 different people is a task in itself.

I do like the updated look of the above covers. the pattern in the red and the curve instead of the straight edge.

The lighter top edge where the Wrox logo appears.

The mention of a nicer, whiter, smoother paper for the inside is perhaps the best news.

The author shots eliminate the need of a concept shot. A concept shot on a programming book is rather difficult. But heck, if you're a Web developer and don't know XHTML, CSS and JavaScript you have kinda missed the bus already.

[David Brown]

I think Bill Evjen brought up the best argument, in my opinion. Having the author on the cover really did a great job of conveying the "Programmer to Programmer" theme. If I'm browsing through a bookstore and see someone on the cover of a book that I know from a blog that I read or something, I'm definitely more likely to consider it over another book about the exact same subject. Of course, it wouldn't be the deciding factor, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.

Overall, the cover designs are very nice and modern. But even a nicely-styled book with a picture of a bus or a crank on the front is not going to grab my attention.

[Randy Drisgill]

As a Wrox author myself, I was never a fan of having my ugly mug on the cover of a book. I've heard stories of other book author photos actually scaring readers. So I think maybe having geeky guys on covers is not a great idea (think about the Head First Design Patterns book for the opposite example). I like the idea of a cover refresh, and love the idea of whiter paper and stiffer covers. But, I must agree with everyone else, the stock photos in question are not very inspiring. They don't say anything about the topic of the book AND they don't portray things that are exciting or interesting. Perhaps these are just mock up examples with random photos? The old covers certainly drove home the point of developer to developer, so I hope the new covers also make a statement. Also, I hope the new books are still really easy to spot on the shelf, that was one great thing about the old covers.

[Jeff Rafter]

Hey Jim, just an aside: for me the images in the feed were oddly the negative (photographically) of the images on your site. Not sure if anyone else is seeing that, but the covers here look way better than in the feed! :)

[JohnVPetersen]

I have never spent much time contemplating this topic. I remember when the author pics were added to the cover. I thought...that's original. From a marketing perspective, it tends to humanize things a bit. And as many have said, it's what's on the inside that counts. If you start from that premise and the apparent feeling that what's in place now works, doesn't Wrox/Wiley have more important things to spend $ on?

My suggestion is to keep the author pics and keep the covers as-is.

[Lee Dumond]

Keep the author photos. Just ditch the boring white-background pretty-boy glamour shots.

How about pics of the authors that incorporate a little more visual interest? Walking in the park, sitting on a motorcycle, climbing a mountain, fishing on their boat, hitting the links... even sitting in their office?

Show the author *doing* something, or in some kind of interesting visual context. (Almost every author has an outside interest or hobby.) That would be the best of both worlds -- it would keep the personal touch Wrox is so well known for, yet add more variety and interest.

I don't see the benefit of slapping some esoterically random stock photo on the cover. That's what almost every other publisher does.

I understand this would involve a little more effort and imagination, but I think the results would be well worth it.

[Cassandra]

Arrggh! Don't do it.

The author photos at least relate to the content of the book. I can associate the content with a real human person. I have purchased a half-dozen or more WROX books and I've never been "scared" by the photos. I'm not sure how your "author photo covers have become a liability" unless you think the authors look repugnant. Some of them look like geeks to me, but since I’m buying a geek book that is not a deterent to me.

The new cover art has absolutely nothing to do with the content of the book. They are just arbitrary photos that appealed to the artistic flair of some graphic designer that probably doesn't know a blasted thing about programming. The problem is graphic designers have a compulsion to fill the "starkness" of the book cover much like so many women have a compulsion to fill the functional areas of a bathroom with non-functional decorations. Towel racks are filled with decorative towels not to be used; vanities are covered with containers of mysterious substances, potpourri, and dishes of decorative soap also not to be used. All the useful space is consumed with non-value-add items. These new photos are consuming half your book cover! I see a man who missed his bus and if I buy that book, I'll miss my bus (i.e., my project will fail). I see an obsolete industrial valve that is probably rusted shut. What a struggle it will be learn from that book!

So you might ask, "OK, Mr. Smarty-pants, what graphic would you put on a programming book?" That is a very, very good question. I have absolutely no idea what visual graphic could be used to represent the abstract principles of programming. So what conclusion can we gather from that? Perhaps you shouldn't try to use a visual graphic if your author photos are no longer desired. Instead, use abstract representations (words!) on your cover to sell us on the content of the book. The greatest selling book—
ever—is typically sold with a stark, sober cover with only two words "Holy Bible" sometimes in gold leaf. Yet people buy millions of copies every year.

The next time a graphic designer comes into your office with a pretty graphic, smile and congratulate them on the fine work and tell them you're going to tape it up on the refrigerator door in the employee lounge so that the whole office will know how proud you are. But, please, don't put it on the cover of your book.

I do have one suggestion for the improvement of your larger books. Some of them are so thick that they are just unwieldy to hold and read. I finally got exasperated with one and cut it in half (vertically, not horizontally) and taped some manila folder material on the resulting halves as a makeshift cover. Now, I don't really want you to reduce the amount of material and publishing them in two volumes is probably not desirable for distribution purposes. However, you could bind into the book some cover material so that when I cut the next one in half, there is already a cover in place. In fact, repeating the remaining table of contents after the second cover would be optimal.

Keep up the good work; don't spoil it with arbitrary graphics.