How important is a light novel cover?The cover is a book’s face and its most eye-catching key visual. In an era that values instant impressions, it may even make illustrators more sought-after than novelists. But Utsudo reminds us that a book — from writing and revision to contracts, layout and hitting the shelves — carries the efforts of many people, including authors, editors and illustrators.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

The light novel cover is a book’s face

　　With a printed light novel, the moment a work is put out there, the cover is what most easily catches the eye.

　　Of course, a book’s physical marketing also includes the title, author, promotional band and synopsis, but personally I think the most striking is still the key visual — a gorgeous cover always makes me pick up the book.

　　Covers are mainly coordinated and drawn by editors, authors, illustrators and others, but I’ve also had covers completed without my involvement at all. Honestly that’s nice too — I don’t have to dig through images or find reference material. Not being involved is a bit of a pity, but when I’m busy it’s a huge help.

Who’s more sought-after — illustrators or novelists?

　　Someone once asked me: “In the light novel world, is it better to be an illustrator or a novelist?”

　　In this era that values efficiency and instant impressions, the answer should be obvious… and in some situations, the illustrator’s fee may even exceed the novelist’s royalties (?

　　I remember something that happened before. The publisher asked if I had any illustrators to recommend, so I recommended one whose work I’d come across online. The publisher talked with them, confirmed their schedule was OK, and hired them.

　　Though it was this illustrator’s first time working with a publisher, they seemed fairly well known in the doujin and art scene. I thought, since I rarely get to work with an illustrator I recommended, I’d go be neighborly — and then I saw the fans’ comments under the cover they posted —

　　“Wow! A legend! Bow down to the god!”

　　“Finally breaking into the novel world!”

　　“Buy the cover, get the novel free~”

　　When I saw the third one, I immediately dropped the idea of commenting XD

　　Otherwise, if I ignored those comments and left one, I might be called shameless (covers face

How readers choose a book

　　Seeing comments like that got me a bit down, but thinking it over — before I became a novelist, if I didn’t know the author and the publisher hadn’t promoted it heavily, with a whole row of books showing only their spines, if a title caught my eye and I picked it up, the first thing I’d look at is the cover, then the synopsis on the back, then back to the cover XD

　　If the cover really suited my taste and the story interested me, I’d hold it and look it over for a long time (since my allowance wasn’t much), and only then go to checkout.

　　Since I was still evaluating the content, it doesn’t quite count as buying the cover. But I have to say, the cover is indispensable to a book’s first impression. You could call it the book’s face — it definitely adds points.

A book carries the dreams of many people

　　Yet a complete novel goes through a long period of the author incubating and writing it, revising and polishing again and again, submitting it to a publisher, getting signed, then a series of processing, typesetting and proofreading, plus finding an illustrator to bring the characters or scenes to life and capture the work’s atmosphere — then it’s bound, released, finally put on shelves, and chosen by readers.

　　The book in your hands carries the hopes and dreams of many people.

　　Of course I don’t blame them — they only know the cover’s creator. I just hope that when people realize a finished book is the result of everyone’s hard work, a little more respect might change how they see the book in their hands.

　　Even if it doesn’t sell, the light of this creation, however faint, is moving.

FAQ

Further reading (in Chinese)

• Previous: #93 (in Chinese)
• Next: #95 (in Chinese)
• Start from the beginning: #01 — Utsudo’s debut
• Column introduction
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.

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