I've been working on some new chap designs this weekend and thinking about the backside of books and how sometimes they are just as important in engaging readers as the front...be it blurbs, or design elements, or even author photos. I tend to go simpler with chapbook designs. It sort of depends on what is happening on the front. If an author has a piece of artwork in mind and it's not a wraparound design, I will usually just pick a color in the existing artwork and leave it blank unless they have some short blurbs (recently we opted for a sample poem instead.) Sometimes, the author will be working with a designer they know and they'll create a beautiful full spread that all I have to do is adjust little formatting things and add a press logo (which is actually just text).
Where things get more interesting is the covers I make from scratch based on author direction. These I will always plan as full spreads, which is what I usually do for my own projects. I opted just to grab some graphic elements from the front collages on COLLAPSOLOGIES as you can see a couple posts back, but left things a little simpler. In the past, I've integrated other graphics I decided not to use on the front (AUTOMAGIC) or even other collages that were part of a series (ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MONSTER). My favorite, however, may be DARK COUNTRY, where I wrapped the public domain image of a deer mount, which contains a kind of sinister reflection of a man in a glass frame just leaning there. I didn't even notice it at first, but was thrilled when I was laying it out and saw it.
Usually the covers for the full-lengths (and the journals I recently printed for the shop) have a rather unsightly barcode (even without an ISBN--B&N puts a product barcode on the back of things) But I've gotten good at working my designs around where it will be. Blurbs are nice, but I am so damned awkward about asking for them,, and even though my blurbers were awesome, it was one of the things I hated most about the books I traditionally published. (it's also crazy since I love writing blurbs for other people, but feel like I am imposing on others --#introverthang...lol..) A couple of presses forwent them entirely..thank god,, and one (Sundress) actually kindly rounded them up FOR me.) I think the only book with my author bio & p[ic on the back was my first--the weird bathroom selfie I took with a digital camera way back in 2005. I'm pretty sure I am wearing a slip and have strange streaked highlights everyone thought was cool in 2005. in other words--weirdly appropo for that book.).
For chap designs, it's a bit easier, since the spine is thin. So designing all one file as a wrap-around is easy to do from the beginning stages. I usually use either MS Publisher or Word augmented by other (mostly free) image sites to get what I want.(there were some brief periods of InDesign and Photoshop usage when CCC footed the bill for it, but I've found lots of places I can get the same effects for much cheaper or even free.) So I'm starting with a standard-size sheet of cardstock from the beginning as the template, which works well with a little allowance for where I'll be trimming the white from around the edges).
Some recent examples:
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