The song goes by Bo Diddly:

You can’t judge an apple by looking at a tree
You can’t judge honey by looking at the bee
You can’t judge a daughter by looking at the mother
You can’t judge a book by looking at the cover

Well, it appears that the cover of my book is getting noticed.

We really enjoyed the cover of your book, and when we see projects with stand-out artwork, we love to use those images of that project on our website, social media posts, emails, etc., but would need your permission to do so. 
We do have quite a large following on social media. It’s like free publicity! 

Rebecca Rodriguez-Smith BookBaby Publishing

The back story about the cover revealed

The artwork on the cover is from a photograph I took when I first moved to NYC. I used to wander around NYC, pretend I was Cartier Bresson, and look for decisive moments. It was also an excuse to leave the apartment and feel better about my chosen vocation. The photograph on the cover was taken in the East Village section of Manhattan and was born around 1984.

I am currently archiving my thousands of photos and digitizing them.

While writing the book, I imagined what the cover would look like. I saw this frame as I was throwing out old negatives and looking at the small strip of negatives against my desk lamp. I know this will sound crazy, but as I looked at this 35mm negative, a strong impulse ran through me, and that forever voice in my head said “This is the one!” After scanning the negative and seeing the enlarged photo on my computer screen, clarity arrived. This had to be the cover; it has all the elements of the book I want to express. It has the vintage feel of the 1980s: a One-Way Sign, a Telephone booth, and most surprisingly, it has the sign Cleveland Street, which is for real. There is actually a street in NYC named Cleveland. It was perfect!

Even before the book was finished, I started to design the cover and felt more strongly that this book would be published. For those who have never written a book, it is genuinely an Ultra Marathon with many challenges and sometimes a feeling of frustration that you will never finish. Finding this image and creating a first edition of the cover gave me hope that this book was going to be published.

Looking at earlier blogs from Leaving Cleveland, you can see my poor font choices and how the cover eventually morphed into what you see today. Thanks for the design help from Bookbaby.

Just this morning, I received an email from a well-known book cover designer, David High. I reached out to him when I was writing the book, we had worked on an award-winning project together decades ago. I wanted to see if he wanted to design my book cover. I never heard back, so I figured he wasn’t interested. After the book came out, I received an email from him with an apology and said he was interested. OH WELL.

Long story short, I am currently teaching a course at RMCAD to designers about Abobe PhotoShop, and they are working on book cover design. I reached out to David again to see if he would like to Zoom with my class and talk about Book Cover Design. To my surprise he got back to me in a week and said “sure.” and sent the following:

Hi Steve, your book came out GORGEOUS! i love the pinpoint focus on the phone booth combined w/ the motion &  dreaminess of the buildings,  and love the font… i do not think i could have done a better job! What an amazing accomplishment… i am in awe, just in awe. one day i will write my own fictional memoir (or even not so fictional).  I also would love to help with your class in a any way… Sorry for the delay, you caught me during a week i was quietly taking off… i just had two big titles finally get approved (& these things take SO MUCH more work these days, its unbelievable). Next week would be fine to do a zoom… better toward far end (following week would b fine too)

Thank you for thinking about me and the kind words about my work (!) I look forward to hearing back from you and setting something up

David High

Maybe you can’t judge a book by its cover, but first impressions matter like all things consumed.

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