Hello there,

I'm a graphic designer who has been in the industry for 4 years, and have learned that I love to design and lay out large documents. I'm interested to learn if a job exists where this is the main task.

In my short experience, it seems like all design and print companies have their designers do a large variety of jobs — logos, packaging, brochures, banners, etc. But are there any that specialize in books? For example, do publishing houses have in-house designers, or do the jobs get contracted out?

As a book lover and big fan of InDesign, I'd be grateful for any insight you folks have.

Post edited 10:21 am – June 16, 2011 by scottcitron
Post edited 10:22 am – June 16, 2011 by scottcitron

Hi Jenna:

Depending on the vicisitudes of the economy, I often wonder if there is a job as Book Designer. But seriously, as a book designer myself I can testify that such a job does in fact exist. In fact, in large-scale publishing book designers tend to be divided into two camps; those who specialize in covers only and those who do interiors (the guts of the book) only. I belong to a third odd-ball category, those who mostly do both. Ultimately, book designers tend to do what it is they're hired to do.

As David said in his post above, few designers start their careers doing only books. In my case, I spent a lot of time designing everything from flyers to posters to newsletters before I ever got a crack at doing a book. I also worked part-time for a boutique publisher in New York where I got to observe other professional designers, which was of great help. Of course, these were in the QuarkXPress days, well before InDesign took over the field.

One only needs browse the racks of any bookstore to see that some of the best graphic design done today is by book designers. Despite the hard work and not-so-decent pay, the rewards of seeing your efforts at your local Barnes & Noble or on Amazon.com somehow make it worth the sacrifice.

Scott

PS: Check the June/July issue of InDesign Magazine for my cover story about the basics of book design.

Hi Jenna

It's true that many designer's get into book design after working in other areas of design for a while, but there's no prescribed path as such. Publishing houses tend to have one or two art directors and a relatively small team of in-house designers but the bulk of design work is usually put out to freelancers. It's a bit of a myth that art directors in publishing will only give work to freelancers who have previous book design experience. If you have work in your portfolio that reflects your abilities to handle large volumes of images and text (but not a book as such) that will help, but a good art director will see any potentential regardless of the types of project. In the first instance, if you're keen to work in book design try contacting a rage of illustrated book publishers with examples of your work.

If you do secure a project from an illustrated book publisher it's likely that it'll be a presentation (referred to as a blad in the industry) to begin with. Practically all illustrated books begin their lives in this way, particularly if they're being published as a co-edition with a US plus a UK/Australian/Translated edition. It's a good way for art directors to test the water with designers new to book publishing as it's only a commitment to a few spreads and cover concepts, rather than a complete book. If the presentation goes well it's normal (and considered polite practice) for the designer to be offered the complete book layout.

As Scott mentioned above, it's hard and challenging work and the level of remuneration isn't as high as other areas of design, but it's incredibly rewarding. Good luck with it.

Tony

Hi Jenna,

And welcome to the world of book design! I got my first job out of college as an in-house designer with a publishing house, and have now had about 18 years in that career. I can confirm a lot of what is said above, it can be slogging work and it doesn't pay as well as other areas of design but it is definitely a legitimate speciality, just like magazine design, corporate design etc. And in my opinion book publishers can be quite accepting of designers who don't necessarily have book experience. So I would just start contacting publishers in your area with your portfolio and your dream The great thing too is that if you freelance (as I do now) you can work globally. Having experience and contacts behind me, though I am based in Sydney, Aust, I work for publishers in the States and Europe. I have worked mostly on non fiction, especially cooking, craft, gardening, reference, travel etc. In this type of publishing I have almost always been exclusively responsible for the entire project, including art directing photo shoots and sometimes styling. But my small amount of experience with fiction publishing houses has been as described above – I have been brought in just to do covers and typesetters have done the internals. Not in illustrated publishing though, it's all yours. I find the industry goes in cycles, along with the economy. There'll be a few years where publishers go back to a small in house team and contract out the overflow, then you'll find in house teams are cut back and everything is going to freelancers. I would say that if you really have a passion for this area, do try for an in house position simply because you'll learn more. That doesn't have to be a full-time position, some publishers like freelancers to come and work in house for the period of a contracted project, or at least partly, and that would be a good option.

As I said, I now freelance and have been for quite a few years now. The majority of my clients are still publishers but I have had to work hard to crack some other areas of design to cover the short fall as publishing isn't just cyclic with the state of the economy ( and this can mean a down turn because parent companies are in other countries where the economic climate is different to where you are employed, like any other industry) it is also cyclic in terms of the big Book Fairs that are held internationally each year. This is where publishers sell their wares within the industry. These can mean a flurry of concepting activity before the Fairs and either lots of work if titles are bought or a dearth if few are bought. A couple of years ago, very few Australian publishers made it to the Frankfurt Fair because of the Icelandic volcano grounding flights. This meant a real hole in the industry which was definitely felt by we designers.

So I guess I'm saying – Yes! It's a bigger industry than you might think! Go shop around publishers, it shouldn't be hard for a competent designer to crack in. But bear in mind that unless you're in house it'll be hard to make ends meet all the time through publishing alone, so keep fingers in other pies!

Good luck