Books Covered by Tobias

We Love Books Book

Earlier this winter, as I've noted before, four of my covers were included in a book exhibition in Paris which featured designers from all over the world. Today I received my copy of the show's book in the mail. A few thoughts:

First, this was a huge honor. Out of the seven  US designers, I am the only one from outside NY. It is a little funny to read: "États-Unis / New York" for the first six entries and then "États-Unis / Davisburg, Michigan". Not only is it a little funny, but a little daunting. I am totally grateful to the show's curator and directors for including me. To be honest, and I'm not trying to put on some false humility here, I'm not sure why I was asked to be included. The other designers included here are top-notch and for me to be listed next to them is a little embarrassing (Michael Beruit, Paul Sahre for example). And I can think of a dozen other designers who I would included before me if I wasn't me and was the curator (like Henry Sene Yee, Peter Mendelsund, Richard Ljoenes, to name just a few). But, alas, I am totally honored and grateful. I wish I would have sent in some different covers now. I wish I had a few of my newer pieces to include, but nevertheless it is what it is.

One caveat about my biography. It makes me sounds like a pompous wannabe. I am, in my own mind at least, a wannabe to some extent. But, I really don't want to sound like a pompous one. What I submitted was something along these lines: 

"...he has even had the privilege of having some of his covers show up on the New York Times bestseller list...".

 Since the book was published in France it has both the french and english translations. The latter came out this way:

"He produces 100 covers a year, particularly for the New York Times bestsellers."

Ugh. No, not particularly for the New York Times bestsellers. That's the other six US designers and the Art Directors of New York who were featured speakers and participants (Kidd, de Wilde, Gall, Carson). They design bestsellers. I am lucky when that happens. Eesh.

Nevertheless, it is inspirational to see all the great work from all over the world. Amazing, amazing stuff that I am honored to have just a small bit part in.

We Love Books

I mentioned last month that five of my covers had been included in the "We Love Books" Exhibition in Paris. John Gall has posted some pics from the event to Book Cover Archive.

More Happy News

The New York Observer reports major reorganization at Random House. Major shifts in the structure with some top management out. 

Highlights from the article:

• Doubleday's flagship imprint and its Nan A. Talese unit will fall under the command of Sonny Mehta at Knopf.
• Crown will incorporate Broadway, Doubleday Business, Doubleday Religion, and WaterBrook Multnomah, with Crown publisher Jenny Frost presiding over all of them.
• Gina Centrello at Random House group will get Susan Kamil's Dial Press, previously the literary imprint of Bantam Dell, and Spiegel & Grau, the division of Doubleday launched last year and nurtured by Steve Rubin. 

Update: Cuts hit Simon & Schuster and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, too.

Hat tip: Henry

Merry Christmas?

Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt announced Tuesday that the Nashville-based publishing house would be laying-off 55 employees this week. Hyatt said the 10% staff-reduction was purely a result of the recession. This is the second round of layoffs for Thomas Nelson this year.

 Say a prayer for our colleagues. [via]

My Favorite Cover for 2008

... at least off of Joseph's list: Obsession, A History. Design by Isaac Tobin. A simple concept beautifully executed. Nice. (The title was created by thousands of pin holes punched in the paper.)

Other contenders on my list:

• Milk (Design by Barbara de Wilde)
• Violence (Design by Henry Sene Yee)
• The Mayor's Tongue (Design by Gray 318)

Is this available on Amazon?

Michelangelo: La Dotta Man has arrived at the New York Public Library as a gift from the book's publisher. The $100,000 Italian handmade book has a cover of marble and weighs 62 lbs. Twenty copies of the tome have already been sold. Christmas is coming... 

O.C.D.—Obsessive Cover Disorder

Magazine publisher Kenneth Whyte writes an insightful account of his obsessiveness with the cover of his first book, "The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst". Whyte's tale confirms what I have always surmised about the relationship between an author and his cover:

Yet I couldn’t help thinking that I’d spent five years writing The Uncrowned King and that I might never feel up to the chore of writing another book. If this was my one shot, I should do my best to get the cover right, on the assumption that covers are every bit as crucial to books as to magazines. I told myself that my input was important: if I know magazine buyers, I know book buyers—readers are readers.

I also knew, better than anyone else, the story that the cover was supposed to reflect—how in 1895 a wealthy young Californian, William Randolph Hearst, bought a feeble New York daily and engaged Joseph Pulitzer, the undisputed king of American journalism, in the most spectacular newspaper war of all time. By 1898, Hearst had supplanted Pulitzer as the dominant force in New York publishing, and was on his way to becoming one of the most powerful and fascinating private citizens in 20th-century America. It’s a big sprawling story with drama, romance, murder, prizefights, jailbreaks, literary scandals, enormous fortunes, brilliant new technologies, genocidal wars, the most exciting election in American history (with fascinating echoes of the Obama campaign)—and it all raises crucial questions about the role of journalism in our lives. Who, if not me, was going to capture all that in a single cover?

At one point Whyte becomes disgusted with Random House's refusal to listen to his "suggestions", that he stops taking call from the publisher, much to the chagrin of his agent. In the end Random House procedes with their choice for the cover and Whyte concedes. He confesses:

Foiled, chastened, I returned to my endnotes and resolved from that point forward to do with professionalism and good cheer everything asked of me by my editor, and I’m proud to say that some days I did.

Maybe publishers need a bailout, too

According to the NY Times, publishers and book retailers are nervous about the upcoming Christmas shopping season.

Like many businesses across the retail sector, the publishing industry has been hit by a raft of doom and gloom in the past few weeks. Leonard S. Riggio, chairman and largest shareholder of Barnes & Noble, said in an internal memorandum predicting a dreadful holiday shopping season, as first reported in The Wall Street Journal last week, that “never in all my years as a bookseller have I seen a retail climate as poor as the one we are in.”

Sounds like Riggio is not alone in his assessment.

We Love Books

Earlier this year I was invited to submit up to 5 books for an exhibition in Paris. We Love Books: A World Tour will open later this month. The curators have asked 76 designers from around the world to participate. Only seven of the designers showing are from the United States and I am one of them! I really feel humbled and maybe a little out of my league. The other designers featured from the US include Michael Beruit, Paula Scher, and Abbott Miller (all from Pentagram), Doyle Partners, Carin Goldberg, and Paul Sahre. I am the only designer in the US from outside of New York. Many thanks to the curators and director, Philippe Di Folco, Marie-Édith Simonneaux, and Michel Bouvet.

Featured speakers from the US for the show's opening: Carol Devine Carson, Barbara deWilde, John Gall and Chip Kidd

Authonomy

Is this where publishing is headed?
Harper Collins has introduced a social networking site for authors. The gist of it is this: submit your story and let readers decided if it is good or not. The most popular will rise to the top of the list. Harper Collins doesn't promise to publish any of the stories, but "has promised to read the Top 10 every month." [via]