It will be no surprise that, both as a reader and a writer, I am a sucker for book covers. I am a particular fan of Chip Kidd‘s brand of intelligent and beautiful book cover design. His own debut novel, The Cheese Monkeys, is a charming book that is further enhanced by his own design. Rarely has a paperback book felt to me so much like an art object as my copy of The Cheese Monkeys does.

All of which probably explains why I enjoyed this behind the scenes video from Random House,  in which a host of top designers (Chip Kidd included) talking about designing book covers, so much. I love that fact that Chip Kidd talks about reading the book as THE key element of his particular creative process. 

I’m looking forward to seeing the cover design of my forthcoming short fiction collection for the first time. Salt’s books are gorgeous looking things and I can’t wait to see what they come up with for mine.