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.