Q&A with Julie Metz, author of Perfection discussion

Before I wrote this book, I was primarily a book cover designer. I designed the cover for the hardcover edition. I recently attended the Empire State Book Festival and sat on two panels, as an author and a cover designer. I welcome any questions about book cover design, how it has changed over the years and how covers affect how books are seen in the marketplace.

How do you get a job as a book cover designer? It sounds like a hugely interesting career.

Full disclosure: both my parents worked in publishing so my first summer job as a college kid was in an art department where I began to learn the ropes. Then I thought I'd run away from "the family business" and do something completely different (lawyer?) but in the end I got the book fever in my senior year in a typography class. When I returned to New York City after college I took classes at The School of Visual Arts and worked at lowly jobs as a paste up artist--this was before computers changed everything. I landed a job at Harper & Row (now HarperCollins) in the mid-eighties and after four years I left to become a freelancer. These days, most designers come out of art school where you get complete training in typography and computer software.