In an article published today on mediabistro.com, Rachel Kramer Bussel discusses the complex dance that author and designer enter into when it comes time to devise a book's cover. Case in point: Sloane Crosley's briskly selling essay collection (and potential future HBO series) I Was Told There'd Be Cake. Says Crosley:

"When we started thinking about covers, my one big fear was, do not put the title in icing. No smudged icing, no icing on a kid's face, just no icing." Of the cover image of a blue mattress with white text superimposed, she says, "It's a very risky choice but I would rather have that than some body parts or some icing or what happens when an author objects 11 times and you hit a compromise and have something that doesn't anger anybody; that doesn't always make for the best cover."

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