Should you put your picture on your nonfiction book cover?

If it’s a memoir or you’re a celebrity, yes. Otherwise, no.

Why you shouldn’t put yourself on your book jacket

Your book isn’t about you. If the book jacket is about you, you send the wrong message.

Your book is about how you will solve your audience’s problem. The book title, subtitle, and cover image should communicate the solution to that problem. If it’s about the hidden side of everything, it might have a picture of an apple that’s actually an orange inside. If it’s about global warming, the book jacket should communicate something about a warming planet. If it’s about marketing technology, some sort of technology-related image likely works.

Creating the design is often difficult. A great book designer can make the connection between an abstract idea and an image. (Stephani Finks, design director at Harvard Business Press, is the best I’ve ever seen at this.) If your designer does a great job at this, then the colors, text placement, and images on the cover will suggest the idea and remind readers and buyers of it.

Here are the covers of some books I’ve written, ghostwritten, or coauthored; I think they all do a great job of communicating ideas. (Stephani did the four of these. Can you tell which ones came from the same designer?)

If you see the author’s picture on the cover of a book about ideas, here’s are some possible things it may be telling you:

• The author and the designer ran out of ideas.
• The author thinks their photo communicates something about the content, which it almost certainly doesn’t.
• There are not actually any notable ideas in the book.
• The author has a big ego, or thinks they are attractive.
• The author thinks they are a celebrity, or imagines they are on their way to becoming one.

None of these things tells you anything useful about the ideas in the book. This is a waste of the most valuable space you have to make an impression. It is counterproductive.

You get to have an attractive photo of yourself on the book flap or the back cover. Don’t worry, readers will see what you look like.

Put your vanity aside and get a designer (or work with the publisher’s designer) and figure out how to communicate your idea. It’s worth it.