Khaya took to Instagram to let us in on how he decides ton those book covers that always speak to us when we see the books.
He said, "To hell with them, judge a book by its cover. As a visual person, I think what a book looks like is also important.
"It’s strange that I don’t have a physical copy of my first book. I don’t know what happened the only copy I had, that’s why it’s not the line up with the others
"After I wrote my first book, In My Arrogant Opinion, it never occurred to me that I’d write another mostly because I didn’t think it would be successful. I was just happy to have a book. I didn’t care much about what it looked like because it was part of The Youngsters series. I was one of five writers in the series and the books had to have a uniform look.
"I was surprised when I was asked to write my second one, To Quote Myself. When I eventually agreed, the cover was ok (slide three). I didn’t really like it much.
"So when my publisher told me that there would be a second edition, I said we need to have a different cover with a much better and conceptual design. So I held a competition for students to design a cover. The winner would get an iPad mini as a prize from me which the iStore generously agreed to sponsor after I told them my plan.
"The winner was Ayanda Mbanjwa. I loved how clever she was using a single quotation with my face filling it up. It was clean and simple. For These Things Really Do Happen To Me I immediately approached Donovan Goliath because of his clever use of graphic design on his Instagram posts.
"He agreed and designed the most eye-catching cover. It got incredible and universal praise. My one regret is not entering it for the Loeries. For It’s The Answers for Me, I asked Saffron Shaw, a graphic designer I know to work with me. This time, I had an idea and knew what I thought it should be like.
"Saffron took it a step further, cleaned it up, simplified it and made it ten times better. Again, the love the cover is receiving warms my heart. So, if you don’t buy my books to read them, at least buy them for the covers
People clearly love Khaya's books and the creativity he always pours in them. These were some of their reactions:
@tumi_phosa said, "I’m enjoying 'it’s the answer for me' shared some for the questions and answers with my colleagues yesterday they are buying it today... 👏👏 @khayadlanga"
@4jessicadesigns said, "Love your covers...beautiful indeed!!!👏👏👏"
@gugu_nonjinge said, "Need the 3rd book! I’ve read the first 2"
@tshibaby said, "I have read two of your books"
Which Khaya's book cover do you like the most? We loved "These Things Really Do Happen To Me". Read Next: Love Island SA Couple Ties A Knot
