Carlos Esparza

Carlos Esparza – Designer

Award-winning Book cover designer with experience on 100s of titles, including many national bestsellers

Overview

I've worked in-house at 3 of the biggest publishers in the country, and designed for many more beyond that, including national best-selling books and titles for celebrities/household names. I love exploring and learning and solving puzzles in collaboration, I look forward to learning about you and your project, and solving the puzzle that is your cover design!

Services
Fiction
Classics Historical Fiction Humor & Comedy Literary Fiction Short Story
Non-Fiction
Economics History Music Psychology Self-Help & Self-Improvement
Languages
English
Awards
  • LitHub—The 11 Best Book Covers of November (2021)
  • LitHub—The 13 Best Book Covers of August (2020)
  • Paste Magazine—The Best Book Covers of January (2020)
  • Casual Optimist—Book Covers of Notes, May (2023)

Work experience

1517 Media

Oct, 2022 — Present

Manage production and design of 70 titles a year.

Callisto Media

Sep, 2019 — Jul, 2022 (almost 3 years)

Manage production and design for 60 titles a year, in categories ranging from children's activity books to cookbooks and self-help.

Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers

Feb, 2016 — Nov, 2017 (over 1 year)

Design 15 covers a year for large-format illustrated titles.

Hachette Book Group

Oct, 2015 — Oct, 2018 (about 3 years)

Design 25 covers a year for titles ranging from memoir to narrative non-fiction

Random House, W. W. Norton, Hachette Books, Graywolf Press, Coffee House Press, Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers

Jun, 2012 — Present

Portfolio

New York Times Story of the Yankees: 1903-Present: 390 Articles, Profiles & Essays

The New York Times

There has never been a team like the New York Yankees. No team has won as many World Series titles. No team has hit as many home runs. No team has had as many great superstars playing for them: Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Berra, Ford, Rivera, and Jeter to ... read more
RISK!: True Stories People Never Thought They'd Dare to Share

A diverse collection of uncensored, confessional, and at times outrageously funny essays about coming of age, coming out, and the wildest experiences that define us.Collecting the most celebrated stories from the hit podcast RISK!, along with all-new true tale... read more
Secrets of the Butcher: How to Select, Cut, Prepare, and Cook Every Type of Meat

Arthur Le Caisne

This modern manual for the meat lover reveals the best-kept secrets of the world's best breeders and butchers along with the latest culinary and scientific research on how to select, butcher, prepare, and cook every kind of meat including beef, pork, lamb, pou... read more
This Is Day One: A Practical Guide to Leadership That Matters

Drew Dudley

Based on his TEDx talk "Everyday Leadership (the Lollipop Moment)"--voted one of the 15 most inspirational TED talks of all time--This Is Day One is leadership expert Drew Dudley's guide to cultivating the behaviors that will help you to succeed and empower th... read more
Fearless: How an Underdog Becomes a Champion

Doug Pederson

How does an underdog become a champion? One of the most innovative, gutsy, and dynamic head coaches in the NFL reveals the strategies behind building the Eagles team that shocked the world by winning the Super Bowl. Doug Pederson is the very definition of an u... read more
Harry: Life, Loss, and Love

Katie Nicholl

On the eve of his wedding comes the most intimate and informative portrait yet of Prince Harry, from royal expert Katie Nicholl, author of the bestselling William and Harry and Kate.From his earliest public appearances as a mischievous redheaded toddler, Princ... read more
Outside the Jukebox: How I Turned My Vintage Music Obsession into My Dream Gig

Scott Bradlee

From the creator of the sensation Postmodern Jukebox--with millions of fans globally--comes an inspirational memoir about discovering what you love and turning it into a creative movement. With student loan debt piling up and no lucrative gigs around the corne... read more
The Bill of Rights: A User's Guide

Linda R Monk

Form of Politics: Aristotle and Plato on Friendship (Mcgill-Queen's Studies in the History of Ideas)

John von Heyking

For statesmen, friendship is the lingua franca of politics. Considering the connections between personal and political friendship, John von Heyking’s The Form of Politics interprets the texts of Plato and Aristotle and emphasizes the role that friendship has i... read more
The Complete Poems of George Whalley

George Whalley

An eminent Canadian man of letters, scholar, naval officer and secret intelligence agent, CBC scriptwriter, musician, biographer, and translator, George Whalley (1915-1983) was also a gifted poet whose work spans five decades. Along with his major critical wor... read more
The Same but Different: Hockey in Quebec

From coast to coast, hockey is played, watched, loved, and detested, but it means something different in Quebec. Although much of English Canada believes that hockey is a fanatically followed social unifier in the French-speaking province, in reality it has al... read more
Letters to Memory

Karen Tei Yamashita

Praise for Karen Tei Yamashita:"It's a stylistically wild ride, but it's smart, funny and entrancing." ―NPR"Fluid and poetic as well as terrifying." ―New York Times Book ReviewWith delightful plays of voice and structure, this is literary fiction at an adventu... read more
Things You Should Already Know About Dating, You F*cking Idiot

Ben Schwartz

A hilarious illustrated collection of tips for successfully navigating the dating world as a millennial. For single millennials, this situation is all too familiar: You're on a date. It's going well! Then suddenly your date looks at you like you're a f*cking i... read more
Weird Life: The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own

David Toomey

“Weird indeed, and not a little wonderful.”―Nature In the 1980s and 1990s, in places where no one thought it possible, scientists found organisms they called extremophiles: lovers of extremes. There were bacteria in volcanic hydrothermal vents on the ocean flo... read more
The History of the Future

Edward McPherson

“In The History of the Future, McPherson explores America in all its beauty and strangeness. He is funny and searching—a joy to read.”—Elizabeth KolbertPraise for Edward McPherson:“Mr. McPherson is an intrepid traveler. . . a charming and literate companion, a... read more
Around 1945: Literature, Citizenship, Rights

Allan Hepburn

Near the end of the Second World War, new ideas about citizenship, national identity, belonging, and rights emerged as the atrocities of the war – coupled with the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – spurred writers and citizens around the wor... read more
The Revolutionaries Try Again

Mauro Javier Cardenas

Extravagant, absurd, and self-aware, The Revolutionaries Try Again plays out against the lost decade of Ecuador's austerity and the stymied idealism of three childhood friends—an expat, a bureaucrat, and a playwright—who are as sure about the evils of dictator... read more
Urban Encounters: Art and the Public (Culture of Cities)

Public art is on the urban agenda. Given recent claims about the importance of creativity to urban prosperity, opportunities for installing or performing art in the city have multiplied. As cities strive to appear culturally dynamic, the stakes of artistic pro... read more
Bridges: A History of the World's Most Spectacular Spans

Judith Dupre

From the best-selling author of Skyscrapers comes the much-anticipated revised edition of her magnificent chronological tour of the world's most significant and eye-popping spans, now in color and bigger than ever. This visual history of the world''s landmark ... read more

Carlos has 1 review

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Erika S.

Erika S.

Dec, 2018

Such a fantastic experience working with Carlos. His creativity, attention to detail, timely communications, professionalism, and experience shine through in every aspect of the process and the product he provides. I cannot imagine working with anyone else on the design of future novels. Highly recommend!

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