Judging A Book By Its Cover: Tina Fey's Bossypants

Last week, the New York Post reported that funny lady Tina Fey is writing a book—a very, very expensive book. Today, the cover of aforementioned book was spotted at the Frankfurt Book Fair. It’s… different.

Bossypants is expected to bring in around $6 million for the 30 Rock star, according to a “source” that has inside knowledge of the deal with Little, Brown & Co. While I was dreaming of how much Sabor de Soledad you could buy with that kind of cheddar, Fey was plotting to donate a huge chunk of that money to Books for Kids, an organization that will help sponsor the construction of six libraries in needy New York neighborhoods. Which makes her even more incredibly awesome than I had previously suspected.

So, because I am somewhat of a font & design nerd, I’ve been waiting with bated breath to see she’ll chose for the book’s cover. And now we have the poster (which I assume is also going to be the jacket, but this might not be true). Anyway, I love it. And here’s why:

Bossypants takes the typical Tina Fey joke structure and makes it far more visual than usual. It’s Fey at her self-deprecating best, but it’s also a funny take on the typical book cover. The yearbook pose makes is super familiar, but the hands (the hands!) add an amazing touch of uncanny that I’m sure a lot of people will find “gross.” Though this is probably why it reads as so typically Tina. Even though she’s been dubbed the “thinking man’s sex symbol,” she still shrugs at her at the title. Plus, it takes the trite Cosmo cross-dressing advice (“wear your man’s clothes with bright red lipstick for a sexy feminine look!”) and reveals how ridiculously overdone it really is.

However, though I just spent all this space gushing about the outsides, it’s obviously far more important what on the inside (at least, that’s what I think I was supposed to learn from Mean Girls). According to some accounts, Bossypants will be a collection of humorous essays in the style of Nora Ephron, which sounds very promising.

It’s Tina Fey’s Book, “Bossypants!” [The Awl]
Fey Eyes Big Payday [NY Post]
Little, Brown Will Publish Tina Few Book [NY Observer]