After Art Directors Week at SCAD and lecturing to Illustration classes, this is my most asked questions by students. Personally, with my design degree, I started as a Junior designer for a Teen Book Packager and eventually worked my way to being an Art Director. Over the years I did illustrate a few covers and created lettering but for the most part, I commission other illustrators.
Fun Fact: I hand embroidered the images on the back pockets of The Traveling Pants series but the lettering are all fonts.
Every publisher is different and there can be overlap. For the most part, designing covers and illustrating covers are two separate things. If you want a design job in publishing, yes, you should apply for ads. You can go to career sections on individual publisher's websites or I would recommend looking at www.publishersmarketplace.com. Now is a good time since most companies have great internship programs.
Although there might be a few exceptions, illustrating opportunities in publishing are mostly on a commission basis. Art directors and designers look for illustrators that fit the content of the book they are working on and they often has a pre-approved concept that they need an illustrator to execute.
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