[DannoHung]

I think that's the cynical way of looking at it. On the other hand, maybe he's not particularly concerned with going through with the effort of finding an excellent designer and spending the time discussing what he wants on his cover and would instead like to give amateur and student designers a chance to possibly get their work on the cover of a book and maybe win $250 bucks for something that they might be able to pass off as course credit (in the case of students) or that they would have done on their own time (in the case of amateurs or hobbyists).

Maybe he's not expecting professional designers to submit their best work.

[aichcon]

Perhaps you're right, but if I was going to release a book and put my name on it, I would want it to be designed by a professional. Books are definitely judged by their covers.

[michaelfairley]

For his last book, Tim actually printed out fake bookcovers, placed them on books in bookstores, and sat around and observed how much attention each cover brought (source: http://vimeo.com/3934635) . A lot of people around here don't like Tim, but that is certainly hacker like behavior. I'm sure he'll do something similar for the new book as well.

[tptacek]

An anti-spec person would say, "it's so true that you need books to be designed by professionals, so that they all the technique and language of graphic design to their fullest and match the content of the book perfectly, so as to sell as many copies as possible, that you should be prohibited from soliciting the services of designers who might not meet those standards, as evidenced by their willingness to accept substandard contractual terms".