How is it harder than trying to write a novel without the constraint of fitting in what's on the cover?
Constraints often make creativity easier. Tell me to write a Hardy Boys novel and I won't know where to begin. Show me a cover with a lighthouse and some treasure on the beach and stories begin to suggest themselves.
It does take some for sure, but it's actually in a fine, long tradition of commercial writing -- it wasn't unusual for pulp mags in the first half of the 20th century to get a big name illustrator and then have a writer develop a story from it. See venerable Wikipedia for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine#Illustrators
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Damn, that must take incredible creativity, akin to being asked to code a website from seeing a screenshot of the privacy policy.
How is it harder than trying to write a novel without the constraint of fitting in what's on the cover?
Constraints often make creativity easier. Tell me to write a Hardy Boys novel and I won't know where to begin. Show me a cover with a lighthouse and some treasure on the beach and stories begin to suggest themselves.
It does take some for sure, but it's actually in a fine, long tradition of commercial writing -- it wasn't unusual for pulp mags in the first half of the 20th century to get a big name illustrator and then have a writer develop a story from it. See venerable Wikipedia for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine#Illustrators