Book cover and editorial illustrations are both designed to represent or to convey a story. Book covers become the 'icon' of the story, where people will instantly recognise the novel due to the illustration, whereas editorial illustrations are more low-key, and normally feature inside the book in 1 or 2 spot/full page illustrations. However it can be argued that editorial illustrations can be featured on the front cover of a magazine, and in this case the two fields of illustration serve the same purpose: to attract, engage and to be visually stimulating for the reader. Likewise, book cover illustrations can be featured inside the book, as very often the cover is a certain scene from the story, and in this case the illustrator will design both the cover & the inside illustrations.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the two is the time frame in which the illustration stays relevant. For example, book cover illustrations can stay the same for years, and they become instantly associated with the story, and so may be used in advertising and merchandise. However, the large majority of editorial illustrations have a very quick turn over, where new illustrations are created for each monthly, or even weekly magazine/newspaper. This means that they serve the purpose to represent a certain article/story, but then this doesn't get saved by people or kept in a bookshelf like novels do - they don't become iconic or recognisable.
Another big difference between the two is how editorial illustrators can make a living from just working within the singular field of illustration, however book cover illustrators normally undertake multiple illustrative roles including: giftware, stationary, typography, children's books, and even some editorial too. This is not to say that if you become an editorial illustrator you will only focus on that area, because there are many who also involve themselves in other fields, however it is more common for book cover illustrator to do this. This is because the demand for book cover illustrations is much smaller than it is for editorial illustrations. Each article, in each magazine/newspaper, for each month/week, may require an illustration or even multiple illustrations to accompany the writing. Therefore an editorial illustrator could easily earn a living from just working in this sector, due to the high demand for work. On the other hand, although it is possible to earn thousands for illustrating a book cover, the demand is much lower, and so it is common for these illustrators to expand their expertise across more illustrative fields in order to attract more commissions, and so more money.
Ultimately the skills that are required for both roles are similar. You must be able to work quickly, have an eye for composition (whether it be on a front cover, or surrounded by text), be able to represent and convey the message/themes of the piece of writing, take criticism and advice, work individually and well as a team, knowledge about printing, and colour theory. Also the target audiences for both sectors are similar, as it all depends on the themes of the magazine/book, however editorial illustrations won't appeal to children under the age of 10 as they are unlikely to come across these types of illustrations.
(Above) are some examples of
a book cover and editorial illustration. When designing a book cover, you have
a lot more creative freedom as you can play around with both image and text. On
the other hand, editorial illustrations normally have to fit into a template
that has already been predetermined by the client, and so you have to fit your
illustration around this layout.
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