[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I WOULD be honest with the person BECAUSE many of us readers randomly select books we might not otherwise read because the cover attracted us. It's not a question of the fact that YOU don't like the cover, but that the cover has to do the marketing FOR YOU when you are a new author. Most people pass buy new authors, but if you stop and make them look at your cover, you will increase the number of folks who will go further and perhaps buy.

@Tarana:

WARNING, rant cometh:

Spoiler:

You know, there is simply NO shortage of resources out there telling people just how NOT to screw up releasing a book. How NOT to screw up and release something unedited; how to NOT screw up and use some dumb-ass image as your cover; how NOT to write the worst description and "about the author" section in modern history.

WHY--seriously--why on earth does a reader, in this day and age, some 8 years into the heyday of self-publishing--have to point all these things out to a new publisher? Honestly, it boggles my mind that people don't understand that the writing skills that they had in 3rd grade aren't good enough for a book.

The sad truth is this: 75% of the self-pubbed authors badly need fundamental, grade-school courses in English. In grammar, punctuation and spelling, never mind basic sentence construction. I've lost track of the authors I've seen that don't know the difference between an ellipsis and an emdash. AFTER they've had that course or those courses, THEN they need a few years in Creative Writing, which unlike breathing, isn't actually autonomic.

And the next time some author says "Oh, but Stephen KING uses an editor to fix up HIS stories," as if that's an excuse for being illiterate, my head will do the Exorcist dance on my neck.

And after the grade school English courses, and the Creative Writing I, II and III classes, they should then, and only then, worry about something like a freaking COVER. The fact that so few of these writers can manage to construct a decent, intriguing description should be the equivalent of an early-warning bell for those of us who are expected to PAY. MONEY. FOR. TRAINING-WHEEL. DRIVEL.

</rant>

We've had 3,000 books through our shop. Another 2K that came through for quoting, but never accepted, for whatever reason. I'm here to save all of you the brain damage. There is NO simple, easy, or kind way to solve the Neverending Story of Bad Book Covers. I'm fortunate in that most of our clients have better sense and taste, but still...I've seen some doozies. I have had to break out brain-bleach on more than one occasion.

I relieve the pain of it by timesharing the agony at LBC. Afterwards, I stop by Cakewrecks, Cover Critics, and Clients from Hell. If that alone doesn't do it, I drop by Slushpilehell, and gorge on older posts. It's a sanity check. Save yourselves. Just pass by bad book covers. Trust me. You'll be happier for this. That way lies madness.

Hitch