Time For My Friends To Weigh In On Book Covers
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008Last night, my best friend, Fawn Germer (fawngermer.com & hardwonwisdom.com) came over to see the two current test versions of my book cover design. She absolutely loved the way it is shaping up. NetMen Corp. of Buenas Aires, Argentina, is doing a wonderful job and are very patient with my running suggestions to try this and that, tweaking little things as we go and sending several versions so that I can see which looks best.
We sent out the picture in an email to several trusted friends, and came up with votes all over the map. The two designs are very similar, but have different color lettering, font size, boldness, placement of certain elements, and that sort of thing. But, the features that each friend voted on were inconclusive. Somebody voted on each feature version. Guess they all were good. That’s how you know that you can’t lose, no matter which combination you choose.
So, I guess it’s up to me to make the final call. This is really fun!
Think of it. Prior to the digital age, no one could have achieved anything like this. Back when an artist chisled your design into a wooden block, there was no tapping him on the shoulder and saying, “Let’s try it another way.” Plus, your artist wouldn’t be thousands of miles away, either. He’d be near enough to throw his carving tool at you. Now, it takes talented hands only a few minutes on the keyboard and you have sheer magic.
But, one of the wonderfully understanding features of many of the elance.com bids that I received for this project was a devotion to making sure that the customer was satisfied in every case. They promised to allow unlimited submissions (within reason, of course). So it’s okay to play a bit of tennis to make sure everything is the best it can be. I guess if it’s all one-sided, where the customer simply wants to see endless ideas and doesn’t pass on any of them, then that wouldn’t be at all fair or within the terms of the contract. But, we hit upon the perfect idea in the second round and are simply serving back and forth on the one design. Thank goodness, family, friends, and professional advisors like it as well as I do. And, I surely hope to goodness that one day, you too will eyeball their fine design as you hold a copy of my book in your hand.
Since Fawn is my mentor and inspiration on this whole book project, it was about time that she got a chance to read and approve of my back cover copy too. Especially, since she’s the only one (so far) whom I am quoting. The quote is one she has given me frequently, usually when we’re taking twelve mile hikes along the waterfront for exercise. She’s training for a three-day, sixty-mile Breast Cancer walk in October. I just go along on some of the shorter practice ones to stay in shape. That’s when we talk about writing and book publishing and where I caught the bug. She’s always flying hither and yon to give her huge motivational seminars to executive women and corporations, so I try not the pester her too much about all the nitty-gritty. I hire professionals to do that…..after she tells me where to find them.
But, last night it was time to solicit her opinion before she flies out of town tomorrow. Yessss……I have her seal of approval. We’ll make it. (How I want to pepper this with exclamation points, as I always do. They are the salt and seasoning of writing, are they not?) Never. Never. Never. According to both of my editors: Fawn and Lynn. Sigh. I shall try to behave.
What was the wonderful quote that Fawn gave me to put on the back cover of my book? Ahhhhh, you shall have to buy a copy of my slim volume to find out.
lindajbrown