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Cover Design Has Begun

Friday, June 20th, 2008

As originally stated, this Blog will chronicle all the steps that I must slog through to get from Point A to Point Z in the creation of my book about my RTW journey in 2005/2006.  I have hired a design company through elance.com to do the cover design and have gone through the preliminaries of trying to define what I want……without really having a clue…….and of paying the $250 fee into escrow, to be held until I’m completely satisfied.  The company, NetMen Corp. of Buenas Aires, Argentina, has a great track record with elance, with many repeat customers and a long history of high earnings with this freelance source of internet talent.  

I liked one of the four samples they submitted, and so,  sent my feedback on that.  My title keeps slipping around at the moment, so that makes it harder to come up with a visual image.  I’m still working on trying to visualize the image I want to see on the book, but haven’t had any bright ideas to suggest to them yet.  Here’s the title evolution, so far:

Hey Boomers!  Dust Off Your Backpacks!  It’s Easy To Travel The World On A Limited Budget

It used to say:  Hey Boomers!  It’s Easy To Backpack Around The World On Social Security….Alone……For A Year

(By the way, votes from you guys would be good.  Just put them in the comment box.  What would have meaning to you……or your parents……grandparents?   Well, if you’re in your twenties, I could be your Granny!  You might want to send my book to her, one day, to suggest that she get out on the trail too.  You never know!  What kind of cover would interest you? )  Informal Poll #1

Titles are hard.  I’d love to land upon a three word title that captures the essence of it all.  But, I tend to get wordy.  I have painted myself into a bit of a corner by choosing to address the Baby Boomers in my title and in my book; because they are the ones who need to know that it is actually possible to get out there and do such things, even though they’re now at the dreaded age of social security.  Historically, 2008 is the year that the first leading-edge boomers cross the line and can collect early retirement benefits, if they choose, at age 62.  In 2011, the big bubble of boomers will begin turning 65 and the news will be very hot about their effect on our social security system.  By that time, I should have two books out on this subject, after my second RTW at age 71, next year….and so, I am positioning myself as a cheerful counsellor to the aging boomers that all is not lost, just because someone is  retired.  I wrote a long explanation of this to my cover designer, knowing that they might not even have heard the term Boomer, if they live in South America.  

Somehow the book’s cover must telegraph a bit of this meaning, and at the same time, look fetching on the almost-postage-stamp-sized Amazon.com ad, which is what you get on that system.  That’s a big order!  That’s why I have hired professionals.  Probably, the way it works is that things get honed in a hit or miss fashion until, finally, there are a lot more hits than misses.  It’s a back and forth, artistic tennis match until a final product at last issues forth.  We consumers don’t know what goes on behind the scenes until we are suddenly there ourselves.

By becoming, essentially, my own publishing company, Hey Boomers Media, I hire out the various tasks and then have to oversee them, learning as I go.   You don’t have to do it this way because you can still self-publish by hiring one of the companies, which I note are advertising here on my blog, to be your middle man but, ultimately, you still face these same decisions with the plans that other people have for your work.   You’re simply turning over some of the recruitment duties, and creating a buffer level to run interference for you, which is not a bad thing if your time is limited.  Their services are not free, but perhaps they will be worth it to you in the long run.  The reason for this is that POD printers, like Lightning Source, won’t work directly with authors……but they will work with publishing companies, even if it’s just that author setting up his own company.  There are many, many books out there now, telling you how to do this.  If you can learn to do it yourself, why give away a percentage of your profits to more middle men than necessary?   That is……assuming there will be any profits in the first place!