Hi Nords, a belated congratulations on your book. I'm probably the last one on this site to notice this thread.
I'm wondering about the cover design for your book. It appears to be a more attractive cover then the average book on subjects such as this. Once I mentioned to Larry Swedroe that his books could do with a more attractive design. He mentioned that he was glad enough to just get published and did not have control over this aspect, or something to that effect. How do you feel about that aspect of your book? Did you have any say on how the cover design was handled?
Just curious. Of course, the cover is not the most important aspect of a book but it has an advertising purpose. Plus the owner sees it every time he picks it up. I've probably never rejected a decent book because of a cover design but may have been drawn to a book that had an appealing design. BTW, my wife was a book designer many years ago and we share an ongoing interest in this arcane area.
Thanks, and I'll pass your compliments to the publisher!
I used Impact Publications because I wanted to get the book into military exchanges, and the exchange managers don't talk to authors.
As a first-time author I have orders of magnitude less control over book covers than Larry Swedroe. At least when his publisher hires a graphic artist there's a reasonable expectation of payback...
Actually we posters influenced the design theme (
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/nominate-the-book-cover-for-the-military-guide-52483.html). Impact seemed happy to get our suggestions. (I think they appreciate people who have a plan.) However once the publisher turned it over to the graphic artist, my next opportunity for feedback was "Purple stripe or not?" I wasn't shown any other designs. IIRC at that point I was deep into proofreading the galleys and the cover was just one more distraction.
Speaking as an engineer and a guy, I'm delighted that this painful décor decision was turned over to a real no-foolin' qualified graphic artist who earns an actual living from plying her craft. I would've screwed it up with something resembling the cover of a reactor plant manual.
We're not the only ones who like the way it looks. It also stopped a lot of shopper traffic last month when I was doing book signings at the San Antonio military exchanges. (
Lessons learned on book signings | Military Retirement & Financial Independence) Not very many people wanted to talk with me, but the cover caught their eyes.
With what I've learned from the publisher, and from the trend among the reading public, if I was doing another book then I'd use a self-publishing firm or maybe just go straight to e-book. I see a lot of e-book "publishing" logic along the lines of: "What the heck, I'll just crank out 50 pages, call it an e-book, whip it out there for 99 cents by Friday, and move on to some other e-commerce project. If it earns a couple thousand effortless bucks then maybe I'll turn it into a real book."
Heck, we could do 50 pages on "Should I pay off the mortgage or invest the money?" Hmmm....
