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Authorterralittle
Regular Poster
Username: Authorterralittle
Post Number: 30
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 26, 2008 - 02:02 am: | 
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Hello Everyone,
As I prepare to begin promoting my second book, "Where There's Smoke" (JAN 2009), I find myself slightly vexed by lack of creative ways to convey the true nature and scope of the story, while still incorporating applicable aspects of the cover graphic. So help a sista out, would you? Have a look at the cover and tell me:
What does this book cover say to you?
(Be nice, Mr. Carey. I've already relayed the message that "Urban" is misspelled and the book isn't going to print like this. This is a promo image only, so you don't have to point it out to me, okay? I can just hear you now...LOL)
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7232
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 26, 2008 - 10:26 am: |
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This cover is ambiguous and capable of many interpretations but the strongest one is that this is a B-Boy (Gay in Da Hood) story.
The best things to put on a cover are a sexy woman or a man with his shirt off or a man with his shirt off in a clinch with a sexy near nude woman regardless of what it is about. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 12586
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 26, 2008 - 10:48 am: |
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Well, um, are the guys on the cover, 2 dudes who work for the fire department? |
904diva
Regular Poster
Username: 904diva
Post Number: 25
Registered: 06-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 26, 2008 - 11:01 am: |
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Yeah, I'll go with the gay theory or some kind of shoot em up bang bang thug story.
Question... where do you all get the pics for the book cover? |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7236
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 26, 2008 - 11:55 am: |
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What IS the book about, anyways? |
Authorterralittle
Regular Poster
Username: Authorterralittle
Post Number: 31
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 26, 2008 - 12:30 pm: |
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Thanks for your feedback, folks. This one will be a challenge, indeed. I hadn't thought about a possible 'gay in da hood' spin, but I do have concerns that people will think it's street-lit and it isn't. I guess it has "street-ish" undertones, in that the MCs have unsavory pasts they've overcome. But it's not street-lit by any stretch of the imagination. Thus, my question.
Keith Saunders designed the initial "Running from Mercy" book cover and the cover model was chosen based on the MC description. So when you look at the cover, you're basically looking at "Pam." Q-Boro opted to use the cover again and only make a few changes when they picked up the title.
This second cover was designed by Urban Books. I saw it ten minutes before you guys did, figuratively speaking. I was wondering what the cover said to me, so I decided to ask what it said to everyone else...
Here is the back cover blurb and a pretty accurate summary of what the book is about:
In the beginning, there was a drug dealer named Smoke, and Breanne Phillips was one of his most faithful customers. She was smoking crack to block out an existence she couldn't escape from, and Smoke was hungry enough to take anything she had to offer in exchange for his magic rocks. It was a mutually satisfying arrangement, one he forgot about as soon as he got out of the game, dropped the nickname Smoke, and started answering to the name Alec.
(Side-note: Alec is now a veteran of the armed forces and a high school math teacher, of all things.)
Fast-forward sixteen years, and Breanne Phillips is back in his life. These days, she's a businesswoman who goes by the name Anne. She's dragging a sixteen-year-old hoodlum behind her, claiming Alec is the boy's father and demanding that he straighten out their son.
(Side-note: Anne has been clean since before she gave birth to her son, who is playing at being a thug, but really isn't.)
As if dealing with an unwelcome ghost from his past isn't enough, his son is mixed up in the kind of foolishness Alec is all too familiar with, which means he'll have to step in and rearrange some things. A door opens and Smoke is suddenly back on the scene, ready to put some heads to bed, including Anne's. After that, he'll deal with the son he never knew he had.
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Thoughts? |
Troy
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 1454
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 26, 2008 - 01:13 pm: |
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Authorterralittle;
My first thought were defintely along the homo-thug vein.
If homie on the left did not have a wisp of a mustache I would have assumed it was a girl. I know it is ole school of me but I hate girl hair styles on men...
Obvioulsy the cover has nothing to do with the story.... at least nothing I can devine.
While Chris may have been joking a "...man with his shirt off..." cover attract attention and are usually the most frequently clicked book on this web site.
So if you are going with a cover that does not have strong relationship to the book's story line, why not loose home boy of the left and have my man on the right barechested ;-) |
Authorterralittle
Regular Poster
Username: Authorterralittle
Post Number: 32
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 26, 2008 - 01:34 pm: |
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Troy,
If I'd have had input on the cover design, I would've wanted a representation of all three MCs (man, woman & child) or perhaps a father & son type situation. Heck, mother & son? (shrug)
I spent the longest time looking at the cover, asking myself who the guys were supposed to be representing. Near as I can tell, the one in the front is possibly the 16 year old pseudo thug from the story and the guy behind him might be a second/third-ary character with whom the 16 year old has issues. The cover might be coming from a "here comes Smoke to get in between these two" angle...I'm guessing.
Alas, I didn't have input on the cover and I think this is the final deal, so now I'm wondering, "How do I promote the story moreso than the perceptions resulting from the cover, so more mature readers will check it out?"
In your years of experience, do you think this is possible? |
Troy
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 1458
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 26, 2008 - 01:45 pm: |
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Authorterralittle, other than self-published authors; authors rarely have significant input into the cover.
Your ideas to improve the cover make sense to me, so it is not clear what Urban Books is trying to do here -- maybe it was an exisiting cover looking for a book (half joking).
I think what you are already doing so far is good start: giving the back story of the cover -- even before the book is out. Talking about your book here in a meaningful way is just perfect.
Do the same thing on other sites -- including your own.
You got my attention -- and it didn't even cost you a stamp. |
Authorterralittle
Regular Poster
Username: Authorterralittle
Post Number: 33
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 26, 2008 - 03:20 pm: |
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Thanks, Troy!
I plan to dissect this book and its cover to death, between now and January, and beyond. Hopefully, ARC reviews will help shed some light on the true nature of the story, too.
Too bad I can't swing the fee right this minute, because I'd love to see what AALBC's response to "Where There's Smoke" is.
Got some ideas on blog topics and such that might help, as well, and my website should be updated in the coming days, so folks can check out an excerpt, etc. Every now and again, I post a snippet on my blog, too.
I'm trying...LOL |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7238
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 03:24 pm: |
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She's dragging a sixteen-year-old hoodlum behind her, claiming Alec is the boy's father and demanding that he straighten out their son.
(Side-note: Anne has been clean since before she gave birth to her son, who is playing at being a thug, but really isn't.)
As if dealing with an unwelcome ghost from his past isn't enough, his son is mixed up in the kind of foolishness Alec is all too familiar with, which means he'll have to step in and rearrange some things. A door opens and Smoke is suddenly back on the scene, ready to put some heads to bed, including Anne's. After that, he'll deal with the son he never knew he had.
(Tell all the readers that the cover represents the son and one of his ne'r do well homies.
Why they didn't have the man, the woman and the troubled teen all posed dramatically I don't know. Or they could have had both of the guys on the cover holding guns or something so you'd know that it was urban lit..
What brought forth the gay angle for me was the title--"Where There's Smoke"---the rest of the saying is, "There's Fire."
The two guys on the cover are poised as though they got a secret, but it isn't clear what it might be--as I stated the cover is ambiguous (good and bad)
They should have tried to get some wannabe rappers or something to pose. |
Authorterralittle
Regular Poster
Username: Authorterralittle
Post Number: 40
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 27, 2008 - 03:51 pm: |
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But that's just the thing, Chrishayden. It's not street or urban lit. It is, however, grittier, due to the MCs' pasts, but current day, you're reading about two professionals trying to keep their son from making the same mistakes they made.
Thugs holding guns or half-naked models would've been way over the top, considering the storyline. After I thought about it for awhile I concluded that the cover depicts one of the main characters - the 16-year-old - and, I think, the only real thug in the story, who tries to get the son to come over to the other side (behind him).
Smoke is the boy's father's nickname, from back in the day. So he's back on the scene to straighten some things out..."Where There's Smoke..." |
Thumper
Veteran Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 573
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 - 09:38 pm: |
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Hello All,
Miss Terra: I'm going to have to jump on the same train with the others. Actually, what I thought was that it was just a dude and a pretty woman with one of those thin mustache that some black women use to wear back in the day! i thought, man, somebody went way back ol' school. But then when you said that it was a dude...*eyebrow raised*...umm...well...*LOL* |
Rondall
Moderator
Username: Rondall
Post Number: 159
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 - 09:56 am: |
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Three words:
Hair care products!!
Did I get it right? Are they both hairstylist? |
Authorterralittle
Regular Poster
Username: Authorterralittle
Post Number: 41
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 01, 2008 - 01:48 am: |
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The guy in the front is a little pretty, ain't he? I knew right off that he was a boy, though. First thing I thought was, "Is that baby hair? (and) Why is he wearing two jackets at the same time?"
Naw, they ain't hairstylists!
Ya'll are cracking me UP! LOL. |
Carey
Veteran Poster
Username: Carey
Post Number: 992
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 01, 2008 - 02:19 am: |
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Ahhhh, Ms. Little.....Ms, Little. Why you up in here puttin' that ahhh, that stuff on this board? See, you trying to get grown. Thought ol'Carey wasn't lookin' didn't you. Look at you, up all late. Yo momma must be sleep. What you be reading??? Huh, what kind of ....
I don't know about you. I thought you was a nice sweet little girl. Hummmmph, had me fooled. |
Ferociouskitty
Veteran Poster
Username: Ferociouskitty
Post Number: 391
Registered: 02-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 01, 2008 - 07:00 am: |
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First thing I thought was, "Is that baby hair?
Time of death for FerociousKitty: 6:59 AM. Police should look for a woman going by the alias "Authorterralittle" |
Authorterralittle
Regular Poster
Username: Authorterralittle
Post Number: 43
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 02, 2008 - 12:06 am: |
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As old as you are, Mr. Carey, I thought sure you would have long realized that it's always the nice ones you have to watch closest, including me.
I knew you was around her someplace, was just waiting on you to start up with me again, and, alas, here you are. But listen up, Carey (ain't that a girrrrllllsss name, anyway?) ain't nobody scared of you. I told you before, I will fight a man. I will get up on a chair and meet you eye to eye. Or maybe your chin to my eye, but you see what I'm saying here.
You might've poked at me a little bit when I first came on board, but I done got used to you now, so...whateva...What 'chu be reading?
Okay, gotta go now. My mama just told me, "lights out." |
Carey
Veteran Poster
Username: Carey
Post Number: 993
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 02, 2008 - 01:19 am: |
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Actually Ms. Little am reading an older Walter Moseley, Gone fishin'. It goes back to the earlier years of Easy and Mouse. Moseley has a simple straightforward style, I like that. He just tells a story without all the fluff. I think I still have a spot on Moseley's page at AALBC. Troy moved a post over there. Yeah, I love Moseley. Some authors seem to try a bit to hard to excite rather than tell a story. I don't think they have a passion for the story, their not invested.
Oh, I got your girly name.
Okay Ms. Jackson, "if your nasty" |
Authorterralittle
Regular Poster
Username: Authorterralittle
Post Number: 45
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 04, 2008 - 09:15 pm: |
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FerociousKitty said - "Time of death for FerociousKitty: 6:59 AM. Police should look for a woman going by the alias "Authorterralittle"
...In lieu of flowers, please send combs, hair grease and Pink Oil to... |
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