Help Me Choose the Cover for The ABC’s of Conflict Resolution
UPDATE: Thanks to the many great comments I’ve gotten here and at LinkedIn and Facebook on the cover to the book, I’ve shifted my focus from trying to depict the Asshole on the cover to depicting the Asshole’s victim. Along those lines, I’m considering using an image somewhat like this cartoon by the great legal cartoonist, Charles Fincher of LawComix. I might even ask Charles if I can use this very cartoon. What do you think?
With Charles’ hilarious caption. As the cover of the book below.
More after the jump.
We’re coming down to the finish line and one of my last tasks is to choose the cover. I’m turning to my readers for their assistance, impressions, random thoughts, idiosyncratic reactions and the like.
I’ll add to this post as time goes on as I await the return of the entire FINISHED! mss from my editor.
More soon. Comments EXTREMELY welcome!!
Prize to be determined for best suggestion – certainly a free autographed copy of the book and an acknowledgement in the book for the best suggestion, but I’ll have something additional to bestow on the individual who helps me out the most (in my entirely subjective and idiosyncratic judgment of course!)
This is conceptual again; monster figures to catch the potential reader’s attention. It adds a little whimsy to what is a difficult topic. I found this illustrator on istockphoto. I like the simplicity – this is essentially just a square with cartoon features at top.
I made this one from an istockphoto image (the final I envision would have the book’s title in chalk letters on the green board). I like the green and red here. The primary question is this: what cover would make you stop and pick the book up off the table or shelf in the bookstore.
I picture an entirely white cover for this. I like white a lot but don’t know if it would jump out at people. Here’s one of my favorite recent book covers that’s primarily white.
This is also one of the best books I’ve read on how we think and why we think the way we do. Click on the cover to order it from Amazon.com.
This is not so much a cover as an idea – a large old fashioned primer font with the title of the book in the same, but much smaller font, again on an entirely white field. Maybe red letters on white field?
This image is from a primer in the public domain. Again, this is just a concept – to make the entire book look like a primer, with images like this on the first page for each letter of the alphabet and whatever image “A” turns out to be on the cover. Once again, I see it white, not sepia.
I nearly failed every visual art course I ever took so have pity on the poor left-brained verbal members of the tribe. Those with taste in composition and color, I seek your input with great anticipation.
SUGGESTIONS FROM FAMILY AND FRIENDS
My old high school friend Judith Arkell suggested something along the lines of Shel Silverstein’s enduringly hilarious ABZ’s below with link to Amazon to buy it.
I like the one with the people holding up the signs: because it is simple, it is clean, and it is cute. I like the illustration for the first one, but it is cluttered with too many words. I don’t like to see more than one title, and that one has three titles! (Most non-fiction books do seem to have two titles, though, which always makes me wonder why the author can’t explain what the book is about with a single title, but I guess that is acceptable if the second title is saved for the inside page.)
The second illustration with the apples has only two titles, so that makes it better from the number of titles standpoint, but I’m not sure the school and apple for the teacher metaphor is what you should be going for.
The third one has only one title, which makes it better.
I also like the primer idea, but if you used a big “A” it might need to have both the first two titles to make it work, and then you have the problem of do you really want the word “asshole” (with or without asterisks) on the cover of your book.
Thanks Joe. I don’t much like having three titles on the book myself but I’m being told it is better to explain that the book is for “everyday life” or for “everyone,” though I also need to indicate, I think, that it’s not for kids. The “asshole” isn’t simply to shock. It’s actually pretty much the whole point of the book, repeated in all chapters that stand for people who are presumably the “assholes” or “bullies” or “cowards” who “we” consider to be the problem. As the first chapter explains, an asshole is not a person but a behavior, not one person but two, and we all exhibit this behavior in certain predictable situations, i.e., we are all capable of all of these behaviors and the only one whose behavior we can change is our own, which more or less inevitably forces the one we’re dealing with to change in relation to us. There will always be some people who object to the use of the word “asshole” at all, but I’m pretty sure I’m going with it here.
This is the best of the choices but cute misses the point. I think you ne4ed to go back to square one and come up with something more appropriate to the serious subject that you are adressing
Thanks for the input – any thoughts on what you think is appropriate for a serious subject? I must admit that my intent is to make a serious topic also light, even amusing since being able to laugh at our own human frailty is what we sometimes need to break through our defenses.
The thing you like about that Brain Rules cover is not just the white space – it’s the excellent typography of the title. Something that is unfortunately missing in the signs graphic.
I would honestly choose the monster cover over the others – it remains minimalistic, the type of the title seems to work, and using a possibly controversial word will get people to stop and pick it up. (Especially when it’s coupled with the childlike imagery of the graphic and font.)
Thanks! So far I like the monster best myself though some find it not reader friendly enough, which I’ll take another look at!
Personally I am a huge Silverstein fan and love the ABZ’s. I like the cartoonish cover of 1 and the last. The more whimisical it looks, the better in my book.
Thanks Chris. As you can tell, whimsical is what I like best too, but have been cautioned by some not to juxtapose something that looks like it’s addressed to children with the word “asshole” which is sound advice. I might have to add “adult” somewhere if I go with the monster cover, which is the one I like best so far. Appreciate your taking the time to stop by and comment.
I like the first image – the cute little “asshole”! But I’d like it better in a blue (maybe,in Word font formatting: Color Model: RGB, 150 parts red, 154 parts green, and 226 parts blue)with lighter blue lettering. I’d leave off “managing conflict in everyday life” and instead have the “A” is for Asshole as the main title, with the subtitle: the ABCs of managing everyday conflict.
My reasons for using shades of blue: 1) I like blue (!), and 2) blue “softens” the title (similar to the use of the smiling little asshole monster).
Looking forward to seeing your book on the shelves!
Take care.
Debra Healy
agree2agree
Healy Conflict Management Services
Thanks Debra. Wow! you actually know the RGB numbers? I’m impressed!! Will consider blue.
Vickie – I would shy away from using a book cover which resembles one already owned by another – too many rights issues – so I would avoid Siverstein’s. I love the monster – love the color of envy as it changes on the page, and love the sly smile which tells us that clever is not the same as wise. I also think that using the power of the word “asshole” in all its splendor – clearly spoken on the page – would draw me in since it is a Bold statement which awaits exploration. Good luck Vickie!!
Yes, you’re right Mary and I wasn’t considering “sourcing” my book’s cover page with the Silverstein, only to show the type of cover one of my friends considered a good one. Thanks for the lovely way you express monster with bold statement. My publisher does have graphic designers so all of these matters are up for consideration and I greatly appreciate the input.
In a former life I was a calligrapher & have some background in design.
The title shocks, the graphic & subtitle need to invite people in. The graphics need to say, “this is user friendly book,” “you can use this info in your daily life.”
I would nix the 1st cover because after a shocking title, you need an invitation to open the book. Smiling w/teeth doesn’t do it, but cartoon characters do.
The Illuminated A is too much of a contrast & doesn’t suggest a theme beyond old fashioned formality. The school/apple graphic might be considered preachy.
Here are some questions that you may want to ask of any cover suggestions–
Is it friendly & inviting?
Does the design suggest that this is good information that you can use?
Does it encourage the potential reader to think about something as unpleasant as their current conflicts & let them know there is info inside to help?
I recommend you unleash a cartoonist or two to answer these questions in a single graphic. The characters holding signs need a strong design element to tie them together.
I am looking forward to reading the book.
These are really solid recommendations Linda and I am taking all of them to heart. I’d LOVE to “unleash a cartoonist” of course but think it would be cost prohibitive. I’ll raise it with my publisher. Thanks SO MUCH for giving me these very particular questions. They help focus my thinking on the cover in a way I hadn’t be able to do before.
Per my twitter note, I would omit any reference to asshole. I think it demeans and puts down clients. I would rather us not think of either the clients who come in or the attorneys as assholes. We deal with people who are having an incredibly difficult time. I would not stoop to that level just in the hope that it will sell books. There is too much of a need for people to have some basic help and understanding. You have much to contribute and I hate to see you deflect your own power. Spiffy is good. Clever and eye catching is good. The other stuff is stuff anyone can do. However, just one little opinion from out here in Pittsburgh.
Thanks Ann. I do believe that the juxtaposition of the title with the theme of the book is one that releases all of us from these frightful characterizations, i.e., no one is an “asshole” – an asshole is a relationship in crisis, a conflict – behavior not a person and two people not one. I have no worry about the book itself offending or demeaning anyone, but will think again about the title since it stirs up controversy and I want to assure myself that it does so in the way I mean it to rather than in the way you understandably took it to.
Vickie -
You wrote above to Joe: “As the first chapter explains, an asshole is not a person but a behavior, not one person but two, and we all exhibit this behavior in certain predictable situations. . .”
Having read the first chapter, this is precisely why I like the engaging, smiling monster. It’s easier to acknowledge our capabilty to engage in less than attractive behavior when it’s softened a little – and normalized through context. Not to say you’re condoning asshole behavior – however, you recognize it as something common to all of us as human beings. That provides a starting point for discussion and possible growth.
Take care.
Debra
P.S. As a former UCLA fine arts major, I don’t mess around when it comes to describing a color.
You’re the BEST Debra! Thanks so much for your kind support AND for not messing around when it comes to describing a color!
I agree that the monster can represent our shadow side we bring with us into conflict yet don’t always recognize until we befriend it and allow it into the room, disarmed and then with that adorable grin….
Vickie–
I like the monster. It’s simple, the color grabs you, and it’ll hop off the page when you come across it on the Internet or on a bookstore shelf. There’s plenty of open space — albeit green rather than white — which to me is a good thing.
Good luck, and I look forward to buying a copy as soon as they’re out.
John DeGroote
OK – the first 2 are the most eye-catching. The lime green cover with the monster is a gem b/c assholes are, in general, monsters & taming them is primo (perhaps you could use a parens that says “ABC’s of conflict resolution = slaying dragons) or do you want to send the subliminal message that you (the conflict resolver, who is also the reader) are/can be a monster? Nice ambiguity, but I like making the opponent a monster, the reader the destroyer of same. . BTW – i’d put your credentials under, rather than alongside your name, to maintain the asymmetry of the overall look.
While I like #2 aesthetically, it has problems: The typography is inconsistent. Try “A is for @$$H0L&” or “A$$HOLE$.” This implies there is money to be made by negotiating. However it also implies the asshole is the one who has the money. And it looks a bit primer pre-school-y.
The next 2 are whimsical and attractive but don’t grab me viscerally, are too cutesy and not at all original, esp #4, which makes negotiating seem somehow trivial, needing gussying-up to appeal.
shel Silverstein is a hero of mine, but the desperation implied by the hands grasping the A so as not to fall off the book is grim, rather than whimsical.
So I’d go with the monster and the reach-out-and-grab-you green. It doesn’t look like anything else on the bookstore shelf & it carries a ton of implicit message.
Now i’m gonna go read what everyone else said so i can feel like an idiot. And subscribe via RSS.
Hi Vickie
have you thought of a demon or devil rather than a monster as in demonising the “other”? You could have a red devil or even a blue or green one peeking over a white wall or in a cage and that would make most of the cover white.
I am not so keen on the word asshole written out – prefer the idea of @$$%*… etc and the typeface on the green monster one is too junior school for your content.
Wishing you continued fun and good luck.
Amanda
Thanks Amanda. As you’ll see from the UPDATE above, I’m thinking of going in an entirely different direction with the cover — depicting the A**hole’s victim/s rather than the monster A**hole as a more inviting way into the book. You will likely still object to the title but what do you think of the new (or a similar) image? Thanks for dropping by to help. MUCH MUCH appreciated. As you see, I’m taking all advice to heart and using it as best I can.