Monday, March 31, 2008

Perspective Cover

I want to start using this blog for what it was originally meant for - a journal, of sorts, of my efforts to make the world a better place than it would have otherwise been.

I have released the book Perspective on the Pledge as a private publication, but I am going through the hoops of making it generally available through your local bookstore.

I am in a dispute with unnamed others about the cover. I worry that a cover where a black child is saluting what appears to be a Confederate flag might put off potential buyers. On the other hand, the cover does depict the intent of the book - to look at what it is like to live in a country where the government's official pledge is to view you as inferior to your fellow citizens.

Of course, somebody who does not know the contents will not know what a book, with a black person saluting a confederate flag, could possibly be about. It could relate to any number of socially charged issues. Which would make people nervous - make them want to stay away.

So, we have a classic dispute here in art vs. business. will this cover help to sell books? Should it matter?

I have a couple of weeks to decide. Then, everything gets set in concrete.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you should go with it. Other cover-charged books became best sellers despite that fact. Case in point: The God Delusion.

Best of luck and I hope you will eventually license it under a CC license.

Hume's Ghost said...

You could add some sort of subtitle that makes the cover's intent clearer.

Alonzo Fyfe said...

Hume's Ghost

I like your idea. Does anybody have a suggestion?

Anonymous said...

I really liked the fact that it was a confederate flag. It drove the point home visually. Furthermore, I think it is a GOOD thing from a marketing perspective. A black child saluting an American flag won't draw any interest, and is easily passed by. A black child saluting a Confederate flag catches the eye. It could cause someone who would have otherwise not noticed the book to pick it up and say "ho ho, what is this all about?" That alone - simply being noticed among all the noise out there - is a huge step forward.

As for a subtitle, I almost think it doesn't need one. However if I was pressed to come up with something, one thing that comes to mind is to change the title simply to "The Pledge" and subtitle it "A perspective on a hijacked institution"

Hume's Ghost said...

A Perspective on the Pledge:Why it is wrong to ask Americans to pledge allegiance to the notion that they are second class citizens



Or something along those lines.