I don’t know if you saw the “conversation” I had with someone on Twitter the other day. The man declared that erotica was just women’s porn. I knew arguing with him was pointless, but let him know that there was a big difference between porn and erotica and his statement showed his ignorance of erotica. (grin)

I wonder what he thinks of romance. HAHAHAHA Naw, not really. 😉

As an expert in publishing (specializing in helping new publishers), my blood pressure just hit max. I think we should hunt down this fool with a bogus gun and give him/her/it a full-faced blast! We need less poseurs and more reality.

Again, not bashing you at all. Merely trying to be a helpful beagle.

Totally understood!

I went to look at Women in Shadow and Light and beautiful, beautiful book! Obviously I like nekkid bodies, but maybe that colors the reason why I don’t understand why anybody would call it porn.

On the subject of Amazon reviews from ejits: this may actually help you.

That’s why I pointed to it. It made me laugh, too. I had a review from an “expert” in publishing that flat-out lied about my book, and I don’t point to that because it’s just so factually incorrect. Deliberately so.

I only bring up the “porn” issue because we did a book that got labeled that., so I know the fight you’ll have on your hands. Women in Shadow and Light http://www.janlafontaine.com/womeninshadows.html is about women healing from abuse. The book contains art photos of unclothed women (not bruises and broken bones) and is quite beautiful and uplifting. But none of the big 5 pre-pub revierwers would touch it (I had a friend walk it into the Booklist reviewer’s office and he said “Oh, THAT book.”). None of the women’s advocay groups would touch it. We now call it The Book of Nekkid Ladies in the Victorian Age.

It’s a great, arresting cover. But this is a case of a designer’s mind over matter: If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.

On the subject of Amazon reviews from ejits: this may actually help you. A string on non-confrontational reviews is a minus to many buyers. Adversarial reviews balanced among positive reviews let the buyer know it may not be for them – or may be just the ticket!

And as Christ said, “And the fools ye shall always have with thee…”

Regarding the bar code, that was Lightning Source’s template, so it is exactly where it should be. I have no say in that.

Regarding its risqueness, yes, that’s why I had to ask myself if I had the balls to put it on the cover.

Regarding, porn, well, it’s already been called that—although I can tell you that A) that person read the 200-page excerpt and thought it was the whole book, B) that is his sole review anywhere on Amazon [makes me feel very special], and C) he obviously doesn’t read much porn.

Society is afraid of women’s sexuality. They need to get the hell over it. So does the publishing industry.

Two problems:

The immediate visual take-away is that this is porn. People DO judge a book by its cover.

Unfortunately, you’ll not be carried in may bookstores. It’s shocking to think we’re in the 21st century and people are terrifid of sexuality – specifically women’s sexuality. I can’t think of any Midwest bookstore that would shelve this face out. Too many random widgets would plotz that their “baby” could see it and have “thoughts.”

If you aren’t aiming at bookstores, fine. If you aren’t aimong at the sorts of people who would be offended by this, fine. Your marketing plan and reader-targets are all that matter in the end.

Two last nits to pick: The bar code should go in the right hand bottom corner, not the middle. I’d step down the background of the back cover about 2 more levels. I can tell it’s going to be hard to read the backmatter. Or you can bring up the picture to 100% and make a text box of a complementary color and overlay it on the picture.

Otherwise, I think it’s pretty spiffy.

So, I like The Bewbies too. LOL