I have a question?

Welcome to AW!

According to my PA contract, I could give input or even offer my own designs for my bookcover. (PA also had the final decision.) However, the first one PA sent me was a picture of a large tick and a magnifying glass. My book had absolutely nothing to do with ticks, (you know... dogs... ticks) The second cover they sent me, fit the book more, but once they transferred it to the book, it blurred. Regardless of what you tell PA, you are correct that they will do whatever they choose to do about your cover. They have a quota to meet and the faster they get your book through production, the sooner they can donate ten minutes to the next book's cover. You will most likely be able to find your cover on the jupiterimages.com website. Unless you specified what you wanted, you got what they chose from a smorgasbord of stock images, where they then altered it, if necessary, and added your title and name to it. I can't suggest how you should answer that email, except to tell them that the cover has nothing to do with your book. Maybe you can suggest what you would like to see on the cover as well. Good luck!

In the quick reply window right above where you type your message, you will see what looks like a mountain with yellow in the background. That should allow you to upload the photo.

Yeah. After you hit Post Reply, you'll get a box with a couple of rows of icons up top. One of them is "insert image." Try that.

My computer's security program won't let me upload to the board either, although I can load them in my avatar, and post a photo of myself in my usercp. Maybe Jim or someone else can offer some suggestions.

Do you have the photo on a website somewhere?

If you can't get it to upload directly, you can do this:

Go to: www.photobucket.com. Make a free account. Upload your photo there.

Once the photo loads, go to the photo on their website. (Usually, just scroll down) Put your mouse below the picture. A whole bunch of options pop up. One is a URL. Use that.

Put it on your web page. Put a link to it here.

Can you do a screen capture to make the image a photo?

(open the PDF file on your desktop, hit "print screen" - there should be a button on your keyboard for it, then open photoshop, or whatever program you have and hit "paste". It should give you a duplicate image that you can save as a photo.)

That's not very romantic, eh? Tell PA you don't like it and that your book isn't a horror novel. It may not do any good, but keep a copy of the email so that you prove you sent the message to them when they try to tell you they never received it.

No problem. Glad I could help out. Your link works great too!

I got my bf to help me with it. You need photo shop to change it over from pdf to jpg

I see what you mean on the cover.

And the word "coming" needs a spell check. Oops.

Welcome to AW, Colts442.

Your next course after attempting to change the cover, is to try to get out of your contract.

Sometimes they cut people loose if they think you won't be buying copies or are unable to promote. But don't hold your breath.

The "Info-monster" (Miranda Prather) and others from PA lurk here on AW, so they'll know you've come here. Miranda does not have a reputation for professional behavior toward writers or anyone else.

Here's some of her history. You may want to reconsider about having this person in charge of your literary career.

I would suggest, once the dust has settled on this issue, is to write another, better book and seek commercial publication through a different venue.

You'll find tons of helpful people here on AW who will be very glad to help you out.

No one is going to fault you for going with PA. They do a lot of flag-waving and Jesus-praising on their website, so it is just too easy to believe their lies.

The major "tell" that you are dealing with a vanity press is when there is a "Testimonials" on the site. PA has one. Doubtless many were posted by folk still in the "honeymoon" phase.

I've checked the major commercial publishers--the ones who have books in stores, the ones who pay their writers REAL money. NONE have a "testimonials" page but you won't find a vanity or scam site without them.

Please stick around and explore. AW is the best friend any writer can have!

Colts, I agree that most readers automatically equate a red-and-black cover with the horror and murder mystery genres. However, I doubt that PublishAmerica will be willing to prepare a different cover for your book -- unless you pay an exhorbitant fee. And your contract very likely gives the publisher total control over the cover art. If you complain about it on the PublishAmerica forum, your post will be deleted. Your options are pretty limited.

Your best bet will probably be to very politely but very firmly tell PublishAmerica that you will not buy any copies of your book. At all. Ever. Under any circumstances. Reiterate this -- and nothing else -- every time they contact you. They may release you from your contract.

Like Gill suggested... Your issue is not the cover, really. Your issue is that you have a contract with PA. I'd suggest doing your very best to get out of that contract. As stated above, it seems that if you make it clear that you won't be buying any copies of your books, and you won't be promoting the book, they'll sometimes let it go. If they do, great, you can give that book "the chance it deserves" somewhere else. If they don't let you go... Well... write another book. Write a better book. The contract will expire eventually.

Sorry you got trapped man woman (sorry). I almost did myself. I was || close. I got lucky and some wonderful watchdogs (from around these parts) saved me. That's how I was introduced to AW. No one's going to look down on you for having a contract with PA. A lot of people around here do or did. We just want people to realize that it's not a good thing for them or their book. And that can come off as offensive to writers in the honeymoon phase. But we don't hate the writers--we hate PA.