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Club Lighthouse Publishing
- Thread starter Ms. Jem
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I would, too. If there's a swastika and spattered blood on the cover, there'd damned well better be Nazis being the bad guys.
Likewise, if there's a basket of puppies on the cover, I don't want to see Nazis in there.
So of course a reasonable reader would be upset if the cover art were not closely related to the content.
Maryn, agog
Likewise, if there's a basket of puppies on the cover, I don't want to see Nazis in there.
So of course a reasonable reader would be upset if the cover art were not closely related to the content.
Maryn, agog
This is actually a pet peeve of mine. Sometimes I think I am going to have an ethnic male lead in a book cause the cover shows a hot Asian or black guy and then I start reading the book and I get a white guy. Now, I like white guy leads- so don't go there, too. But if I am buying a book so that I can perv on hot ethnic guy, that is exactly what I want. If the cover leads me to believe that I was going to get hot ethnic dude to be used for my special alone time and I don't get that, then yeah, I am disappointed. So much so that sometimes, I have to extend my special alone time just to get over it. And although I am being somewhat tongue in cheek, it is still true. Cover=implicit promise, book should deliver. If not, disappointment ensues.
I would, as well.
The cover is not some random image, and it certainly should indicate the contents, to some extent. Ever a cover that doesn't show any people at all, should give you an idea of what you're picking up.
That's why good publisher put a lot of time and effort into covers.
It's like a cover of a novel set in the Tudor era, with the cover model in Regency dress: it's just weird, and, on the basis of 'outside reflects the inside', the historical accuracy will be kind of random. As well as the spelling and grammar.
The cover is not some random image, and it certainly should indicate the contents, to some extent. Ever a cover that doesn't show any people at all, should give you an idea of what you're picking up.
That's why good publisher put a lot of time and effort into covers.
It's like a cover of a novel set in the Tudor era, with the cover model in Regency dress: it's just weird, and, on the basis of 'outside reflects the inside', the historical accuracy will be kind of random. As well as the spelling and grammar.
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It's advertising for the book. Sort of like the original home video releases of The Magic Christian with John Cleese's name over Ringo Starr's and Peter Sellers's or Raquel Welch as the star of the original Bedazzled when Cleese and Welch are barely on screen for 10 minutes. Yeah, sure, it sold extra copies but for the people who'd never seen the movies it was a serious disappointment when they were expecting one thing and got another.
A photo says many things to many people. There have been hundreds of thousands of books published that the cover illustration does not allude to what is inside the book.
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Some covers are carefully chosen non-representational images, but I don't know of any successful commercial publisher that just slaps any random image on a cover.
I have seen that on less professional publications. No, I would more say I have seen poorly chosen images, but they didn't appear to be simply random.
I have also seen the same stock images on wildly differing publications from successful publishers, but those stock images were relevant to the contents or reflected them in some way.
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Only if the publisher is incompetent.
I personally would want nothing to do with a publisher that will slap some random picture on something I spent hundred of hours creating. Especially when we know that covers are actually an important part of the marketing process. Bookstores choose books based on blurb and coverflat alone.
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Even covers that are a single image are specific to the content of the book. The apple on Twilight represents temptation. The hands holding it are young and female. The tie on 50 Shades of Grey represents both business and a constricting knot. Sure, neither has pictures of the character or locations on the cover, but both very specifically represent the content of the book, and a reader picking those books up will hopefully be genre savvy enough to 'read' that image, even if only subconsciously.
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Link, for folks who want to look them up.
They posted on their facebook page four days ago, and their website's still live, so I'm not sure what you mean by "gone dark."
(With the caveat that I wouldn't touch with a barge pole a publisher who describes their editor as "He has also does much of the editing.")
Anyways....Welcome, Bobann, to Absolute Write. I encourage you to go to the New Members section and start a thread to say hello, introduce yourself, share a little about yourself as a writer, and let us know what you have to offer this community.
They posted on their facebook page four days ago, and their website's still live, so I'm not sure what you mean by "gone dark."
(With the caveat that I wouldn't touch with a barge pole a publisher who describes their editor as "He has also does much of the editing.")
Anyways....Welcome, Bobann, to Absolute Write. I encourage you to go to the New Members section and start a thread to say hello, introduce yourself, share a little about yourself as a writer, and let us know what you have to offer this community.
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Not really new. I do read the threads on Absolute when I've got a moment. You guys have grown!
The reason for asking about CLP is that they've published five of my books and signed a contract for two more. And I've done some marketing for them - book reviews.
I've emailed three times and no reply. Curious.
And thanks for the welcome!
The reason for asking about CLP is that they've published five of my books and signed a contract for two more. And I've done some marketing for them - book reviews.
I've emailed three times and no reply. Curious.
And thanks for the welcome!
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Check your spam/junk folder! I always find it amazing how many emails to me end up there. Also check to make sure your email system isn't full -- send yourself an email and see if it arrives. I missed a heap of emails a few months ago because my system was maxed out and I had no idea.
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Ah, crapperdoodles, there's already a thread on this publisher. I'll ask the mods to merge this thread with the older one (https://absolutewrite.com/forums/index.php?threads/club-lighthouse-publishing.98579/)
ETA: It appears they have a history of periodically 'going dark' and not responding to/paying their authors.
@Bobann, if you want to ask about a publisher or agent, please first check the index to see if there's an existing thread on them.
ETA: It appears they have a history of periodically 'going dark' and not responding to/paying their authors.
@Bobann, if you want to ask about a publisher or agent, please first check the index to see if there's an existing thread on them.
Is . . . that Sarah Palin on the cover of The Crimson Shame? I'll leave the politics out of it, especially in light of the book's content, and question if the stock images are royalty free.
You may have been reading but you haven't been participating. All three of your posts are in here.
You get a welcome from the mods with tips and links to check out when you post in New Members along with a chance to say hi and for other people to get to know you. If you've already published five books with them isn't the horse out of the barn? You should be telling us what they're like!
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All the amateur designer sins on display: crushed, ugly fonts; mismatched colors; translucent images laid atop each other resulting in visual mud ... I'm not inclined to find out what's inside.
Agree on atrocious covers. One of those looks like graphics from the original Sims.
Randomly selected a book. Published in 2021, they want almost $7 for a Kindle version, which seems like a lot. Omg, it's only 60 pages and they want that much for it. Not a single review, the blurb is awful, and no sales rankings, probably because no sales.
Second random book published this January, 0 sales on Amazon, 0 reviews, $6 on Kindle.
This place would be a hard pass from me.
Randomly selected a book. Published in 2021, they want almost $7 for a Kindle version, which seems like a lot. Omg, it's only 60 pages and they want that much for it. Not a single review, the blurb is awful, and no sales rankings, probably because no sales.
Second random book published this January, 0 sales on Amazon, 0 reviews, $6 on Kindle.
This place would be a hard pass from me.
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Judging from comments on the original thread for this publisher, they regularly purchase very cheap photos of celebrities and use them as cover art.
I would expect using that particular politician's image for the cover of a book with that particular content would be......a defamation lawsuit waiting to happen.