This Guy Is Making Fun of Our WROX Covers...Sort Of...
With the headline "Idea: Nerdiness sells", Kurt Strahm pokes a bit of fun at our authors and the WROX cover design. I suppose everyone has an opinion on why we feature author photos on the front cover. Aside from the unique branding it offers us, I tend to believe it helps add a bit more personality to the book. And yes, some of the pictures the authors submit aren't quite what we had in mind, but then again, we try to limit the amount of Photoshop work that's done on any one.
I wonder if we should create a website full of author photos that didn't make the cut. Or, maybe we could create a WROX-ize-me site, like simpsonizeme.com where loyal readers could upload their own photos and create custom WROX covers...
As an added bonus, for the next few days only, I'm replacing my formal blog photo with my simpsonizeme.com one.
That is so funny! We've been laughing our heads off at work for the past 2 weeks after buying a WROX book. We keep saying that the guy on the cover must be very competent for his picture to be on the cover because he's ugly as hell. The joke has gotten out of hand and that guy - I'm not sure I want to tell you which book it is - is now a god in our office. When we can't figure out a glitch in our application we inevitably refer to the ugly guy on the cover of the WROX book - saying we need to read more of his stuff. When we solve a problem we credit the guy on the cover - saying we couldn't have done it without learning from him.
All of this and we haven't even started reading the damn book yet! Keep up the great covers!
Posted by: Yacine | July 30, 2007 at 01:55 PM
Yacine, that's hilarious! Is it the "JavaScript Objects" book, by any chance?
Joe, if you line up a bunch of covers on a book shelf with all those faces staring at you, it creates an uneasy effect. :) I kind of wish you put pressure on people to submit decent pictures.
Posted by: Milan Negovan | August 09, 2007 at 11:24 AM
Just remembered I PhotoShopped a Wrox cover once, as a joke. I replaced one author with another :) Dunstan wasn't on the cover at the time.
Posted by: Milan Negovan | August 09, 2007 at 11:30 AM
I think your "Men of WROX" calendar still was one of the most disturbing things you ever put together...
Posted by: John Helmus | August 11, 2007 at 09:06 AM