Category - Admin Stuff

I’ve been asked by a couple of people who want to design their own covers (sob!) what pitfalls they should avoid.  I’ve condensed my advice into a single page, If You Want to Design Your Own Cover….  May it enlighten you and yours.

I’d like to tell you all that my host has recovered from the server crash, and everything will be hunky-dory. Instead, I have to tell you that the server crash ate all of my sites whole, and I have to start over with a blank slate.  At another host. Because Hostivia.com is never ever getting another dollar from me.

Lousy Book Covers is easier to restore than most of my other online ventures, because all of the content was mirrored at the tumblog. (Funny how it was just a few weeks ago that I was persuaded to move the main site from tumblr to private hosting because of greater control over the fate of the content. Irony! Irony is kicking me in the nards!)

Anyway.  What I have lost is the 200+ covers scheduled to be posted in the future, but I still have a goodly assortment, so posting will recommence today.  Meanwhile, I’ll be re-customizing the theme, re-adding links to the book’s descriptions, re-creating tags… Glorious fun, eh, what?

Here’s hoping your Friday is significantly superior to mine.

The webhost for lousybookcovers.com (to which this tumblr is a mirror), along with every other website I own, screwed the pooch yesterday morning and isn’t even responding to support requests. I have signed up for another, more established host, and the websites are being transferred as we speak. Your patience is appreciated.

The following comment was left on this blog post, mirrored from here:

Dear Mr. Shumate,

It has come to my attention that you posted a picture of the cover of my book, however you have never contacted me to ask for legal permission. Clearly you understand that this work is copyrighted and requires permission for you to use. Whatever your opinion of my work, you do not have permission to use this image, so I’m asking you respectfully to take the picture down from here and your Tumblr account (http://lousybookcovers.tumblr.com/post/36367094042/gracie-the-ghost-eater-stop-staring-at-me-like). Please respond within 48 hours or I will be forced to commence legal action.

My response:

Oh, for heaven’s sake. Your book cover is FOR DISPLAY. I am exhibiting it, with an affiliate link back to Amazon, FOR REVIEW PURPOSES. Would you demand that I take it down if I LIKED it? No? Then what galls you is my OPINION, which is covered under the Fair Use Doctrine.

Here’s what I’m gonna do, then:

– I’ll replace the copied image with one served directly from Amazon’s servers. You won’t have any legal claim against me (not that you would actually have, because you haven’t the foggiest notion of what copyright law means), because the image will come directly from a vendor which you have authorized to display it.

– I’ll just post all of this where people can see it. While I’m doing that, you go and google “the Streisand effect.”

I’m really tired of the thin-skinned coming here and bleating, “Waaah! Someone’s being MEAN to me by not thinking I’m wunnerful! There oughtta be a law!”

Just to be clear, here’s the image DISPLAYED DIRECTLY FROM AMAZON.COM.

There are many ways to deal with criticism. TRYING TO SHUT THE MOUTH OF THE CRITIC AIN’T ONE OF THEM.

Thanks to popular demand (or a request or two), Lousy Book Covers now cross-posts to a Facebook page. Like it, love it, stalk it, offer to bear its children, whatever floats your boat.