Okay, for today's Random Tuesday, I'm going to do something I normally don't do. Talk writing politics on my blog. It seems over the weekend a certain cover model caused a small scandal on facebook with a post about today's obsiety trends in the United States. I'm not about to open a can of worms about fat shaming vs statistics here, but instead I want to focus on the fall out from this. Personally, I could care less how much a person weighs or don't weigh. That is a topic between them and thier doctor - not me - a single mom with three kids who likes to write naughty stories in her free time. However, I couldn't help but be aghast at all the bashers who say they are going to boycott any book with this model who shall not be named on the cover.
Which has a lot of seasoned authors like me going: hold up. If your goal is to punish the jerk who talked out of the side of his neck, you're going about it the wrong way. Why? Well, those books - many which predate this fiasco by not only months but years, he's already recieved his money from. He more than likely doesn't earn comission off the sales of the book - in fact, some struggling author or publishing company purchased his image outright to use on the cover. The only person you're hurting by refusing to by said book is the author themselves.
Of course, there will be naysayers that will say - then change the cover. Well, easier said than done - particularly if you're talking about a cover owned by a publishing company. Most publishers are not going to go through the cost of replacing every cover this model happens to be on - and there are a ton of them. (Not to mention the confusion it can cause certain readers who heavily rely on the cover when they're one-clicking their favorite authors. Me included. I've purchased duplicates over the years, simply because an author redid the cover. My fault totally for not reading the blurb.)
For those of us who choose to do the indie route, we may be able to change our covers out easier, however we're bankrolling the change - particularly when we're paying a cover artist. (Some of us do our own covers, but we still have to pay for the photos) For my Calypso's Series, I hired out a cover artist and I've already paid out over $500 for three covers, and still have three more to go. Is Kellie Dennis from Book Covers by Design worth that - absolutely! Just realize when you tell an author to change anything about their books, you're asking an author to shell out more money to redo something she/he has already paid for once.
And say an author does decide to change something like a cover - realize it's not just the costs of the new ebook cover, since many authors have this model on print copies of the book, swag and their websites. All of which can add up fast when you're talking about completely rebranding a book or series.
So as a struggling author myself, I ask the readers stop a second, jump off the bandwagon and think about who they are ultimately screwing when they say I'll never buy another book with his image on it again. I assure you it isn't the model.
Also remember us authors are a tight knit community and many won't be purchasing any more of his stock.
