Blow it up before you buy: The story of an ebook cover

I needed a landing page.

And a thumbnail image of an ebook cover.

I’m in the process of writing an ebook, How to write a kick-butt resume cover letter. (Register for my mailing list to get your free, get-started-now, 6-page article!)

So I hired an online design house with a great rep for designing ebook covers and landing pages.

Budget-minded, since this is my first time down the road of selling an info product, I paid $50, and enjoyed really top-notch service: They used my colors and logo in a way that was pleasing and fair for the price. You can see their work here.

Eventually I realized I wanted to print copies of the book, and sell them when I give my
free talk on how to write cover letters.  I asked for a full-size image.

I just got it: The background, heretofore a swirl of colors,  is one of giant hibiscus flowers. I can’t stop laughing, I am so not a hibiscus.

Is there a problem?
I can’t decide. When it comes to brand elements, those are in place. When it comes to flowers, no one but me knows that’s not appropriate for my business. But hey, no one ever asked me if I like flowers for RichWriting. I never thought about it myself. And I never asked to see what was behind all those swirls. What do you think?

Birthday greetings to ewe

Today is my husband’s birthday.

I wrote him a note, and because we tend to get very silly with each other, it looked like this:

Happy birthday
2 u

Happy birthday
Two you

Happy birthday
Uu

Happy birthday
To ewe

Happy birthday
To you

Happy birthday
Two ewe

If I were an artist, I’d surely include pictures. But after I finished this note I realized (again) why it’s so important to edit your work.
Aside from the uu every word is spelled correctly. But the meaning is incorrect, except for the one line: Happy birthday to you.

We can dive into the grammar niceties and talk about homophones and homonyms and homographic homophones but hey, I’m celebrating my man’s day here.

If ewe find you get caught up between words like these, use Google.  Type in the word pairs and a definition will pop up. Of course you can use a dictionary (the book or online resource), but in this instance, Google is faster.

Now let’s go have some cheesecake.

Susan’s (almost) skin cancer chronicle, part 4

Tonight I met a melanoma survivor.

A man, mid-40s. We were chatting in a bar, this past August. He asked about my hat, his wife asked about my sun shirt.

He said he’d had skin cancer, then he rolled up his sleeve to show me: A long, laddered scar that spanned his elbow and wound its way across his bicep. He’s got, like me, hundreds of moles. He’s had, unlike me, more than 30 biopsies. He is, I’m glad to report, one year away from the 5-year mark, when he will be deemed cancer-free. I hope he makes it. He’s sure he will.

And he confirmed – as if I could possibly disbelieve my eyes – what my surgeon said: There is no cure for melanoma. They cut. And cut. And cut. So deep. So wide. So long.

It’s the so long that gets to me:

Melanoma is the least common but the most deadly skin cancer, accounting for only about 4% of all cases but 79% of skin cancer deaths.

For 2002, the American Cancer Society estimates there will be 53,600 new cases of melanoma in the United States and 7,400 deaths from the disease. Melanoma is currently the sixth most common cancer in American men and the seventh most common in American women. The median age at diagnosis is between 45 and 55, although 25% of cases occur in individuals before age 40. It is the second most common cancer in women between the ages of 20 and 35, and the leading cause of cancer death in women ages 25 to 30.

What about sunscreen?
There is an ongoing debate about sunscreen:

Yes, it’s necessary to protect yourself from the sun.

Yes, it will keep your face looking youthful, longer.

Yes, there appears to be evidence that some sunscreens are worse than others. Here’s a list of products that might help guide your decision.

I wear sunscreen (minimum SPF 15)  myself, every day. For me, the risk of wearing a possibly harmful lotion is less than the reality of the surgeon’s blade.