| Lo Fun Fact #1 |
| "Lolita Files" is my real name. It is not a pen name, as incredible as that may seem. There are plenty of Files family members and people who have known me for years capable of validating this. As for the "Lolita" part, my mother named me after the movie based on Nabokov's book, although she saw or read neither. To this day, she has no idea what a "Lolita" is. |
| Lo Fun Fact #2 |
| I love fried chicken and fabulous shoes. If you ever want to get on my good side, send Popeye's or Mr. Chicken (my favorite spot in Cleveland) and a pair of
Christian Louboutins. |
| Lo Fun Fact #3 |
| Never show up unannounced or without a Pepsi (preferably Pepsi Jazz Caramel Cream). Better yet, how about not show up at all? |
| Lo Fun Fact #4 |
| I hate the telephone. Don't get mad if I don't call you. I don't call anyone. Don't call me asking why I don't call. Just don't call, okay? |
| Lo Fun Fact #5 |
| I love the internet!!! I love communicating through the internet!!! You can e-mail me and odds are I'll e-mail you right back (if I'm not in the middle of a major project). Makes up for my hangup about the phone, doesn't it? See, I'm not so bad after all!!! |
| Lo Fun Fact #6 |
| I can't stand IMing. Please don't IM me. You will get the cold shoulder. I don't like giving people the cold shoulder, so please don't put me in that position. |
| Lo Fun Fact #7 |
I have four five six wonderful, slap-happy dogs, a bird (some kind of dove/pigeon mix), and a cat, all of whom I love to pieces. If you meet me and ask me about my dogs, bird, and cat, we'll be instant friends. If you meet me and ask me why the f*ck I have four five six dogs, a bird, and a cat, see the above fun fact for how I will respond. |
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| Deja What The F*ck. |
| Tuesday, July 25, 2006 |
There's this new book out by a writer named Byron Harmon. According to his bio:Byron Harmon is the author of two earlier novels, All The Women I’ve Loved (Pocket, 2002) and Mistakes Men Make (Pocket, 2005). He is the executive producer for the WCBS TV Early Morning News in New York City.
...and boy, does it look oddly familiar.
I'm just sayin'.
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posted by Lo @ 6:12 PM   |
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| 19 Comments: |
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I'm sorry, I'm no marketing pro but I would be somewhat pissed if I were you, Lo. I'd be on the phone to someone. What the hell is the title of that book about anyway? Did the main character catch crabs whilst going over Niagra Falls in a barrell with his girl? Seriously though, I would raise holy hell if I were you. That's outrageous!
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Wow, why did they steal your exact same picture? Do you guys have the same publisher or something? Is it too late to change the cover?
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It's the exact same picture, delightful. We don't have the same publisher. My book was published by Simon & Schuster. His book was done by some company called Agate.
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They'd better put up A GATE before you get over there!
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Lo, my sistuh, my sistuh, my sistuh. It finally caught up to you. Well, I think there is a "library" of African American photos and they pick up the phone and say, "send me a couple who appears to be on the beach." And presto, chango, the photo appears. Someone in-house lightens, darkens, or basically photo shops the fuck out of it and there you have it.
The original jacket photo for Benile Little's Acting Out was the same as Venise Berry's All of Me. In the end they did some changes but it was still the same dang photo.
Matt, the term "crabs in a pot" refers to a group of people (or crabs) that pull one down when they see them getting ahead/away/out of the pot, i.e., when crabs are in a pot of boiling water and one is making it to the top of the heap, one of the ones lower down will reach up and grab the mickey flickey back down. That's where the title comes from.
One thing for sure though is there ain't no such thing as copying the cover art for sex. lies, murder. fame. That cover is like that.
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Yeah, Juan, I know about that vat of pictures they pull for book covers. They do it for more than just African American books. In fact, the galley of "Tastes Like Chicken" has an entirely different cover than the actual finished product. Turned out the cover they originally wanted to use was already in use on author Tracy Price-Thompson's book, "Chocolate Sangria." I forget who shot me an e-mail alerting me to it. It might have been Zane. My memory's kinda foggy. Once I saw that the covers were the same, I flipped my wig, alerted my agent, and the situation got handled. That's when I learned about that big collection of photos in the sky that publishers access for book covers. But you're right...no one can steal the cover for "Sex.Lies." Amistad/HarperCollins had it designed exclusively for me, and what an extraordinary piece of art it is!
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A vat of pictures? That is retarted. Whenever I finish my book, I'ma try my hardest to get some original coverart.
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That is real messed up. I've been thinking about the cover for my up and coming piece of work as well. I'm thinking of the same approach as delightful.
I've heard of stealing story ideas but not covers. Isn't that going to work against him. Most readers will see it and be like, "I have that already" -- besides, his version looks like a bootleg copy because of the dark artwork.
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We need an inside track on those pics so that we can destroy them. I hate it when books have the same cover. I think it is disrespectful to the author. I hate it even more when they have the same name. For example there are three books out there titled Bliss. And those are only the ones that I know of.
Sorry about them taking your cover Lo.
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Thanks, Dawnya. This whole situation is just so damn tacky.
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This is what happens when the Peter Principle is in effect in publishing houses. The real creativity and vision gets stymied, and stuff like this slips through the cracks.
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Wow!!!! That's Jacked up that is the exact same cover, just different (photo shopped) backgrounds...Mayne..I'd be pissed off about that.
I know when my poetry book was in the cover art stages, the cover they picked for me was straight retarded so, I instead did the cover myself...
And as an avid reader I am a believer in good cover art, I think it's what attracts the reader.
So sorry they done did you like that Lo.
Btw...when is your next book dropping? lol
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mmmmmm....crabs in a pot....grgrgrsgsrgsgrs.....(Homer Simpson gurgling sound)....
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hey babycakes...
sorry to hear your "originality" was stolen by this publishing house. best thing to do is to have S&S lawyers look at it and see if there were any embargos, copyright infringements, etc were broken with this cover.
if so, when you have lemons, make lemonade. (collect on the infringment penalities and fees) when i worked at corbis outline, photographs, publishing houses, magazines, etc would have publishing embargos structured around a photographer's work, so they can't be re-published with a competitor's mag, pub. house within a certain time frame or at anytime at all.
maybe the same applied for TLC...
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mmmmm TLC...."whadda' bout' your friends..." Ahhh, Chili. Of course, back in the day my favorite was TBoz...that throaty, sexy voice was all it took.
Are we talking about the same thing?
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TLC = Tastes Like Chicken, but since we are on the topic of TLC maybe T-Boz does to, what a thought. That's a whole lot better than SLF - Smells like Fish - LOL
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Interesting. I just came back from Borders (I had a gift certificate) to purchase VCM's Sin and a Shame (they didnt' have it) but I happened upon this book.
Well, it seems like Agate probably spent their entire budget on the cover. It's this high-quality glossy trade paper with the double fold covers that could act as a bookmark if one is so inclined. But the damn thing ain't but 166 pages and was something like 49 chapters.
Now, ain't that some shyt!
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Mannn I thought this was going to be something about Beyonce and Jay-Z....LOL...Ive been gone on vacation I missed out on the LOZONE something serious...
Okay about the picture...has that ever happend before in the literary world???
sheletha
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I'm sorry, I'm no marketing pro but I would be somewhat pissed if I were you, Lo. I'd be on the phone to someone. What the hell is the title of that book about anyway? Did the main character catch crabs whilst going over Niagra Falls in a barrell with his girl? Seriously though, I would raise holy hell if I were you. That's outrageous!