By Cover Alone

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I was cleaning out my bookshelves yesterday and looking at Andrews McMeel's fall catalogue when it jumped out at me: The Blue Day Book. A ubiquitous presence on the shelves of my local CVS, Target, Wal-Mart... and in the catalogue, I read about what a huge seller it is. This doesn't surprise me. I'm tempted to pick it up at least once a month, based on cover art alone.

I have no idea what the writing inside is like. Maybe it's terrific, maybe it's so-so, but the cover art is irresistible. See for yourself:



So that got me thinking-- maybe I've been going about this book stuff the wrong way. Maybe what I really need to do is to find some utterly alluring cover art first, then decide what book I can write to match it.

(Okay, it's a stupid idea, but go with me on this.)

Writers, consider this a prompt. Go off and find artwork on the web that you think would make a to-die-for cover, then tell me what book you'd write to match it.

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