You Gotta Read - Covers and Brailers

By some quirky twist of fate, my book, "Missing, Assumed Dead," is at both You Gotta Read sites.

Voting Opens Today on Both Sites

I didn't plan it this way, but it's kind of karmic that I have a shot at starting the mystery's release off with a bang by win, place, or show on either site.

The brailer was posted on the 4th of July, so I'm not sure how many people came in from their picnics and fireworks displays to take a look. Vote for #4 today at You Gotta Read Videos.


The cover spot was on the more fortuitous July 10th spot. Of course, it's great to have your cover or your book show up in the much more desirable pimp spot of July 20th (the last cover and brailer posts). Vote for #10 today at You Gotta Read Covers.


I vote on these two sites. Like so many others, I vote for people I know. Sometimes their cover or brailer isn't the best of the month, but we all know this is a popularity contest.

When a month comes up when I don't know any of the entrants or I know more than one and have to choose, these are my criteria for voting:

For Brailers:

• If a brailer is longer than two minutes, I don't watch the entire spot UNLESS IT IS SO FANTASTIC that I can't resist. Times this has happened? Zero.
• If a brailer was produced by a professional trailer company, it will have to be bloody spectacular. I favor the do-it-yourself authors who do their best to represent their book.
• If one of the slides contains the words: "world is turned upside down" or "little did s/he know" or "caught up in xxxxx" I'm unlikely to vote for it.
• From the remaining brailers, I go for the one that best presents the plot. If the transitions are a little shaky and slides too short to read (I'm guilty of this one), the brailer has less of a chance with me.

For Covers:

• If I can't tell the genre from the cover, then I don't think it works.
• If a cover consists of one or more nude or semi-nude people standing around looking sultry, it doesn't get my vote.
• Color, composition, symbolism: I had enough art appreciation courses to give these covers higher marks.