Time to Write

How the concept of plagiarism is getting lost

Business Insider interviewed Chris Scott, who came up with a funny tweet that was re-Tweeted thousands of times, often without attribution.

People changed the wording slightly and then sent it out as their own.

One comedian even accused him of stealing the joke, claiming he'd said it on TV. When challenged to be specific about when he'd said it, he withdrew the accusation and apologized.

What I find most interesting is Scott's interpretation of the phenomenon:

"It's a genuinely fascinating and foreign concept to me, to see something that you connect with on some level and then decide, 'Well, that's mine now.' My hunch is there's a sizable chunk of people who don't really grasp what plagiarism is or why it's wrong, and they kind of regard Twitter and social media as this giant free-for-all where everybody's just constantly taking and posting whatever they want from whoever they want."

One could argue that since people are not benefitting financially from their Tweets (nor are those who are plagiarising them), this is not such a big deal. What is a big deal, though, is that this attitude spreads easily to appropriating content in general, including going to pirate sites to download material that is essential to the financial survival of the people who created it. 

I don't know whether this attitude can be reversed, but writers and other creators will need to find a way to deal with it. Many musicians have turned to live performance as their primary source of income, but I don't think too many people will pay us to read our novels to them.

Three options if your writing career isn't working out the way it "should"

The late Alert Ellis, founder of Rational-Emotive Therapy, pointed out that a great deal of stress comes from being upset that life isn't meeting our expectations...and that often these expectations are irrational. 

For instance, we may think, "People should be honest," and when somebody cheats us, we are shocked and extremely upset, sometimes unable to let go of these emotions for a long time.

Ellis' thinking was that we know that not everybody is honest, so why are we so surprised when we encounter someone who isn't? 

WHY (NOT) ME?

It's natural to be annoyed about it, but sometimes people get hung up about "Why did this have to happen to ME?!"  

Actually, it happens to just about everybody at some stage, so feeling that we have somehow been targeted by fate also is irrational. (Plus, we seldom ask that question when something good happens to us.)

The more rational approach is to take reasonable precautions against being cheated, learn from it when it happens, and not expect people who cheat us once to do something different next time. 

WHY IS OUR GENIUS NOT BEING RECOGNIZED THE WAY IT SHOULD?!

If we think about this in terms of writing, we can get upset that our writing isn't getting the attention it SHOULD.

History is full of excellent artists and writers whose work didn't get any attention until after they died, and probably even more whose work didn't get any attention after they died, either. 

THREE WAYS WE CAN RESPOND

How are we to respond when people (like agents and publishers) aren't responding to our work the way we think they should?

* We can become bitter. I've met a few people who took that route. It's not much fun, and possibly bad for your health as well, certainly for your mental health.

* We can try to think of a different way to approach our writing or marketing, to see whether that gives us the response we'd like to get. For writers, that could mean self-publishing, publishing collaboratively, trying a different genre, performing their work, and many other options.

* We can consider redefining our definition of success. Is only the best-selling writer successful? Or does writing something that reaches a few thousand or a few hundred people qualify? How about something that changes just one person's life for the better? Could what we learn and experience from writing be enough of a benefit, regardless of how many people read our work? 

What is not a good solution, as Ellis used to say, is "shoulding ourselves."

Related articles

Writers and Artists are not Beggers! (Don't make the corn flakes cry)

Author Translation (from Spanish to rude)

Victoria Strauss, who runs the excellent "Writer Beware" blog, had an inquiry about an outfit calling itself Author Translation, which offers to translate your work into Spanish.

She made a polite inquiry about the identity and qualifications of the translators and any publishers and clients with whom they have worked.

The answer was vague, so she restated her questions, still very politely, making the points that it would be difficult for an author to assess whether they were getting a professional translation if the site didn't offer any information about the translators, especially if the authors didn't speak or read Spanish themselves.

She got this hilarious response:

"You seem to gather what you want to gather. I told you the translators publish their names depending on personal choice (you can be published or anonymous), why do you gather from this sentence that "they are not professionals" ? Maybe you need psychological treatment if you understand so badly. 

In addition, why do you say that "a language they can't speak or read themselves " if I told you that we are Spanish? Are you crazy ?

And why you say that "the author has no way of judging the quality of the finished product" if everybody can pass some few translated pages to any Spanish person in order to judge?

Please, don't disturb us any more, I answered you and I didn't have any duty of doing that. I did it only because you seem to be part of a bigger organization, but your "watchdog" is the more stupid thing I have ever seen in my life. Go away you and your dog.

Doesn't inspire confidence in their service (or their manners), does it?

 

 

These publications should not be publishing fiction

Considering how hard it is to get published, it's alarming that there is one type of publication that shouldn't be publishing fiction but does...if you pay.

No, I'm not talking about vanity publishing--at least not the usual kind.

NEW SCIENTIFIC STUDY REVEALS ABSOLUTE NONSENSE!

As revealed in an article by Elizabeth Segran at fastcompany.com, there are medical journals that will publish your article if you pay $500.

Harvard Medical researcher Mark Shrime decided to test how many journals would agree to publish a nonsense article he created with a random text generator. He called the article "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?', with the subtitle, "The surgical and neoplastic role of cacoa extract in breakfast cereals." The authors were listed as Pinkerton A. LeBrain and Orson Welles.

JOINTURE BETRAYED!

To give you an idea of the content, here's the first sentence: "In an intention dependent on questions on elsewhere, we betrayed possible jointure in throwing cocoa."

He submitted the article to 37 medical journals, 17 of which have accepted it, subject to payment of a processing fee of $500.

One of the journals called the study novel and innovative. Well, it's certainly novel.

He says there are directories that identify the reputable journals, but people who are not in the particular medical field in question may not be aware of such directories, and may take articles in the bogus publications as valid. 

As my physician, Dr Random Text-Generator commented, "Property men the why smallest graceful day insisted required. Inquiry justice country old placing sitting any ten age." Feel free to quote him.

How random is success? How risky is risk?

Being of German background, I may have a bias toward "the rules", but today I read an interesting post by Richard Koch, author of several books on the 80/20 Principle, in which he makes this point:

Events are more random than we think; business and life are profoundly uncertain.

He says often we get so caught up in the supposed rules of life (to get a good job, get a college education; to make money, work hard, etc.) that we miss it when opportunities not in line with those assumptions pop up. 

If you want to be more open to benefitting from the opportunities that arise, he advises exposing yourself to a lot of different people and situations. Leave aside your preconceptions and be willing to takes risks:

"Take risks with limited downside, and cut your losses if the bet is going nowhere.  For example, change jobs, change where you live, change the people you mix with, accept daring projects that may not succeed but could move your fortunes up a gear.  Divide your life into more discrete chunks."

I think we tend to overestimate the risks associated with trying something different, and we hang on too long to things that aren't working...or is that only me? His approach feels like it would be more fun.

It reminds me of one of the sayings of Seneca: "It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult."

Koch has some tips that may increase your odds of happening upon opportunities:

* In terms of your career, find companies and individuals who you think may be about to take off and align yourself with them. 

* Build up unique skills and be alert to new situations in which these could make a major contribution. That will make you valuable to the aforementioned companies and individuals.

* When you do get a break, don't hesitate. Jump in, give it everything, and if it doesn't turn out to be a winner, cut your losses without regrets.

The few times I've rolled the dice--moving to Los Angeles to get into writing for TV and film, moving to London when I got tired of LA, approaching a publisher out of the blue--have paid off nicely. Of course a few haven't, but in general the evidence favors being willing to take risks. I wonder whether your experience has been similar.

What would you do if you dared a bit more? What might be the payoff? What are the actual risks? Could this be the time to give it a try, not forgetting about having a way out if it doesn't work?

 

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Richard Linklater's no-formula movie plots

Walking for creativity and learning

In researching my book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, I found that one thing many great writers have in common is that they come up with ideas while walking. Charles Dickens was famous for this, apparently averaging 20 miles a day! 

Now some new research from Sweden suggests it helps learning, too.

University lecturer Olle Balter started taking his class for walks in a wooded park instead of teaching in a classroom.

He reports, "Students feel freer to talk when they are outdoors than when they are in a classroom."

He also says 21 of 23 students preferred this method, saying they felt better after an outdoor session than one inside. 

Obviously this is more suited to some subjects than to others (Balter teaches media technology), but it is consistent with a Stanford University study linking creativity with physical activity.

The next time you feel yourself stuck--or even when you're not--take a walk!

(source:)

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Which kind of creativity is sexiest?

Messy people of the world, science is on our side!

Writers and Artists are not Beggars! (Don't make the corn flakes cry)

I'm working on a new online course, Profit from Your Creativity, and one section is about mindset.

One myth I'm writing about is that somehow people who publish your book or give your paintings space in their gallery are doing you a favor. Let's go to the supermarket to see if this is true...

At the supermarket you are confronted by an entire aisle of cereals. There are more cereals competing for your attention than can ever win it. It's a buyer's market.

If you choose the shredded wheat, are you doing it a favor?  No, you're choosing it because you think it will taste good and/or be good for you.

It's a win for the shredded wheat and for you.

DON'T MAKE THE CORN FLAKES CRY!

Should the corn flakes take your rejection personally? Does it mean they should slink back to the Kellog's factory, knowing that nobody else will ever buy them?

Silly, right? Yet that's the attitude a lot of writers and artists have when their work is rejected. 

All it means is that the person who rejected your work doesn't get it. It's their opinion that your work can't make any money for them. They may be right. If they are not excited about your work they wouldn't be any good at selling it to a publisher (if the rejector is an agent, for instance). By rejecting you, they are disqualifying themselves. They have shown they were not the business partner you were looking for.

If they do accept your work, they are doing it because they think they can profit from it. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, but it underlines the fact that it's a transaction from which both parties can profit. It's a relationship of equals. 

WHAT KIND OF GIRL SCOUT ARE YOU?

You may think that your attitude is not that important--it's the work that will determine whether or not it is accepted. However, the way you present it, for instance in a query letter or pitch, can have a major influence as well. Certainly it can influence whether or not the other person ever reads or looks at what you are offering. Three girl scouts will show you how that works.

At some point or another you've probably been approached by Girl Scouts selling cookies. Imagine three Girl Scouts with three different opening lines and think about how you'd respond:

Girl Scout A: "Hi, we're selling cookies. You don't want to buy any, do you?"

Girl Scout B: "Hi, we're selling cookies. Do you want to buy some?"

Girl Scout C: "Hi, we're selling cookies. Which do you like better, chocolate chip or brownies?"

It's really easy to agree with Girl Scout A: "No, I don't, thank you."

Girl Scout B's approach is better, but it still makes it very easy to say no.

Girl Scout C doesn't give me the chance to answer no right away. Instead, she prompts me to think about cookies. Which do I like better? If I like brownies, her question probably makes me think about (and maybe visualise) eating a brownie. Yes, please!

Unfortunately, a lot of writers are like Girl Scout A. Their query letters include negatives, like "My work hasn't been published yet, but...." Or in a pitch they say something like, "I haven't worked out all the details yet, but..." If you do that, nobody is going to buy your cookies.

THESE COOKIES WILL [not really] CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

I'm not suggesting that you go to the other extreme: "This book will outsell Harry Potter because it's the most exciting blah blah blah!" That's a turn-off too. It smacks of delusion or desperation, neither of which looks good on a writer or artist.

Instead, you want to use a form of presentation that reflects your enthusiasm for your project...and a potential win-win for equals. 

 

(Would you like more useful information about writing, all the way from the idea through to publication? You'll find lots of useful help in my book, Your Writing Coach. It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)

Challenge your Inner Critic

This is the time of year when resolutions are wearing off and your Inner Critic may be waking up...

If you're getting negative messages from your Inner Critic about whatever goal you'd like to achieve, talk back to it. Challenge it by standing up in a strong stance (your physiology has a lot to do with your mood) and remember:

* If you don't try, you can't succeed

* You've taken on challenges before and succeeded

* Others have done what you hope to do, why shouldn't you?

Then immediately get to work.

If you nip it in the bud, your Inner Critic will slink back into its lair. 

(You'll find more tips and strategies in my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)

Are you telling the best part of the story in your novel or script?

In a Fast Company series of successful authors' tips on writing better stories, Terence Winter (creator, writer, and executive producer of the series, Boardwalk Empire) makes a great point about choosing the most interesting part of a story to tell:

"Every movie you’ve ever seen about Al Capone shows him at the height of his power, and sort of like Al Capone’s Greatest Hits. If you can only spend two hours with Al Capone, you want it to be when he’s at the top of his game.

On Boardwalk Empire, we meet Al Capone when he’s a kid driving a truck. That Al Capone is so much more interesting to me because we get to see him become the guy we know, and we had hours and hours to do it, and really see what formed him and what made this guy tick and that’s so much more a luxury as a storyteller and more satisfying for the audience."

The series Gotham does something similar by looking at the formative years of the man who became Batman, and also by focusing on a character (Inspector Gordon) who has a supporting role in the later story. 

Even in a screenplay or novel I think there's a lot of value in taking the time to brainstorm a number of ways of approaching the story before committing to one. For instance, a kidnapping story could be told with any of these as the viewpoint character:

* the victim

* the loved ones of the victim

* the detective investigating the case

* the kidnapper

* someone who is wrongly accused of the kidnapping

* someone who inadvertently or unwillingly gets involved in the crime

* a psychic (fake or genuine--if there is such a thing--who is asked to help locate the victim

* a previous victim of the kidnapper who realizes she knows something that could help but is reluctant to relive the experience

I'm sure there are more, but you get the idea.

(For writing tips from some of the greatest classical and modern writers, get a copy of my book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass. It's available from your favorite bookseller. You can find out more at www.YourCreativeWritingMasterclass.com)

Related articles

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How to free your imagination

Here are some great tips, some serious, some silly (but no less useful) about how to free your imagination. They were published on The Painter's Keys, the site of the painters Robert Genn and his daughter Sara:

Books, magazines, media give the "mix and match" advantage.
 
If you are invited to tell lies, save them for paintings.
 
Work in places such as the gondolas of hot-air balloons.
 
Don't always try to get it right. Try to get it wrong.
 
Fall gently in love with the world of your imagination. 

Listen to music. It's abstract. Anything can happen. 

Practice "syntagma"--things that suggest other things. 

Watch children at play: acting, watching, morphing.
 
Take off your clothes and roll around in the snow. 

Pause often and fire up the "what could be" mode.
 
Consider doing one or two works with your foot. 

Understand the terms "Metaphor" and "Simile." 

Never underestimate the value of alcohol. 

Use your funny bone--incongruity rules. 

Try to learn something new every day. 

Don't keep doing the same old stuff. 

Don't take yourself too seriously. 

Don't worry, be silly.

Profit from your creativity: use what you have

Many artists have remarked that having constraints (like deciding to use only two colors in a painting or no more than 1000 words for a short story) often leads to more creative results than unlimited freedom does.

Few have thought that constraints (such as a limited budget or limited time) relating to how they market their work could be an advantage, too. However, that can be the case. For example, let's say you're a self-published author who wants to promote your e-book. 

What you don't have is an inside track to anybody in the media, a lot of money to spend on marketing, a marketing background....actually, probably the list is long, so let's focus on what you DO have and how that could be put to use.

A CAR. You could put an ad for your book on the car. Will the ad sell many copies? Probably not. Will it get attention from local media? Quite possibly. 

CLOTHES. You could get some t-shirts made up that promote your book. What events in your area are likely to be covered on TV? How can you be sure you're right up front? 

FRIENDS AND RELATIVES. You could organize a brainstorming pizza and beer night. You supply the pizza, they brainstorm how they could help you get attention for your book. Who do they know that might be useful? Do any of them own a business (like a coffee shop) where your book could be on sale? 

A LIBRARY. Find out whether the library would be interested in having you give a talk about your book and the writing process.

A LOCAL BOOKSTORE. All right, sadly not everybody has one of these, but if you do, check whether they'd like you to do a talk/signing. Again, it may not sell too many books but might get you coverage in the local paper.

A SENSE OF HUMOR. Can you make an amusing video about your book to put on YouTube, your website, and other sites? Will it go viral? Probably not...but you never know.

STUFF YOU WANT TO GET RID OF. Instead of a yard sale, how about sponsoring a giveaway with intentionally crappy prizes? Again, the kind of thing that might get some media coverage if it's creative and amusing enough.

A LOCAL RADIO STATION. Local radio talk show hosts get desperate for something to talk about. Probably they're not eager to talk about a book, but pull a stunt like the ones mentioned above and they may be. Don't underestimate the value of getting coverage from a local newspaper or radio station. Larger media often pick up stories from local outlets.

A BRAIN AND CREATIVITY. You are creative enough to write a book (or paint a picture, or whatever you do). How else can you get creative about marketing what you create?

(I've written two books you might find useful: Do Something Different, published by Virgin Business Books with an introduction by Sir Richard Branson, and Marketing for Entrepreneurs, published by Pearson. Both are available from your favorite bookseller.)

Writing a non-fiction book? The sales figures contain a lesson.

The sales of paperback non-fiction have been declining and it's easy to assume that this is the result of the advent of e-books. However, figures provided by Neilsen Book at a recent digital publishing conference suggests that the decline started before that.

The most likely reason is that so much information is available free on the internet. People who formerly might have bought a reference book look to Wikipedia and other online sources now.

I think this suggests an important lesson for anybody who is writing a non-fiction book, namely that you have to make sure that either the content or the presentation of your material is different from what people can find easily on the net.

Here are a few ideas on how you could differentiate your non-fiction book. 

DECIDE: BEAT THEM OR JOIN THEM?

Authors have responded to the rise of internet content in two ways: the "if you can't beat them, join them" strategy, which entails having bite-size content, colorful graphics, sidebars with comments that resemble Tweets, etc.; or the "do what they can't/don't do" approach, going in-depth and being unashamed about demanding the concentration of the reader.

I believe that books that aren't clearly in one camp or the other are less likely to succeed.

BRING YOUR PERSONALITY

Bring your personality to the subject. The one thing you can offer that nobody else can is your unique experience or perspective. When appropriate, include anecdotes and other personal touches. 

A good example of this is the Freakonomics books, which make a traditionally dry topic (economics) entertaining and bring in the authors' experiences and views. The first book was subtitled: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.

FOCUS ON THE DIFFERENCES

In your marketing, including the title, cover image, blurb, etc., reflect what makes your book different. Again, Freakonomics had a cover very different from that of most books on economics.

THINK ABOUT SEQUELS

Finding people who buy your book is hard work, so think ahead to how you can keep them and what else might interest them. It could be a sequel or just a related topic. If you put your website address in the book and offer the reader an incentive (e.g., an extra chapter) for signing up, you'll have a list of people to whom to market your next book. If you already have the next book in mind you can mention it in the current one. 

Here's an example, continuing on from Freakonomics, of a book that gives more of the same:

Then they went on to a book that uses what went before but goes off in the direction of self-development:

CONSIDER OTHER FORMATS

Rather than assuming that a book is the best format for your project, consider whether other ways of presenting it might be better or easier to market. For example, although I've written a number of books on writing, my next project will be an online course. That allows me to integrate videos, audios, quizzes, etc. I will also be offering free webinars to people who buy the book, which will allow me to interact, answer their questions, and of course let them know of future projects that could be of interest to them. This creates a product with added value to the user, and also allows me to charge more than I would for a book.

BE CREATIVE

All of these tips have one thing in common, namely that they encourage you to be creative about how you approach a marketplace in flux. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Richard Linklater's no-formula movie plots

At fastcreate.com, Director Richard Linklater, recently feted for his film, Boyhood, shares his approach to coming up with the structure of his films:

"There are a lot of stories in the world, and I spend all my time thinking about how to tell them. That, to me, is the cinematic element. That's the hard part: the right narrative form on every movie is the thing I have to break. New forms have always been a part of my thinking. 'Could you ever tell a story this way?'"

In other words, he starts with the story, not a predetermined structure. In the case of Boyhood, that was a real challenge:

"The idea for Boyhood was one of those 'aha' moments that at its core was problem-solving. The film's structure emerged out of trying to solve the problem of how to express that story over a long period of time. It's very straightforward, but in a way that hasn't been done before, because it's just completely impractical."

STRUCTURE VS. PLOT

Linklater is not saying that a film can be made without a structure, but that we don't have to stick to the most common plot shapes:

'When I write a screenplay, I've diagrammed the architecture of the story. There's really got to be a structure; art demands it. I care more about structure, less about plots. Anything plot-driven feels a little more man-made, more manufactured. I'm always going toward something that's a little more true to life."

HOW TO LET THE STORY BE THE MASTER

Linklater's approach mirrors what I often say in the screenwriting classes I teach: Let the story be the master, not the servant. For instance, don't start by trying to squeeze the story into the steps of the hero's journey. Instead, explore the story long enough to discover what it's really about and then figure out a structure that serves it. 

Asking a few questions can help you do that:

1. Who is the most interesting person in this story?

2. What happened before the part of the story I intend to tell, and what happens after it?

3. Who and what changes as a result of the incidents in the story?

4. What do I want an audience to feel while watching this story?

Often we are eager to start writing right away. Doing so can be another way of finding the answers to these questions, but it's tempting to regard what you've written as THE way to tell the story, rather than an exploration. That's why I recommend exploring these aspects of the story before you start to write. As a result, you may find yourself ending up with a different protagonist, or telling a different part of the story than you had in mind, or even switching it to a different genre. And you're likely to end up with a script that doesn't seem a carbon copy of existing scripts.

WARNING: RESISTANCE AHEAD

Linklater has a lot of freedom in the stories he chooses to tell and how he tells them. As a writer without his track record, you may well meet resistance if you pitch a story that has a structure not immediately recognizable as the three act structure or the hero's journey.

However, it's also the stories that are told in a fresh way that stand out, and I believe that in the long run you will be well served by emulating Linklater.

Related articles

Richard Linklater on 'Boyhood's' Shaky Origins: 'I Had Pretty Much Given Up'

Which kind of creativity is sexiest?

Finally, someone answers the question of which kind of expression of creativity has the most sex appeal. The Journal of Creative Behavior reports on research conducted at the University of Pennsylvania. Here, from the abstract, are the conclusions:

Both males and females preferred ornamental/aesthetic forms of creativity in a prospective sexual partner than applied/technological and everyday/domestic forms of creativity.

THE TEN SEXIEST

But which specific creative behaviors do people find most attractive? The study had more female participants than males, which may skew the results. However, the top ten are:

1. Playing sports

2. Taking a date on a spontaneous road trip

3. Recording music

4. Making a clever remark

5. Writing music

6. Performing in a band

7. The taking of artistic photographs

8. Performing in comedy

9. Dressing in a unique style

10. Writing poetry

Of course, there's a lot of margin for error in these. For example, taking a date on a spontaneous road trip is most appealing if it's done with his/her permission and doesn't involve the use of handcuffs (usually).

"Dressing in a unique style" is dangerously open to interpretation, as is what constitutes a "clever"' remark. 

In many instances, it's a good idea to let the prospective partner know that you write poetry, but not actually recite any you've written. 

I'm a bit puzzled by number 3, "recording music," especially as it's listed above writing music and performing in a band. What can it mean? Taping songs off the radio? 

THE LEAST SEXY TEN

The study also revealed the ten least sexy behaviors:

1. Making ad campaigns

2. Interior decorating

3. Writing an original computer program

4. Making websites

5. Growing and gardening

6. Presenting scientific or mathematical papers

7. Exterior decorating

8. Applying math in an original way to solve a practical problem

9. The development of scientific experimental designs

10. Participating in drama production

I'm shocked to see participating in drama productions at the very bottom, below even presenting scientific or mathematical papers. I thought actors or actresses would find themselves near the top. Maybe the respondents had recently seen an amateur dramatic society production. I've seen one or two of those that were less entertaining than watching someone applying math in an original way to solve a practical problem.

[Lists from the researcher's blog at Scientific American]

 

Nine e-book cover mistakes to avoid.

If you want a quick lesson in what works and what doesn't in terms of the design of e-book covers, take a look at the entries in the December Cover Design Awards at thebookdesigner.com. Designer Joel Friedlander provides a (mostly) constructive critique of each.

You'll find examples of designs that are totally professional and some that make you cringe. The most common faults:

* type that is hard to read (too big, too fancy, obscured by the image)

* images that are confusing (collages, especially, are hard to pull off), or don't match the typography, or are too generic.

* compositions that draw the eye to the wrong place, or make the cover seem crowded, or are made up of elements that fight each other for attention.

Generally you are better off hiring a professional rather than trying to do it yourself. If you do it yourself, get feedback from someone who isn't a friend or relative and knows something about design. Clearly several of the people who entered their covers in this contest failed to do that!