When I posted my interview with Eric Wagner about Straight Outta Dublin, his new book about Robert Anton Wilson and James Joyce, there were a couple of questions about the arresting cover by Rasa, including from Spookah, who asked, "Who's that in the frame on the wall behind Bob's head?"
Spookah's innocent questions sparked a decision by Rasa to make a subtle but interesting change to the cover.
"The original cover had a blurry portrait on the back wall of the pub. I liked that it was blurry and indistinct so that no one would actually know who it was, but then you asked your question, and I thought, 'why not make it someone related to the book?' So, I ended up finding a public domain image of Nora Barnacle, Joyce’s wife and muse. I made that a bit blurry, so it would fit the image, and then ran the change by Eric and Michael… and also the team working on proofing the book. Everyone liked the change, so the other day I uploaded the new cover to our distributors, and then changed all the images on the Hilaritas Press website to reflect the new cover.
"If I make a change to a book, it usually take some time for the new version to propagate online, but that new image, I just noticed today, has replaced the old image at Amazon and all the other sources for the book."
3 comments:
Thank-you Spookah and Rasa. I find it an excellent symbolic and magickal addition to have Nora looking over these two literary giants given that both emphasized the wisdom of taking the female perspective in their writings.
This also reminds me of a nice video on YoutTube where Anthony Burgess discusses the Wake. Thanks to Rasa and Tom. Happy Mothers' Day to Nora Barnacle Joyce.
Good idea to have Nora hanging in there.
Speaking of book distribution I think this book should be in every university library that caters to students of English Language and English Literature or Comparative Literature. As Eric pointed out in his interview: " I think this book will greatly increase anyone's understanding of Bob Wilson's work, and I also think it provides a good introduction to Joyce's work." I agree! So, how do we get this book on a "Library's Must Buy book list"? Does anyone here personally know a librarian who could provide some guidance on how to get this book into libraries?
I have no idea how Hilaritas Press is doing financially from sales of their published books, but most likely Rasa, Christina and the rest of Hilaritas entourage would not object to increasing their exposure and the gains from it. In any event I admire the entire Hilaritas team for their dedication and tenacity in continuing to publish book after book. In order to increase the sales I have been occasionally buying several copies of the same book and then giving them as a gift to some friends for their b-day or x-mas. I have also been re-Twitting numerous times on Twitter about Hilaritas publications. Just left a five star review on Amazon for "Straight Outta Dublin". All that is probably just a drop in the bucket.
This is also linked to Michael's comment, in his interview with Tom Jackson, about writers being paid for their work. For example: it pained me very often knowing that Wilson was at times on welfare and food stamps. Joyce struggled also financially. So much brilliance suffered in poverty: William Blake, Edgar Allan Poe, Van Gogh, Mozart, Tesla, .........way too many.
We all know that it takes decades of reading, studying and writing in order to produce a substantive work + all the efforts in publishing it.
I have always been very supportive of creative work and I wonder what we could do to improve the financial aspect of it via social media, our contacts, etc. I am not afraid to pick up a phone and call the White House, Pentagon or any library. So, if there is anything more I could do please feel free with suggestions.
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