WOT 5-20-2008

I will be out of town this weekend. Anyone want to guess where I am going?

I would appreciate some help in designing the cover for my upcoming book (I have almost reached a deal with a publisher.)

The following cover was designed by JesseBee:

I like it, but I don’t know if it conveys the level of seriousness the subject matter.

I found this image on the web that I like a lot:

I like the idea of a photorealistic image of a house inside a bubble. The backdrop of a sky is also pretty cool.

A simpler version might look like this (although if it were upside down, it would be even better.)

I will need to design my own cover. If someone wants to take on this task, it would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

7 thoughts on “WOT 5-20-2008

  1. rkp

    Goodluck with the publishers IR! I’d offer to help on the cover but I totally lack artistic skills.

  2. Rocker

    hmm, the bay area, San Francisco?

    Probably the first time that I heard this song: “Do You Know The Way To San Jose?,” was in Sesame Street, the same goes for “Close to You” by The Carpenters, I clearly remember the music clip where a baby hippo was far away of his big mamma, and then both are together, very creative way to make little kids appreciate music.

    I love music and Sesame Street in the 70s initiated me at the young age of 5-7 years old.

  3. becky

    I was always jealous of girls who had songs about them (Brandy, Mandy, etc…) but I always took consolation that my hometown had a song!

    whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa

  4. NewToTheArea

    Irvine Renter,

    I found a very illuminating article that features many jaw dropping charts about how much money was pulled out of homes through refinancing and HELOC over the last 15 years. It is truly amazing. I figured you might want to feature some of these charts in your next article about HELOC and cash out abuse in Irvine. Heck, you could even put these charts in your book.

    Here is the link:

    http://www.financialsense.com/Market/wrapup.htm

    The title of the article is “Cash out of luck”

  5. WaitingToBuyByAndBy

    IrvineRenter,

    Here’s an idea for your book cover:

    The cover is mostly white except for a band that runs horizontally through the middle of it. The band is an image that resembles the backside of a 20 dollar bill. Instead of the number 20 in the corners, it could be 1000 or even a fictional 10,000 or 100,000. Instead of Monticello, there’s an oval (or bubble) that contains green line art of a McMansion. Instead of “THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” that text would read “THE GREAT HOUSING BUBBLE” and somewhere below the oval you could add the subtext: “The Rise and Fall of Home Prices in America”.

    Btw, I didn’t get that last part wrong, I think you should slightly change the title. Of course, I also think you should change the title to the “THE GREAT US HOUSING BUBBLE” which would be less Americentric.

    I believe this ties U.S. homes to big dollars.

    It may seem like a waste to use only the middle band of the cover, but you know the Beatles did that clever thing with an entirely white album cover (of course, they were also the Beatles). I honestly think less is more in our current oversaturated ad market.

  6. Anonymous

    I like the house bubble idea but there should be also one popped with a house speeding downwards in midair towards a stereotypical happy family strolling below.

  7. madhaus

    IR, you came up here to Silicon Valley and didn’t stop by and say high! I wish I’d known, there was a business writer I would have tried to set you up with.

    Very glad to hear you are talking with a publisher. I did try working my sources to find you a lead to a publisher or agent but the people I tried were not as helpful as I would have expected. I kept asking for an intro and they just would not do it.

    I like WaitingtoBuy’s idea for a cover except I’d use the entire back of the bill instead of the band. Or maybe use the front of the bill, with an older style oval frame being the bubble and the house inside, engraved but swollen.

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