u235

I have yet to figure out why technical content publishers insist on putting portraits of authors or interviewees on the cover of their materials. WROX started doing this ages ago with their fire-engine red technical publications for software weenies. At the time someone I knew actually sent them email asking what in hell they were thinking. ATTENTION TEHCNICAL PUBLISERS: PUTTING UGLY PEOPLE ON THE COVER OF YOUR GOODS IS A DETERRANT TO THEIR PURCHASE. Wrox took it as an insult. We took their attitude as an insult. Nothing was resolved, but they did find out that some readers hated their covers, even if we were forced to buy the books... so in the end we just stuck stickers over the ugloids on the front and Wrox got their money.

On a quick aside, O'Reilly doesn't have that problem. The cute black/white litho-style prints of esoteric beasts endorses a Pokemon mentality in buying their products. O'Reilly >> Wrox.

Back to the topic. Ugly tech people.

Now I get the usual assortment of technical rags in the company mail. Once in a while I'll glance at a cover and see if there's anything remotely of value besides the miles and miles of advertising they're stuffed with. I have two journals of potential interest, but I haven't opened them yet to read the articles... why? Because the journal decided to put the ugly mug of the author on the cover. It's like a seal of warding. I want to read the article, yet I'm thoroughly deterred by their image. Thus the magazine goes from desktop to bookshelf and eventually to the trash...unread.

I have to presume that the only point to putting their picture on the cover is to encourage the author to manually distribute the copy to every family member, peer, and vague acquaintance within mailing distance (some of whom probably then burn their copy in ritual sacrifice in an attempt to protect themselves against repeat mailings).

Get a clue folks, I don't mind covers with technical pictures, graphs, charts, whatever. Even plain covers with just the title, publication date and price (if any) lend a certain staid dignity. But techs as a whole are not a generally handsome demographic group. The odds are you're never going to find one attractive enough - thus keep them OFF the cover if you want people to actually get to the content.