Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 22:03:25 -0400
From: Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Judging a book by...
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Mike B. wrote:
> The "Laser Books" series all had covers done by Kelly Freas.  They were all
> done in the exact same format...a good thing since he had to do something
> like 50 of them in one year.  He still read each story, and the cover was
> related, but the general layout of "scene from story in background, main
> character's face in lower right foreground" was used on all of them.
>
> -- Mike B.

I remember talking to Kelly about these.  He signed a contract for
70-some covers -- and *then* he discovered that the book quality was
uniformly ghodawful.  He actually read the first few, but he quickly
settled on reading only enough to get an idea of one of the main
characters, and then putting it against an abstract or semi- abstract
background.

"Seeds of Change", by Tom Monteleone, Laser Books #0, was the only book
I know that was printed in a "limited edition" of 250,000.  For years,
it was the bane of used SF dealers and buyers, as you'd usually find at
least one full shelf of them at a used book dealer.  I think I bounced
my copy off a wall somewhere around page 2.

--
Steve Smith                                    sgs at aginc dot net
Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."