Crosley and Crosley Motors, Now Shipping

Just received a few author copies of Crosley and Crosley Motors; An Illustrated History of America's First Compact Car and the Company that Built It.  ISBN 1583882931, published by Iconographics.  200 photos/illustrations, and 40,000 words of history.


Click here to see it on Amazon.com.
--Mike

Since the 1980s, publishers of books with lots of color lithography have used first European and then Japanese and Chinese printers because they did good work and were cheap. American printers did good work, too, but their employees didn't work for five cents an hour.

Now, the tide is turning. Just as companies like Buck Knives are bringing manufacture back home due to increasing overseas labor costs and skyrocketing transportation expense, so are book publishers (whose products can be heavy) giving the work back to American printers. This is the case with Crosley and Crosley Motors, I am happy to say. 100 percent made in America!
--Mike

From Cover to Cover

Author input on the covers of their books varies. Usually it's none to little. In some instances, the author supplies possible illustrations, as was the case with my Crosely automobile history, shown here. That applies mainly to non-fiction. Novelists may suggest a scene to be illustrated, but rarely do they have anything more to do with a cover. (An exception: when the author knows an artist who is not only good, but also has experience with book covers.)

The system works; professional designers usually are better at creating covers than writers.

Occasionally you get a cover, you like it--and then it's changed. That's what happened last month with my newest book, Crosley and Crosley Motors: An Illustrated History of America's First Compact Car and the Company that Built It. (Yeah, that's a mouthful. I just shorthand it to Crosley and Crosley Motors.)

I like both cover images equally well. Crosley: A Fine Car has a slight edge on the final title in my mind, but I don't mind the change. And the lengthy subtitle does give the reader useful information.
--Mike
To order a copy from Amazon, click here.