i have some good news and some bad news.

addysince im a positive person lets start with the good.

as you know there were some issues between the publisher of How To Blog and me regarding the cover of the book.

i was under the impression that the artist Shepard Fairey of the iconic wilding posters that are so prevelant here in Los Angeles and other cities would love to have his images in as many places as possible, which is why he allows for downloading of his posters and instructions on how to put them up.

the publisher was more like, yeah, whatever, it’s still his art and you should probably get permission to put it on the cover of something that youre about to sell a shitload of.

they told me this on friday.

busiest day for consumerism here in america.

and they put the book on hold unless i changed the cover.

so, i changed the cover. i whitewashed out the andre the giant image and they accepted it. the sales went on as i wrote an email to the creator of the obey/giant revolution.

who i admire greatly.

whose work always makes me smile whenever i see it. be it on the side of a mailbox or a street sign or firehydrant.

whose most recent portrait of the president is so good that the la weekly put it on their cover bleeding fangs and all after he won re-election.

so i wrote shepard an email and i posted about it on the rare chance that he would actually come to the busblog and see that it was a legit request.

little did i know that more than one reader of the busblog knew the good gentleman, and wrote to him on my behalf.

la is a small world. be nice to people.

and before i knew it i got an email from the man himself:

Tony,

It is fine for you to use that image. You have my permission.

A mention of me and my website is all I need.

I’d love to get a copy when it comes out.

Take care.

-Shepard

how unbelievably cool is that?

now heres the bad news, which might not be bad news after all.

there are some books that were ordered and produced that do not have me mentioning the good mr fairey and there are some books that were ordered and produced that do not have the original cover, they have the whitewashed cover.

those books, like i predicted, will be incredibly rare. my advice is that you hold on to them. less than 20 were made.

if however you want the official version of how to blog just mail the rare one back to me and i will exchange it for you.

now allow me to say a few things about cafepress

i think theyre an amazing company. i had to talk to them via email and phone about a half dozen times on making this book. mostly because im a dumbass and i hadnt done things right.

every time i talked with them they were friendly and intelligent and polite.

all you can ask for.

they have a toll free number, and youre normally talking to a real person within thirty seconds. love that.

and the product is gorgeous. you really need to see it to believe it. it looks like a real fucking book. it feels good in your hand. the colors are bright, and its shiny. it’s great.

all i need is an isbn number and a barcode and i could sell these to book stores. thats the only suggestion i can give them, sell those things and you’ve done it all.

i highly recommend cafepress for any author who wants to self publish their work.

big or small.

i can see online when the orders go in, what stage of production it’s in and what, if any, issues are delaying things.

its verrrry easy to change/edit/redesign things. maybe a little too easy. i suggest using a crazy password.

one final thing: cafepress has a little deal going on right now, if you spend $50, they take $5 off. that offer ends tomorrow.

another little known fact is shipping is normal shipping prices, theyre not insane. and they only charge a buck each for shipping each additional book.

again, impressed by the company and by the kindness of strangers.

thanks to everyone.

obey giant + cafepress + how to blog

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