by ohcaptainmycaptain » September 19, 2017, 11:07 am
Guest wrote:I see on the back cover of your book the Algoport foundering. This was when she was being towed to China to be rebuilt. What is the sigficance of that?
Hi, this is Brett Ortler; I'm the editor over at Adventure Publications, which published
Sea Stories. We included the
Algoport image partly because of its connection to the lakes, but mostly because of its dramatic effect. In the book, Captain Metz's fine storytelling puts the reader right into the action, and as you know, there are number of stories about wrecks and near misses. While the interior of the book is replete with photos from Captain Metz's collection (and those graciously provided by fellow sailors/boatwatchers he knows), there just aren't photos from most of those white-knuckle type of events.
Given the constant interest in ships and shipwrecks, we wanted to include the
Algoport image to give folks an idea of what such a sinking actually
looks like, so we jumped at the chance. The cover seemed like just the place to do so, as it certainly grabs one's attention and it really does reflect how interesting/exciting the stories in the book are.
Our end goal is to get people to read Captain Metz's work, and covers, as you might imagine, play a huge role in making that happen. Experts such as yourself will certainly notice the
Algosoo, and probably the saltie on the front cover. In fact, I mentioned both of these images to our design crew when the cover was in the works, but they sold me on it this way: it's a minor inconsistency, yes, but that is a relatively small price to pay if the covers entice a whole new group of readers to pick up the book and purchase it. We went through a number of cover options, including many vintage images, and they just don't have the same visual appeal (or are not large enough to use, unfortunately).
So we opted in favor of shelf appeal. That decision was the right one, I think, as I want Captain Metz's work to be read far and wide, and this is the best way to go about it.
Brett Ortler
[quote="Guest"]I see on the back cover of your book the Algoport foundering. This was when she was being towed to China to be rebuilt. What is the sigficance of that?[/quote]
Hi, this is Brett Ortler; I'm the editor over at Adventure Publications, which published [i]Sea Stories[/i]. We included the [i]Algoport[/i] image partly because of its connection to the lakes, but mostly because of its dramatic effect. In the book, Captain Metz's fine storytelling puts the reader right into the action, and as you know, there are number of stories about wrecks and near misses. While the interior of the book is replete with photos from Captain Metz's collection (and those graciously provided by fellow sailors/boatwatchers he knows), there just aren't photos from most of those white-knuckle type of events.
Given the constant interest in ships and shipwrecks, we wanted to include the [i]Algoport[/i] image to give folks an idea of what such a sinking actually [i]looks[/i] like, so we jumped at the chance. The cover seemed like just the place to do so, as it certainly grabs one's attention and it really does reflect how interesting/exciting the stories in the book are.
Our end goal is to get people to read Captain Metz's work, and covers, as you might imagine, play a huge role in making that happen. Experts such as yourself will certainly notice the [i]Algosoo[/i], and probably the saltie on the front cover. In fact, I mentioned both of these images to our design crew when the cover was in the works, but they sold me on it this way: it's a minor inconsistency, yes, but that is a relatively small price to pay if the covers entice a whole new group of readers to pick up the book and purchase it. We went through a number of cover options, including many vintage images, and they just don't have the same visual appeal (or are not large enough to use, unfortunately).
So we opted in favor of shelf appeal. That decision was the right one, I think, as I want Captain Metz's work to be read far and wide, and this is the best way to go about it.
Brett Ortler