You can help me choose my next book cover! In the comments, note which of the below eight images you think would make the best cover for The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson. Use whatever criteria suits you, and add your reasoning in your comment if you want.*
*Disclaimer: My relatives are eligible to participate; in fact, they may be the only ones who do so. While you won’t win a prize by selecting the right image, you’ll have the admiration of everyone who participated, including mine. The publisher may not agree with you, so don’t get your feelings hurt. Publishing is a hard business, and the sooner you learn that lesson, the better. Trust me on this.
Jacksonian America: Society, Personality, and Politics 
Was it really 2 years ago? It only seems like last year.
I thought of your contest when seeing the UP Kansas’s cover of Old Tip v the Sly Fox:
https://kansaspress.ku.edu/subjects/presidential-studies/978-0-7006-2945-9.html
Believe me–it seems like just yesterday!
Richard’s book is great, by the way.
[image: Inline image 1]
On Mon, Aug 28, 2017 at 2:18 PM, Jacksonian America: Society, Personality, and Politics wrote:
> Mark R. Cheathem posted: “You can help me choose my next book cover! In > the comments, note which of the below eight images you think would make the > best cover for The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age > of Jackson. Use whatever criteria suits you, and add your” >
I struggled over 5 and 8. I am going with 5 for two reasons. It is less busy, and it immediately grabs the attention.
5 or 8!
I’d hate to just confirm a consensus (how boring right?) but I agree with others that 8 and 5 in that order would be the best, perhaps with 7 being in contention. The quote bubbles in other images would be a tough sell. Maybe #3 can go inside the book somewhere? I have always loved all the different credit instruments of this era. Josh Greenberg has an interesting article about shinplasters in the Woloson and Luskey edited volume.
I mean, how could you *not* go with #8?!?!
It makes AJ look frumpy.
Number 8.
As an author of three books with the fourth out next May, I have wrestled with these matters myself. Busy covers are a big mistake just like blogs that load content galore thus frustrating the prospective readers from knowing where the reference points reside. Simple and elegant always wins.
Look forward to reading your latest Mark and perhaps interviewing you again!
Thanks, David. Clean and simple has definitely been my approach previously.
I’d like to write in ‘A Hard Road to Hoe’:
http://loc.harpweek.com/LCPoliticalCartoons/IndexDisplayCartoonMedium.asp?SourceIndex=People&IndexText=&UniqueID=5&Year=1840
That’s a good one.
Visually,I find #7 the most interesting. I think #8 works best as a cover. I would think the cover should be eye-catching when seen at a distance in a bookstore and when seen as a thumbnail image on a screen.
On a different topic, did you see the NPS video on Martin Van Buren’s coffee maker?
https://www.facebook.com/MartinVanBurenNationalHistoricSite/
(At the moment it is the most recent post).
As an Engineer/Physicist, I think it is a wicked cool device!
Best
Jim Bales
Jim,
Thanks for your feedback.
I haven’t seen that video, but I’ll give it a look.
Mark
I like #8 and #5 in that order because of the simplicity of the message.
That seems to be the consensus so far.
I think the issue is that many of these images need an explanation to make sense–so I like #1 and #4, but think that the best choice is #8. That one is obvious, the metaphor of “rats leaving a sinking ship” does not need to be explained, unlike “galvanizing a corpse” which needs more than a title to grasp for modern people.
I agree. I like several images better than #s 5 and 8, but I think the decision will come down to those two.
No prizes! This is almost like buying a lottery ticket.
I’ve always liked No. 8, “The Rats Leaving a Falling House,” and have used it with certain lectures in the past. However, just to be odd, No. 1 “A Galvanized Corpse” would be an interesting cover as well.
Ray
Thanks, Ray. At least it’s a lower level of disappointment than not winning 8 gazillion dollars.
I vote in this order:
#5
#4 (ideally just the middle 3 figures),
#1
Each of these provide a striking and simple image to catch your eye. The others seem like they might be too busy. Caveat – because the images are so small, I can’t read anything on any of the images.
Thanks, Brian.
The inability to read the text is one of the things that is influencing my own preference, partly because I think the publisher will nix those options for that very reason.