Like I said, God walked a genius artist into this site, and they did the cover for EvoPsych. Since my aesthetic sense is shit, I asked them about a cover for this, and here is what it is looking like. Comments are welcome :
News, Politics, and Continual Debate Over Who is the Greatest Leader of all Time, and Why is it President Donald J. Trump?
Like it!
Cover looks great although I would change the font for the main title. The word “stasi” hard to discern.
[Ed note – Apologies for changing your name, but I get people all the time who accidentally make a comment while unknowingly logged into some account, and then they panic over the fact their name was on here, and email frantically, begging me to delete it, so I try to proactively anonymize new readers unless told otherwise now.]
Thank you, I will see if that font can be adjusted or changed.
Concur, better typeset, for clarity in intitial at a glance reading, or gazing at it’s book cover from afar and being clearly readable. The old military type stenciled letters type of font may work, have to play with it. Print it out at book cover size scale and stand back a bit and mull it over.
Thank you!
Looks pretty good.
I doubt the average person would be turned off by it.
Excellent. I liked the idea of a parent seeing it, a immediately seeing their child targeted. That was sharp.
Excellent AC. I hope you use my comments on the back cover. It’s a great honour to be involved, no matter how small, in such a worthy project.
Thank you for the help! We will change the world.
Removing “Learning to See” would make it more intriguing, and you lose nothing by deleting those words. Shorter is usually better in all things writing.
Good point.
How about just remove “Learning to” and start the sub-title with “See the Domestic Surveillance…”
Agree. Another anon said go even farther and take out “Learning to See.” Less is definitely more on the cover.
I see what you mean. It does sound better.
Agree with removing “Learning to See” in the sub-head, below the title.
Also agree that shorter is better.
I agree too. Thank you!
Nix the drone. Their tech is so much more advanced, anytime I see people saying “they’re using AI and drones to spy on REAL americans etc etc” I just assume the person is too stupid and blind to grasp the real scope of the danger we’re facing.
We know that, but might normies need the drone to trigger their very normie-esque understanding of it and draw them in?
I think the cover needs something back there, and I can’t think what it would be which would say surveillance to a normie like a drone.
You could maybe have an artists sketch (line drawing?) of a listening post and somehow have two houses and it’s obvious that one of the people has headphones on and are listening in (maybe have an ipad like screen in front of them?). If you were clever you could somehow blend that into the background behind the drone and nix the drone…(I’m okay with the drone by the way…just trying to think outside the box.).
In my minds eye I have a shadow drawing (where it’s literally all black drawing of a figure with headphones on and wires/wirelessly listening in/watching).
Anyway…
I will check. I would like the personal threat, though in the end this thing will spread by word of mouth. I am expecting an Amazon ban, and most booksellers to ban sales, so I have planned for that, between the website and the viral ad campaigns, and PDFs and other avenues.
I think a big key will be to be funny. “Learn to spot your local domestic surveillance before the Civil War starts!” and the catchphrase, “Your neighbors know what we’re talking about…” will be key.
Everything is perfect. Them even rolling out Tulsi under illegal harassment surveillance is perfection. The public is ready now in a way they never have been before. They now know this is possible. They just need to see it.
Everyone will see what I have seen these past years, where God has had His hands all throughout this every step of the way. Ten years ago, there was no reason to think this would ever be possible, but I had no doubt given all the things I have seen. Now, everything, and I mean everything is falling into place.
This will do what needs to be done, for His glory. And we will all be free at last.
The “shadow” you describe is similar to the symbolic representation in my own mind. It’s a nice subconscious template that could work.
I think the drone looks plenty menacing and it is understood immediately. The above listening post idea is pretty menacing, too, so long as it doesn’t require one to take a closer look or second take.
How about a simple road junction cctv camera?
I’ll ask her.
It is tough to convey the threat succinctly, and truth be told, as Bman points out the real threat is a person following you and plotting to somehow interdict your destiny and thwart you, or even take you out like Irah Sok. But it is tough to convey that in a cover. If you go too far, like a crime scene photo of Irah Sok lying dead on her living room floor, shot through the face, it will turn people off.
I’ll ask her.
My 2 cents. Tech surveillance no normie cares about. (I have nothing to hide).
They will get freaked out about some person following them or their kids, especially the kids.
Good point.
Just a thought I had. Maybe the front cover shows the neighbor waving to the mom and kid. The back cover shows a dude peering into their house or a room with surveillance equipment, video feeds, etc. Same neighbor guy.
That would definitely be great, but I went through that with her. When you do these covers cheap, you are limited to what art is in the art library the artist has paid for access to, and it is tough to get unique model poses like peering in a window, or even waving to say high, so you end up limited to things like the two girls smiling and walking, or maybe a sketchy guy standing.
my friends (2) are at the point that they accept that I’m being gang stalked. I just say spies. I describe the surveillance that I see. They’re starting to see it too, in their own lives. Of course, my friends could also be surveillance. Gun shopping this weekend! 🙄
I would remove the drone. To me, it seems simple and non-threatening. It distracts from how the faces are presented, which is very well done.
If you want something in the background, make is something more high tech than a drone like a satelite or a bank of TV monitors or TV cameras
I will talk to her. Thank you!
Agree on the font change. Otherwise it’s fabulous.
Showing the child targeted is brilliant, and should get even normies to pay attention and pick up the book.
God’s blessings and protection to you in this endeavor.
Thank you!
Looks good.
That’s disturbing. Which, in this case, is a good thing.
I kind of like the font. Has a KGB-esque feel to it.
BtW, got a brief WP Language/Install screen.
I agree.
Too many words. Makes it seem like your wife and daughter are being stalked by snipers and such. The problem isn’that they’re going to get their pans Jackled. It’s that they are never alone. They are never allowed to just be themselves and grow and struggle and live. Their enemies aren’t snipers: they’re rodents sly sneaky duplicitious dissembling ratfink informants energy vampires human tapeworms. The cover [of the book] is good, mind you. I’m just not sure it’s telling the same story that you are.
Thank you, I welcome critiques the most. I will say, covers are tough. I tried coming up with something, and all my attempts were just awful, and this was my idea. I do think parents looking at this will see their kids in those children, and maybe think they had better look closer. I am not sure we are going to be able to do better.
Plus, the plan is to rely on word of mouth and ad copy, so there is that too.
What would you change in words?
Maybe remove the central crosshairs from the target boxes.
I’ll talk to the artist.
Yes on replacing out the crosshairs sniper type of overlay. The terminator type of a.i. target identification captioning box may click better in peoples brains as more personal and directly aimed at them. (Like in that t.v. series where they used surveillance camera shots with a.i. type box identifiers as part of the script scenes, spooky effect) Use the little numbers caption below mom and daughter to insert “target 01”, “target 02” in barely readable fonts, but there to signify this is not a benign game, but real bad stuff. Sorry for keep pinging in, but good skull sessions in comments as always. Thanxs
I think she may have done to crosshairs in part to anonymize the faces more, so they would not be recognizable, and parents could superimpose their children’s identities on the models. I think that is also why she blurred the faces. If we remove the crosshairs and the faces become more identifiable it might be less adaptable to parents, but I will ask her. She is an absolute genius. Do you have an example of a Terminator Targeting box? I tried to find one on Google and could not locate it.
Definitely brilliant to add “Target” to the identifier.
Maybe replace the crosshairs with more empty squares in the same area.
This thing is a threat to life and limb, but that’s not what you want to emphasize on the cover, and crosshairs do seem to indicate a sniper scope.
I think without the crosshairs though it just looks like something is passively monitoring the children, maybe an automated system to keep them safe, and maybe not even specifically, like the boxes you get in surveillance cameras systems when motion moves across the screen, even on tree branches. Parents might like a government system keeping track of their kids for them when they are not around, if it is not personal. I think a faint air of specific, targeted threat might work there.
Part of the problem too, is time is money on this, and already we are in the hundreds for a book cover on a book I am already giving away free, and do not expect a return on. The print copy is just a backup for if the website gets shut down. And actually if the traffic really goes on the site, I am going to have to move up hosting to a VPS or cloud account, which will be fairly big bucks. I am not even sure how long I will last on that, if it begins to get millions of visits per day, which is my hope. Unfortunately the days of unlimited bandwidth (which never really was) are passing and they are limiting by database hits and visits.
It works well enough as is then.
Like this immensely
Me too. Thank you!
Perhaps just the four corners forming a square or rectangle around each face. Like miltech targeting boxes.
I will ask her.
Here’s something from Person of Interest.
Note tracking boxes and tags.
I’ll ask her, but it turns out she is very limited by the art in a library she has to subscribe to in order to use, and she is hesitant to risk creating something which may be in somebody else’s library, for fear they might see it and claim it was stolen and sue. When she does this she will actually send me a big file with all the licenses to every single little image she used to compile this, so I can prove ownership.
I love that show. I’ve taken to rewatching it every year right around New Years. I think for all of the actors involved, it may be the best roles they’ve ever played.
Would be something to have blood dripping from the “stasi”, like they have done to the rest of us in real life.
Hang tough anon. We are going to make this work and be rid of this thing. And I really think, knowing what this was like will make a real America magical.
I will go on a tour of national parks, and just lay in grassy fields in the middle of nowhere with nobody on the planet knowing where the fuck I am. Except my dog laying next to me.
Mikey likes it! And so do I.
The “Terminator” style targeting boxes get the point across without being overdone.
Thank you!
Now that is a cover!! Normie friendly. Makes the most important point visually- targeting your children and you. Conveys a normal family.
Good back cover. Good blurbs. Excellent description on the back.
Thank you!
Good idea mentioning children.
Looks good.
Initial thought is too much blurb on the back cover. Maybe 4 paragraphs max and a slightly bigger font? It looks crowded.
And bright red for the title instead of orange?
Keep up the good work.
Thank you!
Wow. That’s just so good. Really. This is an eye catcher that cannot be refuted upon sight
Thank you. This comment only appeared for approval just now.
Love it!
Excellent!
Too tech-oriented. Needs to have a GROUND SPY in there.
I will ask. Part of the problem may be, artist libraries will not feature a homeless guy in sunglases on a park bench pointing a boom mic.
We may have to go with this as the best option, and make up the shortfall with fight. But I will ask.
It doesn’t have to be realistic, it could be caricature, like a guy with a spyglass or parabolic mic.
Right. Or better yet, a SILHOUETTE. Any graphic designer can very easily take any photo and silhouette it just enough so that the components of a Ground Surveillance creep can be seamlessly combined and yet still recognizable. Homeless-looking man + sunglasses + boom mic. If an amateur shopped it all, as is, it would look sloppy. But if you darken everything, like an apt proverbial shadow, then the edges blend.
And just like that, you built up a surplus credit of death threats you can level at me in the future.
I just sent the email asking for it.
What about an anonymous guy in a street trash ghillie suit?
BTW, I do think the cover looks good.
That Ghillie is awesome. I will ask the artist, but I am beginning to become a pain to her, I think.
The cover looks really good. Definitely a good call to include a child.
RE the inclusion of a ground spy, maybe somehow insert a blurred/darkened figure in the background, behind all of it, barely seen between their shoulders. As though that person is not only spying but also the drone operator type look to it.
Either way, I think you have a winner, if not then very very close
Thank you!
This looks great, AC!!
Thank you! It is the artist. Just top notch. If anybody needs creative design, drop me a line and let me hook you up with her.
I think it’s brilliant! From using orange to stand out to appealing to emotion by showing a woman and her daughter being targeted. Excellent work by whoever made it. I think the back cover looks a little crowded but other than that great work.
Thank you!
It does look good. One gets a sense of what the book may be about.
Thank you for the input, I agree!
perfect
Please register copyright in this work, the cover and media rights. I am an IP attorney who is most-focused on patent and technology but also enjoy pro bono, and sometimes paid, soft IP. I am will to consider treating advisement and registration for you pro bono with exception of U.S. government fees which amount to about forty bucks for reg and another hundred for rights transfer into a trust or similar holding vehicle. I will submit my bona fides. If interested, please just say so in reply, otherwise, I will presume you are already represented, which means you are working to preserve your legal avenues and this is a good thing.
I was under the impression registration is automatic off of creation, and putting copyright on the work will give full protection and avoid mitigation of damages due to accidental infringement, and official registration is not importan?
You cannot take an infringer to court in the U.S. unless you have at least applied for copyright registration. You are therefore toothless. I can search your copyright registration status within two minutes to determine whether you can pursue my client or are merely an empty threat. Other than saving a few bucks to the government, you do not have good reason not to register. I’ll drop the matter and simply wish you good luck.
I did not know that. Thank you, I will think about it.
A slight shortening of the subtitle may make the binding more balanced and easier to read:
See the Domestic Surveillance
Targeting You and Your Children
Agree. Thank you!
The drone looks menacing. The white lines around the faces looks like official targeting. The blurring is menacing. The orange- keep it. Red letters, at this point? Some ranty, weird political.
Orange is normal. This is a serious, normie appealing, book
The more I look at it, the more I like it.
Thank you!
Thoroughly awesome, AC. Can’t wait to put it in a billboard.
(Agree with others on the font change for the front…)
We will get screwed on the font. She said she went through the library she buys access to, and cannot find anything she feels is better, and she is set on that one. She is giving a huge discount on it, so I am not prone to complain.
Looks good. When will the book be available?
It will be a couple of weeks, however all of it is already up, word for word, and picture for picture at AmericanStasi.com
It’s a good enough cover, but you don’t want good enough.
1) PHOTO OF SURVEILLANCE: It doesn’t have visceral punch in gut I would like for your book. They’re not sniping them is a comment others have made–concur. As a parent, I’m trying to think of a way to visually get across the fact they present a good face to you. I know that a neighbor who waves at you while intending to target your children is hard to get across in a photo. Maybe a shadow figure looking out window w/binoculars as the mom and daughter pass by on sidewalk. Or blurred/shadowy figure walking behind them as they walk away from the viewer.
2) DRONE: No one is disgusted by drones. The watchers watching your children as an enemy of theirs is what’s disgusting. Terminator Vision of Target 1 and Target 2 is cool idea, but as a parent I’m not worried about robots. I’m worried about human pedos trying to get at my kids.
3) TITLE/SUBTITLE WORDING: “American Stasi: Spies in Your Neighborhood” recommended as draft short/terse title/subtitle. I like it because it highlights every neighborhood compromised–but A/B test it here before final because you want this thing to be great. Maybe “Which of your Neighbors Targets Your Kids?” as alt.
4) FONT: I would recommend something vaguely Eastern European at top of cover. You’re referencing Stasi for a reason. American common font for subtitle.
It’s a good first draft. Not taking potshots at you or artist: it’s a very professional looking cover–kudos to the artist. Want parents to see cover and ask themselves “how do I not look more closely at this book on the shelf?”
Part of the issue she has is, since she does this professionally, she is a stickler for making sure she only uses stuff which it is absolutely clear she has full rights to, and can give me a license to support. She will actually send a big file with licenses for everything from the background to the drone, to the targeting boxes and fonts, in case somebody tries to sue.
I agree on the blurred guy in teh background following them.
I will talk with her. She is very strong-headed, and I have proposed stuff which she just says does not work and she can’t do it. But I have to admit, she is a genius. Still as I am looking, thinking, “You just put the figure right there!” she is like, “No, that won’t work, but I can stick something over here maybe…”
I will talk to her.
Pic for the cover is great, but the drone looks out of place. The background showing a mom with a stroller talking into a mic while watching you might convey the message a bit stronger. The tech is the tool, but the people using it are the problem
I’d suggest cutting the words on the back cover at least in half. You want tag lines that make people want to read the book. Most people will never read that much while browsing a new title. Maybe ask 5 questions in bold, not answered, that lead them to think maybe there is something going on. ( Do you notice people staring at you that have no reason to? Have you seen the same person at three places this week? ) I’m sure you can build better questions than these. Back covers should make them want to hear the story, not give them the story
I will talk to the artist, thank you!
I agree with everyone saying “change the font.” I’d go with your typical all caps book title in normal font. You want this thing to look mainstream so that normies pick it up. It does no good if only people who already believe and know about all of this read it. You need to escape the echo chamber into normie-ville to succeed.
Agree with comments on changing the font for “American Stasi” at the top. Something more simple, and less ornate.
Also like the cover and choice of two harmless, approachable-looking huwhyte Christian females on the cover. They look very welcoming, and then I notice teh black drone hovering in the background.
This is very well done.
I like God/Hamlet’s idea of the silhouette- the evil we are trying to fight.
Agree. I talked to the artist, and she is very funny because if you say, I want somebody right here, she may be like, “No that will not work. They have to go over here.” She will be right, probably, because she is a genius, but it feels like she has these arbitrary limits.
She did get a creepy guy in a fedora and trench coat paralleling the kids in their blind spot though, and it looks perfect.
Yes, back is WAY to ‘texty.’ Too much detail. Please post a ‘text’ version for me to do a more careful and complete edit; the below is still WAY too wordy! But it’s just a quickie edit; no time to do a full, careful editing consideration (esp w/out reading the book); so this is just top ‘o my head.
Back cover text is the amuse bouche to get someone to pick the book up (metaphorically…) You’re trying to tell them too much too quickly…
Back cover rewrite (so unconsidered…) suggestions on a quick skim. .
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You and your children are targeted. Someone is assigned to watch you, your children, your life. They pretend to be just another neighbor but use electric surveillance technologies to listen into every house – back doors in Alexa and Siri, smart TVs, your phone! They can also use thru-wall microwave eavesdropping and imaging tech. They can and do listen in to everything in your home: private conversations, bathroom trips, lovemaking. No one is immune.
This is the American Stasi. Created by global elites and modeled on the East German Stasi, they makes sure you and your children are tracked, cataloged, and can be prevented from succeeding in a variety of desires: running for office, succeeding in school, hiring or promotion in employment. And most especially: preventing you from seeing the corruption, criminality, and control they wield; on your street and thru their corrupt actors in govt.
Regular Americans cannot be allowed to notice the surveillance machine watching everyone. So, we begin in Russia, where you’ll see Russian domestic surveillance following the Google Maps car, through Google’s own Streetview photos. Then on to Bulgaria, where we explain how and why they do it. Once you’re taught surveillance detection, we return to the U.S.A., where you’ll see more surveillance following the Google car. Soon, you’ll be able to see your OWN surveillance watching your community, you, and your children!
Then, once NSA’s head of technology, Bill Binney describes the microwave radiation they are pouring through your neighborhoods. The govt forcibly shut down the website he and other whistleblowers put up to warn us of the radiation and surveillance. You’re helpless to protect yourself and your kids. You’re being thwarted and exposed to cancer-causing radiation (heard of Havana Syndrome?).
This book will change how you see your world. Equal parts Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and the Pentagon Papers, you’ll discover simple observation and deductive reasoning, open-source data, and incontrovertible evidence of the massive global secret police created by Western elites to make sure no regular citizen like you or your children can challenge their power.
================================
My compression is still WAY too wordy… but at a quick runover, it’s a place to start.
Then, layout tweaks and a couple edits:
1. Recommend centering the back blue cover title. MUCH darker/bolder (larger?). Take a photo of your cover, shrink it down to, like, 2″x1″ and SEE if you can TELL what the book is about **on a phone screen** or from across a room on a coffee table… (Stop thinking of all our lost book stores. No one actually SEES books full size until USPS delivers it!)
2. In the What readers say section:
Midwest Amer para: add serial comma: who, where[,] and why.
Brit, Suburb Amer, and Asian reader (well,, everywhere): Put book title in italics.
Actually suggest moving some of the ‘blurbs’ inside. Suggest considering dropping the Finland and MidWest inside (you don’t have the SPACE on the back cover for all that text… Post a text version and let me (and other editors) mess about to create more back cover space: you STILL can’t use…
This also applies to the front cover and spine. Let the picture carry the idea, and use a font that can be READ at a distance, ior in a small presentation.
The orange of the title is too hard to read against the muddy blue background. You might even consider a ‘happy’ background – for a stronger imbalance: mom and kid targets in a nice park… NOT in a gray and foreboding area.
Formatting problem in comment; sorry:
[para break:]
This is the American Stasi.
[para break:]
Regular Americans cannot be allowed to
[para break:]
Then, once NSA’s head of technology,
[para break:]
see your world. Equal parts Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and the Pentagon
I like the cover! Definitely buying the book.
I’m definitely getting hit with the Keep you Awake beam. As a trucker, I cannot afford this, so I fire up the truck and move. My stalkers have pissed off my terminal manager by having their vehicles on terminal property. They now close the gate, they don’t know about the gang stalking. I’m guessing it’s all going to get worse as the election gets closer.
I appreciate purchases, but the book will unfortunately be kind of expensive, as it needs color print inside for 800 pages, and the whole thing is free already at AmericanStasi.com. So the people who come here have already fueled the movement, and I would be perfectly fine if they just spread word of it instead of buying it.
Cover looks very good, AC. As others stated, you ought to use a more normal font and have less verbiage on the back because if nobody reads that, it’s a wash, but if everybody reads a much briefer blurb, you win.
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As to libraries of images that artists have access to. Have you considered that you could hire a photographer to take exactly the image you are looking for, OR you can use images from the several Free For Use photo libraries. Use the images in any way, including compositing them into a montage. Some such photographers may want payment for professional use, but it is not very expensive. That said. The current image is good, though I might emphasize the drone more.
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Urgent: you need to HOOK the prospective reader into serious interest, at the emotional level, in how this actually affects or might affect her. Three words will do that. “Who’s watching you?”
I mentioned that before and didn’t mean the words should be a reader comment.
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This idea is best grokked by viewing covers from old 1950-60’s paperbacks — especially the more lurid genre like detective and sleaze. Google image search turns up pages full of such covers. See the covers of “Donald Westlake” novels, for example. Under his real name he was a famous detective novel author.
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Whatever the case, keep up the good work! Your site is not commonly available these days, so you must be over the target!
Thank you!
Yeah we are usually under attack, but I think the guy took today off to start a three-day weekend.
Maybe he will drown at the beach 🙂