They Think This Actually Means Something

The Chart of Fantasy Art (via Smart Bitches) Two thoughts that immediately popped into my head which are too long to be Twittered:

*The y-axis is not properly labeled. Is it percent? Actual number of covers? The average number of certain elements on a cover? Number of drinks the art director took before a particular motif was chosen?

*The only research you need to do to figure out what cover would sell better is to slap different covers on the same book. Put the book in with a set of other books. Ask a random set of people which book they would buy based on cover alone. I can envision this as a quick online survey (except online surveys are inherently biased so you’ll have to figure out how to correct for that).

Link O’Rama In Brief

Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch. Okay, I admit to being an Anthony Bourdain fan–but this is only because I found him on YouTube. I don’t even own a television. Other than that, I’ve seen some other cooking shows online or on public television (if I’m at somebody else’s house). I also admit that I don’t have much desire to replicate any of the dishes shown on those shows as I’m more improvisational in my cooking habits (i.e. I just throw things together and see what happens). Which reminds me, I’ve got to find the episodes other than the ones in season 3 of New Scandinavian Cooking. Research for the upcoming Nanowrimo novel you know…

Dark Passage Travelogue. An arty look at modern ruins.

NCBI ROFL. Funny science.

Buffy fans: read this. I’m pretty much burned out on most paranormal fiction these days. The book will have to be really good in order for me to finish it. This means no kickass heroines who sound like arrogant jerks, stupid set-ups, crappy and illogical world building (indicating that the author has absolutely no grasp on speculative fiction conventions), and rehashes of plotlines that were done earlier and better.

Asian Poses. Rather than being cute, I strongly suspect I’d look like an idiot if I tried any of these.