What's a fair price for a 500-page trade paperback?

[rah]

Unless it's a kid's book, which it sounds like it's not, I wouldn't consider that picture that racy. But since you seem more concerned about it, crop it JUST above the nipple.

[Elok]

The diaphanous material I could handle, and maybe the slit, but the nipple--no. Tacky. Pretty girl, thoughtfully somber look on her face, HEY LOOK THERE'S HER BOOBY! Nuh-uh.

[rah]

That's why I said crop it JUST above the nipple. But I don't think the nipple is that bad. Different strokes for different folks.
It's your book so you must be comfortable with it.

(HINT) nipples sell. and it's not like it's an exposed breast) J/K

[Elok]

Yeah, I tried cropping it there, but that makes it look like the slit goes all the way down, which ain't a lot better. Wikimedia has a version where it looks like somebody airbrushed out the nipple, but that has inferior colors IMO.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

I can do alterations...

[Elok]

That would be wonderful. Would it be possible to darken her skin tone/does PS have a tool for that? I've never owned it, myself. We just crop photos with Paint over here.

'course, this girl, by the same artist, is a good deal closer to how I envision Yunise looking ITO facial features, except she's obviously lily-white. And it's too low-res for CS purposes.

[kentonio]

I am currently looking into a tablet more robust than a Kindle.

Have you got it in a case? Mine gets chucked around all the time and doesn't seem to notice. Never thought of Kindle as fragile.

[rah]

I bought one for my wife years ago, and with the case, it's been very durable.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

That would be wonderful. Would it be possible to darken her skin tone/does PS have a tool for that? I've never owned it, myself. We just crop photos with Paint over here.

'course, this girl, by the same artist, is a good deal closer to how I envision Yunise looking ITO facial features, except she's obviously lily-white. And it's too low-res for CS purposes.

I'll see what I can do. The trick is to make a copy, erase everything that isn't skin, darken that, then paste is back onto the original. There's a few tricks to make her look younger, too - narrow the neck, enlarge the head a bit and jigger the proportions of her features.

-Looking at the new shot -I've saved a copy of it, too- it's probably possible to do something nice with that, depending on how far afield of the original you'd be comfortable with. I'll see after I've worked on a version of the previous...

[Elok]

Honestly, BUncle, forget what I said about the coloration; that sounds like it'd be really awkward to do without darkening the whole pic, and you've done enough already. Shame on me for being greedy.

Xpost; well, crap. If you've put that much work into it already, I don't want to waste that, either. OTOH, there's the risk that you'll do all that, and I'll think, "ehhh, I like the original better after all," and then you'll have to kill me.

[Pekka]

Elok, have you written a book? Yeah, I skimmed through the thread.

If so, and scifi OR fantasy, I'll be happy to buy it if it is less than 20 euros (around 100 dollars).

I love reading books written by "amateurs", or people I know. When is it available? Sorry if you already answered these.

I fantasise about writing (like everyone), and woud love to learn about it. Any good sources? I have ideas, but I am just a crappy writer, I reckon it is something that needs practice. THat all said, I want to read yours!

[Elok]

Yes, I've written a novel, it's sci-fi/fantasy, and if I sell it for much over twelve bucks I won't be able to move it so you're good (is the exchange rate really that high?). As for practice, as I've said earlier, this is my seventh attempt at a novel, and it's the first one I feel is good enough to publish. I've spent ten years getting decent. For all that businesses talk about wanting to encourage creativity, really it's a kind of disease. You feel like you have to continuously vomit stuff up from your imagination to be happy. You should probably be glad that you're happy doing something more productive.

The problem with creative endeavors is that there's no objective test to say what's good or bad, plus we've idolized the lifestyle, so any given field--painting, writing, acting, music, whatever--is going to be flooded with people who frankly ain't that great, but can't be proven so. Whereas an inept programmer can be shown his incompetence when his code doesn't work, a bad builder can't make the house stand up, a bad cook can't stand to eat his own cooking . . .

BUncle, I just realized I'm being annoyingly wishy-washy here, so I'm going to STFU and let you do whatever you want to help, and thank you when you're done, and let that be that.

[kentonio]

The problem with creative endeavors is that there's no objective test to say what's good or bad, plus we've idolized the lifestyle, so any given field--painting, writing, acting, music, whatever--is going to be flooded with people who frankly ain't that great, but can't be proven so. Whereas an inept programmer can be shown his incompetence when his code doesn't work, a bad builder can't make the house stand up, a bad cook can't stand to eat his own cooking . . .

Don't worry, the internet is full of people who will tell you EXACTLY how good or bad they think your work is, and if you start getting actual critical reviews from professionals then you'll soon be wishing there was no judgement system.

[Elok]

Nuh-uh! If some people don't like it it just shows that they're philistines who don't appreciate my art, so I'll submit this thing to all the major sci-fi publishers without a query letter and then badmouth them when I get no reply!

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

...You are being wishy-washy and I am going to do as I please and hope you like it. I've got an emotional investment in seeing TCOL -and you- succeed...