the original cover for Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book’
If you’re human, fiction is a big deal to you.
Clap if you WANT to believe in: Tinkerbell, dragons, time travel, space ships, ghosts, lost cities, the holy grail, mystical serendipity, numinous energy, sentient pond scum, divine intervention, soul mates, talking animals, life after death, angels and demons, and galaxies far far away.
For a golden hour your world is happily under a hill in middle earth or hurtling at warp speed on the Starship Enterprise or wandering an alley behind the Leaky Cauldron.
The last time I visited the cinema (a few days ago to see ‘The Jungle Book’ an amazing story, by the way) the popcorn cost almost as much as the admission. Remember, ‘The Jungle Book’ was a BOOK first… hey, it’s right there in the title!
Coffee is a glutted market. Clap if you believe in coffee. Publishing is a glutted market. Clap if you believe in original stories. And if you believe in committed authors, the next time you visit that glutted ‘BOOK JUNGLE’ dollar store, please consider the heroic effort of months and sometimes years it takes for an author to create a literary escape. For you.
Now, followers of fantastical fiction, I ask you, do you work for free? I’m guessing Rudyard Kipling didn’t work for free. Do you attend movies for free? Clap if you believe in fiction… you know you want to.
Every now and then, in an author’s fantasy, a person forgoes the price of a designer coffee and a chocolate croissant or a bag of movie popcorn in favor of purchasing a book. But, that’s just us writers of fiction – we dream big!
Veronica Knox 
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I want to hear clapping here.
SIGN IN if you believe in fairy tales, like authors being paid for their hours and months and often YEARS of hard work.
I’m clapping.
Well, now there’s two of us. Only the public can change how authors are paid, one book at a time.
LOVE that cover with the elephants. See how striking it is. Notice that neither the title nor the author’s name is lost … nor does it detract from the beauty of the design.
One day let’s hope book covers return to the simplicity of a clean title with a subtle image. Save the special effects for the inside. Too many competitive covers can spoil the shelf.