Teasing is pleasing

Publishing a book is a lot of work.

Just ask many of my colleagues who have survived the endeavor, including Bob Hoffman, Jeff Gorman, Don Jung and Howie Cohen, author of the new book, I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing.

I owe Howie a book review. I've read chapters of his book and loved it, but I want to complete it and do the book justice. I owe him that because Howie and his legendary Alka Seltzer commercials first got me interested in writing.

My least favorite part of putting a book together is the arduous task of manuscript preparation. There's proofreading, formatting, editing, and then more proofreading.

I'm a terrible proofreader. And anyone who reads this blog can attest I misspell words, I leave out words and I am a frequent victim of autocorrect.

By the way, I believe the creators of autocorrect are antisemitic. I often sprinkle Yiddish words into my copy, but the mishbuchah at autocorrect will not let me write mishigas, tzuris or tchotcke, and is always finding inappropriate nonsensical substitutes.

Autocorrect is auto-goy.

My favorite part of publishing a book is the book cover. The area where I have the least to do. Fortunately I am friends with the most talented visual artists in the country, including Jean Robaire, Robert Prins and Rohitash Ro. Not only are they master craftsmen, they are extremely generous.

For this latest venture, Jean Robaire stepped up to the plate and gave me several options. I loved all of them, as they push the boundaries and grab your attention immediately. And forcefully.

I selected one. And it is currently being refined and gussied up for its debut. But thought I'd share one of the other contenders.

I liked the incendiary nature of this cover. But had a problem putting my picture, actually multiple pictures, on the cover.

I'm on the receiving end of enough slings and arrows regarding my narcissism, I don't need to contribute to that any more than I have to. Besides, as I am fond of saying, "I have a face for radio. And a voice for newspaper."

That said, here's one of the book cover's I won't be using...