UPDATE:  Thanks to the many great comments I’ve gotten here, at LinkedIn, on the book's Facebook Fan Page, and on the book's website I’ve shifted my focus from trying to depict the Asshole on the cover to depicting the Asshole’s victim/s.  Along those lines, I’m considering using an image somewhat like this cartoon by the great legal cartoonist, Charles Fincher of LawComix.  I might even ask Charles if I can use this very cartoon.  What do you think?

With Charles’ hilarious caption above and as the cover of the book below.

More after the jump.

A is for Asshole, the ABC's of Conflict Resolution (mastering conflict in everyday life) will soon become a reality.  Now I'm engaged in an activity that is likely more important than writing the book itself - choosing its cover (for which I've sought the help of my network, including readers of this blog - here!)

Here's one of the covers I'm considering.

How important is the cover?  Even the academics - well known for their love of content - say it's pretty darn important.   An online article at the Modern Language Association website by Professor Gregg Camfield, formerly of Penn and now at UC Merced, addresses The Importance of Judging Books By Their Covers.

we can--indeed we usually do--judge books by their covers. The Harlequin romances at the checkout counter in the supermarket have covers that tell us not only what but also how we will read. Leather-bound, gilt-edged volumes also tell us how to read: reverentially in the face of transcendent genius, which we have the good taste to purchase and display ostentatiously. My point is simple and obvious: the physical presentation of a piece of literature gives us essential clues about how we are intended to read it and gives us further clues about the means of its production and the social role it plays.

Of course I'd love to make a bundle of money on the book, but I mostly want people to read it - regular people who write to Dear Abby and Beth, not the elite bunch reading Randy Cohen's Ethicist in the New York Times (though I believe they'd benefit from it as well, including David Lat with the questionable mini-bar restocking habit).

So the cover of the ABC's needs to be eye-catching, even if the primary eye to be caught is the one browsing Amazon online rather than that of the customer glancing at the impulse table by the cash register (that's where I'd like it to be Barnes & Noble, Borders and Book Soup!).  Taking a page from Professor Camfield's book, the cover of the ABC's should also tell readers that it's not another dreary book about peace-making or conflict resolution - dry and earnest.  I want the reader to know that the book can be picked up and read anywhere the reader needs a little advice.  I want purchasers to put it on their coffee tables for company to browse through when the host is getting the wine and cheese or beer and chips.

Here's another cover I'm thinking about.

The title - the only part of the book about which I do not take advice - is meant to shock a little, but more to let the reader know the information and advice will be frank and streetwise, not effete or intellectually out of reach.  That's why I'm thinking of illustrative cartoons for the cover.

I'll have more to say about the book and the cover soon.  In the meantime, I'd consider it a great favor if you'd mosey on over to the ABC's of Conflict Resolution's blog and help me choose the cover!  There's a prize in the cracker jacks box for the person who provides me with the best advice (according to my own idiosyncratic standards). 

And another.  This one links to the book's Face Book Fan Page and I'd be most grateful if you'd go on over and fan the book! (I know there's one too many "%"s in the title below).

Thanks so much.