Ted’s answer to “Ted, thank you for offering a free copy of Elixir. I look forward to reading it! You stated the …” > Likes and Comments

Thanks, Ted. I look forward to reading the book. The title and premise immediately grabbed my attention, and I wouldn't be surprised if you get an offer for movie rights, without any alteration to the title or story (which is the frosting on a writer's cake). That's just my initial take, and I haven't even read it yet. Now, if you're like me, criticism hurts, but if you're also like me, you appreciate it or take it with a grain of salt. My initial reaction to the cover is it needs improvement, which is the beauty of Kindle publishing. However, if your young adult audience thinks the cover is cool, ignore my suggestion. ;-)

I appreciate the feedback, Eugene. And yes, an Elixir movie would be pretty cool : )

I was thinking why I even mentioned the cover, as I'm adverse to criticizing anyone in issues that may seem minor. My belief is a cover of a book as movie-worthy as yours, must appeal to emotion - and as I look at the cover of Elixir on Amazon again, I think the young man running toward the girl he loves is good. Perhaps....... if the men in the background were wearing biohazard so-called "space suits" used in Ebola hot spots or worse (i.e. Marlburg or bioweapon deployment zones), it would create more emotional urgency on the cover. Perhaps "a known yet mysteriously terrifying disease" would be more intriguing than "mysterious disease" (which suggests you're writing about a new disease possibly worse than Ebola and less curable, requiring an elixir from a pharmaceutical company based on some extremely rare plant or synthesized component thereof, found in a remote jungle or something).

There are photos of what I have in mind for drawing these suits over the background men wearing business suits, here: http://postalmuseum.si.edu/inspectors...

You can do this yourself by using the software Bookcover Pro 4, which is like Photoshop on steroids specifically designed for book covers (with even barcoding and slipcase templates). You could make this killer, perhaps adding some relevant color to the drawings in Photoshop first for effect.

Thanks for your timely replies. If a studio like Sony Pictures doesn't pick this up, it's their loss. It's extremely relevant considering the previous Ebola scare and worse mutations on the horizon. Some studio will pick it up, I'm sure.

I meant to add your sequels could have the young man and the girl he loves, whom he saved, becoming involved in CDC and pharmaceutical company efforts to fight weaponized versions of Ebola and other truly diabolical viruses, bacterium and even brain altering amoebas. There's your series, one that could become serialized by a movie studio like they did for other books (think Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, etc.). :-)

You picked such a fascinating subject that could go on and on into many books, I can't stop (sorry)....... both he and she could volunteer to test "elixirs" for the above-mentioned bio horrors, go into hot zones, and perhaps they start to genetically mutate. This could lead to them becoming super-human, which could lead to Marvel picking this up. The more I think about it, you really hit the jackpot with this idea. Run with it!

Eugene, you have an amazing imagination! You should get into writing yourself, if you haven't already. I agree: the bio-hazard suit is definitely a powerful image. When you read the book, you'll see that the men on the cover - the "bad guys" - actually are not medical workers who'd be wearing the suits, which is why I didn't feature the image on the cover. That being said, in the book trailer, I made sure a visual of a bio-hazard suit made its way in. You can check out the trailer with the link below. For someone like you, who seems to have a good cinematic sense, I'm sure the trailer will paint a good picture. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ofmj...

Ted, you created an excellent trailer for the book.

Thanks a bunch Eugene!