Well, I'm not the only one wondering why everyone is obsessing about spec fic covers. I saw the topic first on GalleyCat, but with goes-around-comes-around karma, it's everywhere. I blogged about it, and then Lou Anders of Pyr commented on my blog (technically, he commented on Scott Edeleman's astute observation about not alienating readers) and then he blogged about my post on his blog Bowing to the Future, where he also described Orbit Books blog. Meanwhile on GalleyCat there is yet another post, this one mostly on Tor art director Irene Gallo's blog entry on the topic.

Well, as she is an art director, I guess she gets paid to worry about it. I guess Lou Anders does, too, as he is kind of an everything director at Pyr.

I'm not getting paid, but I do find it interesting, especially because one of the covers Lou mentions is for Matter by spec fic writer Iain M. Banks (a.k.a., Iain Banks when he's writing mainstream). It's a fantastic cover, but it's the M in his name I'm wondering about. Who else uses a middle initial to distinguish himself/herself by genre? Do anyone know of other authors who do this? Unlike Margaret "Don't call it science fiction" Atwood, he's not saying he doesn't write science fiction, just that some of his books are spec fic and some aren't, and you can tell by the M! Kinda a neat idea, actually.