Cover Story, Part Three: It's Quiet...TOO Quiet.

The third cover idea I've had since working on the book, and the second cover concept provided to me by my graphic designer was also within many of the parameters I laid out for him.  It was certainly a more traditional cover when compared to other biography/history books.

As you can see this cover did have the old 1946 version of the El Rey Club, it had a warning label, it had The King of Casinos in big, bold letters.  What it didn't have was any excitement to it.  There's no real reason for anyone walking by at a book store or browsing online to stop what they were doing and pick up the book.  It's a very good cover.  Clean, crisp, and quiet...too quiet.  It had none of the fun or intrigue that lies within the pages. 

Almost there.  Stay on target.
©Andy Martello and Just A Martello Books
All Rights Reserved

It did have going for it the fact that even in tiny icon form or at a great distance, you could still read "The King" in the title and that appealed to me very much.  I knew I wanted to keep that kind of name recognition involved since many may only be purchasing this from  internet retailers.

Somewhere between the two concepts provided to me by Barrington Design Studios there was a way to capture that excitement and tone of the overall book.  I asked Greg if he could combine the two.  Get the showgirl in there, get the casino in there, get the warning label and the WOW factor all in there.  initially I thought I'd take the showgirl photo and have him work his magic to make the onlookers part of the mountain landscape with the legs acting as the warning label.  What he came up with absolutely blew me away and I am certain you'll love it.

The chance to get your name listed in the special thanks of this book is running out.  Even a donation of one dollar gets you captured in this piece of history.  It also helps pay for all this mess.  Go to GoFundMe.com today and make The King of Casinos a reality!

http://www.gofundme.com/el-rey-club-book

The research & collecting of photos and memorabilia from the El Rey Club never stops! Please contact me at 702-465-5604 or email me at andy@andymartello.com if you have stories or memorabilia to share.

______________________________________
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Cover Story, Part Two: Sex Sells

By the time I got to the stage where I was gathering files for publishing I needed a graphic designer to really make the cover art work.  I certainly could have used the templates or paid for someone at CreateSpace to do this for me, but I wanted to get someone I knew and trusted especially if I ended up paying for the work.  I also had a couple of other ideas for the cover and I wanted to give Greg Barrington as much to work with as possible knowing he could not only get the job done, but knowing he could come up with several great ideas based upon a theme.

I sent Greg my badly hacked cover idea and photo and we both agreed it would be better suited for the back cover.  For the front there were some elements I wanted to incorporate.

First off, I had always envisioned seeing The King of Casinos in big bold letters, juxtaposed with the photo that first got me interested in the El Rey Club.  That photo was of a run down shack and taken in 1946.  I loved the intrigue it could create in the mind of a potential reader and thought seeing such a bold proclamation of grandeur along with the very humble (if not downright meager) image of the place as it looked in 1946 could be enough to get a person to want to see more.

The photo that started it all.
One of only a handful of previously published within my book.
THIS is the KING OF CASINOS???

Next I wanted to have some kind of warning label on the front cover.  This was not to make the book look sleazy or like a pulp novel (although I liked that visual), but because I needed to hedge my bets a bit with regard to stopping the potential customer in his tracks and encouraging him or her to actually pick up the book and leaf through it, maybe even buy it.  So on the warning label would be things that not only titillate but all help sell a product, particularly a book about Vegas.  In short I was hoping to pander a little bit (Yes, I see the humor in a book about a one-time brothel and my use of the word "pandering".)  I envisioned a warning that read, "WARNING!  This book contains...Nudity!  Celebrities!  Prostitution!   Adultery!  Gambling! and...Mobsters???"  After all, all of these elements are in there to one degree or another and any one of those things could get someone to leaf through the book.  I knew that the prostitutes were among the things most everyone found fascinating about the story (It's what got me involved) and I knew that books about Vegas always sell better if A) mobsters are in there somewhere and B) if a showgirl was on the cover.  This brings me to my last element I wanted to use.


I had some fabulous photos of dancers, showgirls, and other performers inside the El Rey Club.  I wanted to get a showgirl on the cover somewhere.  I just wasn't certain how it would work out knowing I also wanted the casino in there somewhere.  So far as I was concerned, that wasn't my problem.  I don't ask a graphic designer to spin plates and he wouldn't ask me to design a killer book cover.  Let him figure it out!

Photo courtesy Nevada State Museum
[J. Florian Mitchell Collection]
©Andy Martello and Just A Martello Books
All Rights Reserved

What Greg came up with were two rough, but excellent cover ideas.  The first (pictured here) utilized one of my favorite photos of a dancing girl inside the El Rey Club, was certainly eye-catching and  capable of stopping a person walking by an airport book store, and it had the warning label.

What this cover didn't have was any real indication that the setting was the El Rey Club. This could be the inside of any night club anywhere in the world.  It also was a bit too in-your-face and it had too much of a tabloid feeling to it.  This cover suggested more of a smarmy tell-all of some seedy underbelly of Vegas life, and anyone who bought this book would expect something different than what was inside.  The warning label was also difficult to read.  But again, this was just a rough idea designed to get the creating juices flowing.

A great idea, but not quite hitting the mark.  What followed was also not quite what I wanted.  Where this cover was too far on one end of the scale, the following cover was on the opposite end,  Stay tuned to see cover concept #3.

There's still time to make a donation and help finish this project.  $20 gets you a signed copy of The King of Casinos.  However the opportunity to get your name in the special thanks is running out.  head to GoFundMe.com today to help make this book a reality!

http://www.gofundme.com/el-rey-club-book

The research & collecting of photos and memorabilia from the El Rey Club never stops! Please contact me at 702-465-5604 or email me at andy@andymartello.com if you have stories or memorabilia to share.

______________________________________
www.andymartello.com
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Call 702-465-5604 or email andy@andymartello.com
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Cover Story, Part One: The Name Game

This is the first in a four-part series of posts leading up to the reveal of the book's cover.  In my life as an entertainer I hear quite actually hundreds of questions about the creative process.  I'll try to detail in full the thoughts that went into the final cover and all the drafts.


I had several ideas for a cover in the years since I started working on this book.  Of course, the cover had to match the title and I had as many or more ideas for a title.

After considerable deliberation I decided to go with something that featured "king" in the title.  At least the majority of the titles I came up with had "king" in there.  "El Rey" means "the king" and Willie Martello considered himself to be a king in the Vegas area.  For the longest time the working title was simply The King with a full title of The King: The Story of Willie Martello and the El Rey Club (or simply The King).  I thought that would end up as THE title until Steve Fischer, author of the wildly popular book, When the Mob Ran Vegas, convinced me that "THE KING" would likely get people to think it was a book about Elvis and then be disappointed.  I agreed and decided if I were to keep "king" in the title it needed to be tweaked.

Photo courtesy Nevada State Museum
[J. Florian Mitchell Collection]
My original cover design.
A very B-A-D mock-up made at home.
©Andy Martello & Just A Martello Books
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Long before I found THE title I found a KILLER photo at the Nevada State Museum.  I knew I wanted it in the book and on the cover.  The image you're seeing is a VERY rough idea I made myself to serve as inspiration for a real graphics designer and to have something to show potential agents or publishers.  I love the stoic look on Willie's face, the runway seemingly going off into infinity as if to suggest Willie and his casino are eternal, a story for the ages.  I also liked such a sober photo with such a strong title.  No King is without his problems and it appears this King had some problems in his kingdom.

This is NOT what ended up as the cover.  this was just the first in a series of concepts that led to what you'll all be reading very soon.  At the time I thought I'd ask Jerry Schafer to write a foreword, but he contributed so very much to the book I asked Mark Hall-Patton (Pawn Stars) to write one.

Eventually I settled upon The King of Casinos: Willie Martello and the El Rey Club as the title.  No Elvis confusion and "king" was still in there.  Plus that title spoke to both the casino which I believe was a template for modern Vegas resorts and Willie himself who thought he was the King of Casinos.

Stay tuned to see the evolution of the cover for The King of Casinos!

There is still time to donate and help fund this project.  there are still many great thank-you gifts available for the casino collectors out there.  However the time to get your name listed in the special thanks is running out.  Donate today and become a part of history!

www.gofundme.com/el-rey-club-book

The research & collecting of photos and memorabilia from the El Rey Club never stops! Please contact me at 702-465-5604 or email me at andy@andymartello.com if you have stories or memorabilia to share.Cover Story, part One:

______________________________________
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Title Page Teaser

Photo courtesy Nevada State Museum
[J. Florian Mitchell Collection]
The King of Casinos: Willie Martello & the El Rey Club
©Andy Martello and Just A Martello Books
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

What you are looking at is the title page (NOT the cover) for my upcoming book.  This welcomes the reader after a brief perusal of the book (a perusal inspired by a truly AMAZING cover) inviting you to take the journey back to Searchlight, Nevada, as I did eight years ago.

That's Willie standing proudly on his newly built airport runway, looking eager and hopeful for the future.  Knowing this book will be out soon, I feel the same way!

There are still plenty of pieces of El Rey memorabilia available for donations and pre-orders, however the time to get your name mentioned in the Special Thanks is running out.  Head to GoFundMe.com today!

 www.gofundme.com/el-rey-club-book

The research & collecting of photos and memorabilia from the El Rey Club never stops! Please contact me at 702-465-5604 or email me at andy@andymartello.com if you have stories or memorabilia to share.

______________________________________
www.andymartello.com
Like Andy? "LIKE" Andy on Facebook!
FOLLOW Andy on Twitter!
Like Andy That Much? BOOK ANDY!
Call 702-465-5604 or email andy@andymartello.com
Andy on YouTube