"Oh," I said, "I'm so glad to have a book coming out in the Netherlands! I used to live there when I was a kid."

"I'll show you the cover," said the editor, "if you promise not to kill me."

I promised not to kill him.

He showed me the cover.

After I tried to kill him, he said, "You'll be happy to know that this cover is so bad that from now on, I have some say over the covers on the sf novels I edit."

As you can imagine, that made me feel a lot better.