# Book cover idea: comments please



## HareBrain (Feb 18, 2018)

This is a cover I mocked up a while back for a book I might end up self-publishing. I'd be grateful for people's immediate reaction, and thoughts on what kind story it suggests. (I would have any actual cover done by an artist, so don't worry too much about drawing quality or lack of.)


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## Brian G Turner (Feb 18, 2018)

As it stands it has an old adventure book look to it, though I'm not sure that's simply because of the style, rather than composition.

I'm not sold on the idea of seeing the back of a character in the foreground. While we do commonly see the back of characters in thrillers, they are usually in the mid to background, to give an indistinct suggestion of character. In this instance, the figure dominates the image yet tells us nothing about themselves or their context (male/female, time period, setting, etc).

Just initial thoughts, any way.


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## Danny McG (Feb 18, 2018)

He's a bit of a 'bubble butt' by the way


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## Jo Zebedee (Feb 18, 2018)

I rather like it.


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## Toby Frost (Feb 18, 2018)

It's a damn sight better-drawn than I could ever do. I like it, but I agree that it does feel very old-school, partly in the drawing style and partly in the character's outfit. I'd expect him to be an explorer in Australia or perhaps Africa. 

The positioning of the figure slightly bothers me. I think it's that he seems very comfortable and exposed, as if to go birdwatching, which doesn't lend much of an atmosphere of excitement or danger. One option might be to have him half-concealed by a rock or crouching down lower on the slope so that only his head sticks up, or to make the thing in the crater more obviously threatening. But of course this depends on the story and it would be wrong to go overboard.


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## Cat's Cradle (Feb 18, 2018)

I really dig it, and I love that it has a sort of older-times, action-adventure feel. I agree with Toby that the person seems a bit over-exposed, as he's presented here*. What if he was lying on his side, with one leg kind of drawn up, and he was lifting his head up just a bit to peek through a gap in the broken rock of the ledge's rim? When my cats are lying down while playing (seems an oxymoron, but cat owners should understand), they often keep one of their back legs bent, tensed, and with their claws dug into the carpet so they can spring away in a moment. Perhaps if this was a bit less static; just something to show that there is the potential for danger, in his spying.

The book is fantastic, and I'm really happy it might be published soon.

* unless the scale is off a bit here, and in the final drawing the person and the thing he is observing are a very great distance apart, so that his being exposed isn't a big deal. I should remember, having read the book, but my memory is terrible.


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## MemoryTale (Feb 18, 2018)

I disagree with Bryan that we don't get much impression of the character - I'm getting an explorer/archeologist vibe from them.


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## Stephen Palmer (Feb 18, 2018)

I really like the image and setting. The typography is a tad bland.
My main immediate reaction is - too orange*. Import it into image software and reduce the orange/red saturation!

* even for a book called Red Silence...


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## millymollymo (Feb 18, 2018)

I like the aged feel this has, but worry it wouldn't hold up on the "scroll" of Amazon & friends. 
I suspect you might be able to compliment the excellent art with a block style border - flourishing it with a modern and bold "stand out" 
-much like your writing style...


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## The Judge (Feb 18, 2018)

I agree it looks old-fashioned, which I don't think does it any favours, since the book is most definitely not an old-fashioned type of novel.  It also screams a lot younger than YA to me, like a children's version of King Solomon's Mines, which again that might put some people off. 

I can understand why you want to show the desert, since that's so important to the plot, but instead of the tree which isn't immediately recognisable, have you thought about showing the basilisk?  Pity you can't do a night scene so you can show a single star in there.

I've a soft spot for the History Man and his puppets, but that again might look too young.  And a cage of Crazies yelling at Yuri is probably too crowded.  What about the castle-thingummy at the end? 

Have you any ideas for Green Song?  Because to me, the two ought to complement each other, so perhaps try and find an image which can work for both.


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## WarriorMouse (Feb 18, 2018)

The cover prompted these questions.
Is this story set in the 1930's? re:hobnail boots the person is wearing.
Is this an YA adventure story? re: Hardy Boys / Famous Five
Why is that tree stumpy thing in the center of a crater?
Why are there 2 titles?


I like the look of the cover but if this is the first book of "A Severed World" series then the title sequence could be something like

      Red Silence
A Severed World Story


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## HareBrain (Feb 18, 2018)

Thanks for the responses so far. They've already sparked a few ideas how to adapt it. And yes, less orange.

Interesting that several have said it has an old-fashioned feel. In a way, that fits the story, but in another way it very much doesn't, as it is first-person present rather than the omniscient-style narration an old-fashioned cover might suggest. I personally like the quietness of it. I'm also a sucker for old-fashioned book covers, which might be skewing my feelings about it. Hmm.



The Judge said:


> have you thought about showing the basilisk?



Well, there was this, as it happens, but I think that looks even more YA than the above, and probably would no matter what an artist did with it.



 



The Judge said:


> What about the castle-thingummy at the end?



Have you been looking through my pictures folder?



 

I don't know that either of those scenes would really capture the sense of the story, though.


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## Overread (Feb 18, 2018)

> Red Silence
> A Severed World Story



I think this phrase works well when you've got a series of books which are set in the same world, but where the order of reading isn't important and they are capable of being read stand-alone (more or less). When its an ordered series I think its very important to have number 1,2,3 as part of the undertitle/spine of the book. This helps inform your reader what they are buying right from the cover. They can thus easily navigate themselves to the first in the series and each other book in the right order. Casual "part of series" titles without a numerical order can be a nightmare for the new reader as they can't casually be informed if the book they are looking at is the start or finish or half way through when its on the store bookshelf. Even listings on Amazon are not always 100% clear. 

You want your reader informed, not having to go hunt down key information like this.


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## MemoryTale (Feb 18, 2018)

Bearing in mind I haven't read anything, from the covers your story looks like that of a lone wanderer searching for something in the desolation of *insert place name here*. Take from that what you will of if the cover portrays the story accurately.

Bearing in mind the hare's different, I do wonder if the character in cover 1 is different from the one shown in covers 2 and 3, or if your idea of what they looked like changed?

I think of the three I think I prefer the third one, and I'm not too fond of the second. The perspective of the sword just seems... Off. But I can't put a finger on why.


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## The Judge (Feb 18, 2018)

Re the basilisk one, try turning the action round, so the basilisk is facing the reader and Yuri has his back to us -- but with no hat and backpack, as it comes over a bit too Junior Indiana Jones.  For the background, forget the tree and have the desert, mountains in the distance with the star above. See what that looks like.

Re the castle-y one, actually, I like that.  Though whether it would be striking enough for Amazon thumbnails, I'm not sure.

NB Remember that you're not using the cover to give a sense of the story, you're using it to entice people to pick up the book.  If you have to lie to do that, so be it.




> Have you been looking through my pictures folder?


As if I would go sneaking around someone's room, opening desk drawers and Top Secret folders, looking for stuff which I might then use for nefarious purposes...


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## BAYLOR (Feb 18, 2018)

HareBrain said:


> This is a cover I mocked up a while back for a book I might end up self-publishing. I'd be grateful for people's immediate reaction, and thoughts on what kind story it suggests. (I would have any actual cover done by an artist, so don't worry too much about drawing quality or lack of.)
> 
> View attachment 43174



I like it because it harkens back to the of great book covers they did decades ago.


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## WarriorMouse (Feb 18, 2018)

Overread said:


> I think this phrase works well when you've got a series of books which are set in the same world, but where the order of reading isn't important and they are capable of being read stand-alone (more or less). When its an ordered series I think its very important to have number 1,2,3 as part of the undertitle/spine of the book. This helps inform your reader what they are buying right from the cover. They can thus easily navigate themselves to the first in the series and each other book in the right order. Casual "part of series" titles without a numerical order can be a nightmare for the new reader as they can't casually be informed if the book they are looking at is the start or finish or half way through when its on the store bookshelf. Even listings on Amazon are not always 100% clear.
> 
> You want your reader informed, not having to go hunt down key information like this.



Fair enough.
I do think the the book title needs to be in much larger text than the sub titleing .


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## TheDustyZebra (Feb 18, 2018)

The Judge said:


> Re the basilisk one, try turning the action round, so the basilisk is facing the reader and Yuri has his back to us -- but with no hat and backpack, as it comes over a bit too Junior Indiana Jones. For the background, forget the tree and have the desert, mountains in the distance with the star above. See what that looks like.



That.


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## Montero (Feb 18, 2018)

Instant reaction to picture.

1. Red Silence + World in title = Mars
2. Style of figure and art - Victorian/Edwardian adventure

Next reaction - if Mars, why no space helmet. Answer, ah it's Victorian. Now I'll go and read the thread.

Final reaction - I think it is an excellent picture in itself and doesn't need re-doing. It has a quality that makes it stand out.

Having read the thread
Mostly love the other two pictures as pictures. (The figure in the first of the pair is a little stiff.) I am also not a fan of feet getting cut off the bottom of pictures. 
The last one, in the valley, strikes me more as a travel story, pre WW1 traveller to remote part of Hindu Kush or Arabia. Long bunch of hair seems "girl" to me. (I have no problem with long hair on men, but the figure in the last comes over as female, and as he is called Yuri, assume that is wrong.)

It's too late in my brain day. I was going to comment regarding people's comments, people who know your book, but I've forgotten what they were already......

In terms of general advice on book covers, if you want one that sits in with whatever your current market is, then womble off to Goodreads, where you can see all covers for a book as you look at similar books to yours. Doing research on cover art (mainly urban fantasy and horror) they seem to re-do covers every couple of years on some books, bringing out certain elements more, or changing style to be positioned alongside say Ben Aaronovitch as he became better known. Get all the folks who've read your book to say "I think it is like Stephen King's take on the Wombles" : ) (or whatever it is really like). And go look at those books. It's one of those things where it can be hard to see where your book sits.


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## HareBrain (Feb 18, 2018)

MemoryTale said:


> I do wonder if the character in cover 1 is different from the one shown in covers 2 and 3, or if your idea of what they looked like changed?



Same character in 2, different in 3, though the clothes are similar. (BTW, they were only meant as pictures I drew for fun, rather than cover ideas.)



The Judge said:


> NB Remember that you're not using the cover to give a sense of the story, you're using it to entice people to pick up the book. If you have to lie to do that, so be it.



This is probably a topic for a whole other thread, but if it doesn't match the story, don't you risk disappointing (or possibly enraging) the reader?


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## WarriorMouse (Feb 18, 2018)

My copy of "The Hunt For Red October" HAS no cover art. I wasn't enraged.


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## Montero (Feb 18, 2018)

I think giving the reader the wrong impression of the book they are getting can get you really cross reviews. Some folks pick up a book on the cover, assume they are getting a milk bar and if it has nuts in it get really arsey.

@HareBrain - I've added more onto my earlier post since you've seen it - regarding a bit of market research on cover art.


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## The Judge (Feb 18, 2018)

HareBrain said:


> This is probably a topic for a whole other thread, but if it doesn't match the story, don't you risk disappointing (or possibly enraging) the reader?


Possibly, but they've bought the book by then, so who cares?!   

Actually, yes it has annoyed me in the past when I've read a book and the cover hasn't got anything to do with the story -- eg a space ship in a SF that never goes into space.  But the cover doesn't need to mirror the story or be an exact faithful reproduction of any particular scene.  It's just got to be grabby.


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## tinkerdan (Feb 18, 2018)

I like the first cover posted; where it is simplistic compared to the other drawings it is superb in drawing the eyes where they need to go which is to the title and the author and it's a well done picture.

You should shoehorn the text in the others, with all that busy work on them and see what I mean.


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## HareBrain (Feb 18, 2018)

Montero said:


> Get all the folks who've read your book to say "I think it is like Stephen King's take on the Wombles" : ) (or whatever it is really like). And go look at those books. It's one of those things where it can be hard to see where your book sits.



At the moment, I've no idea where it sits, so anyone who's read it (and has a long memory) is more than welcome to chime in with comparisons. I can't think of any myself, unfortunately.


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## Montero (Feb 18, 2018)

Yeah, that is the kicker. It may be like some other books out there - but you've never read them. Or what to you is a key "thing" about the book, is not a key thing to someone else....

In terms of being annoyed by covers - I'd be annoyed if the mood conveyed was wrong. So to take a silly extreme, grim dark in a hearts and flowers cover (and I don't mean an anatomically correct heart with a dagger in it on a bed of withered deadly nightshade...). I broadly want to know what I am going to get from a book. I am underwhelmed by some of the current minimalist sf covers like The Long Way to A Small Angry Planet. I looked it up on Goodreads and found it has a second cover which is much more sf than the sort of night sky one.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Minimalist covers say to me "literary fiction".


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## Brian G Turner (Feb 18, 2018)

HareBrain said:


> Interesting that several have said it has an old-fashioned feel.



This might actually be a marketing opportunity. Not least because those responses have been mostly positive, and from what I've read the biggest section of the regular reading public is 40+ years old. Could be a way to tap into a wider market. Just thinking aloud.


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## The Judge (Feb 18, 2018)

Well, thematically it's very like a novel called _The Goddess Project_.  That help?   


I think part of the problem might be that although there is a desert and a protagonist walking through it complete with donkey, his search isn't of the kind that you'd get in an old fashioned adventure book, eg looking for something tangible like diamonds or a mysterious queen's tomb, and anyone who picked up the book on that basis, thinking it's another Rider Haggard, is really going to be teed off.  Instead there's an esoteric, not to say trippy, feel to a large part of the novel.  With TGP you balanced the mundane and the shamanistic with the cover, helped by the symbols in the tramlines.  If you wanted to keep the Victorian adventure look, is there anything similar you think you could bring to the cover here, to highlight that aspect?


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## TWErvin2 (Feb 18, 2018)

For my two cents, while good, I think the color similarity (reds/browns) except for the author name, will cause it to get overlooked at the thumbnail size on Amazon and elsewhere. Eyes might be drawn to covers to either side or further down the line before the potential reader explores it further.


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## AlexH (Feb 23, 2018)

I really like the drawing style and it does have an old-style look. It strikes me more as an in-book illustration, rather than cover. I feel as if the composition would work better if the person was offset to one side rather than the head being dead-centre, with the background object offset to the other side. For a "mock up" I definitely think you should consider doing the cover illustration yourself rather than getting another artist in. Perhaps bolder colours will give it more of a cover feel? I do think the colour palettes in the other drawings you've posted stand out more.

The text could do with more designing, rather than just a flat font, but going overboard could be just as bad. It's not _bad_ at the moment, I just think it could look more professional. But you said it was a mock up so maybe you've thought of that already.

It suggests adventure to me.


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## HareBrain (Feb 24, 2018)

AlexH said:


> I feel as if the composition would work better if the person was offset to one side rather than the head being dead-centre, with the background object offset to the other side



Yes, I tried doing this a while back:




 

Though I only offset the figure (and reversed the image, still not sure which way round is better). I also agree about the fonts. Not sure I agree about doing it myself, though it might be nice to try, as I haven't done any serious art for years.


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## AlexH (Feb 24, 2018)

I prefer the offset figure and think the background offset to the left (with the head turned more) might work better too.


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## Lumens (Feb 24, 2018)

When offset like that, it is clearer that it is a tree, although the root structure isn't that characteristic. It's better when there is no overlap like in the first example. It is intriguing, if a little hard to get a sense of scale. 

I like your drawings a lot, but the way.


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## Montero (Feb 24, 2018)

I think I prefer the second.
Hadn't realised the central object was snapped off tree, saw it as a fancy alien rock structure, possibly extruded.


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## HareBrain (Feb 25, 2018)

Lumens said:


> it is clearer that it is a tree





Montero said:


> Hadn't realised the central object was snapped off tree, saw it as a fancy alien rock structure, possibly extruded.



I can't decide if it's good or bad that it's clearer. If it's clearly a tree, is there a risk it seems "just" a tree? ("What, they chose a guy looking at a tree for the cover? That must be the most boring book ever!") Or does it look intriguingly alien, as I was hoping?

Since the basic image does seem to have drawn general approval, and I like it myself, does anyone have any ideas how I can strengthen it with those elements? Someone's (Toby's?) earlier comment about making the character more dynamic by giving him a stronger position and making it more obvious he's actually trying to screen himself was a good one.


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## Montero (Feb 25, 2018)

To me the tree/rock does look alien.
Would it be reasonable to have your griffin thing perched on top of it?

Having the person more obviously hiding seems a good idea.

Incidentally, all your figures strike me as young - as in late teens. Is that intentional?


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## HareBrain (Feb 25, 2018)

Yes, they are late teens, so that's good.



Montero said:


> griffin thing



You mean the lizard in the second picture? No it can't fly. I guess it might in theory climb up there, but if the cover's going to be an illustration of a scene from the story, I'd rather keep it accurate.


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## AlexH (Feb 25, 2018)

HareBrain said:


> I can't decide if it's good or bad that it's clearer. If it's clearly a tree, is there a risk it seems "just" a tree? ("What, they chose a guy looking at a tree for the cover? That must be the most boring book ever!") Or does it look intriguingly alien, as I was hoping?
> 
> Since the basic image does seem to have drawn general approval, and I like it myself, does anyone have any ideas how I can strengthen it with those elements? Someone's (Toby's?) earlier comment about making the character more dynamic by giving him a stronger position and making it more obvious he's actually trying to screen himself was a good one.


I wouldn't be happy if a book cover misled me. When I first saw the cover I thought it was an explosion, especially with the crater around it. I wouldn't say it looks alien. There are plenty of trees on earth with incredible root structures.


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## Montero (Feb 25, 2018)

Yes, lizard in the second picture.

I was assuming alien from the get-go because of the book title - it is suggestive of Mars for example. But if some people are finding it not-alien then....

Is there any obviously alien thing that could be perched on a rock, so it shouts alien?
Is there something that can be in the sky? The classic two moons or summat - though with the drawing you'd be hard pressed to get them in.
Um.


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## Hugh (Feb 25, 2018)

I like the first cover best.  I like the uncluttered space.  I like the sense of something mysterious going on.  I also like it that the "young adult" type is not wearing trainers.


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