Tickety Boo Covers Feedback Forum...

[Ray McCarthy]

The name registered OK with me*, I thought the text OK.
But I automatically masked out the back and spine in my mind's eye.

I'd think, yup, I don't want this! Because it says horror and I don't read horror any more. So works for me
I think it's gross, but like you probably want gross for horror.

[* And I'd never heard of him]

 

[tinkerdan]

The blood in the background looks added on and kind'a cheesy. The whole thing looks like someone who made spaghetti and meatballs by hand except the hands look like they were dipped in red ink.

The author's name: much larger.

I like the setting; but oddly it doesn't match the body parts strewn around.
Also the hands look to have multiple light sources that compete with each other and seem to dispute the way the blood darkens and shadows so it looks less real.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Gary, look at the cover image as it would appear to the potential reader online, without the spine or back cover, just what is on the front. It's a lot to take in in a small area. If you took out the body parts and organs at the back and there was less dripping blood at the top, the viewer's eye would not be racing around the cover to take it all in. Also it might be better without the iron nails. I hesitate to use the word clean because what you are trying to communicate is blood splashed around, which from you say is appropriate, but in an artistic sense your space opera covers are much cleaner and that's why they are so much more effective, I think.

 

[Gary Compton]

Any good?

 

[Parson]

Well at first glance I find it striking. It looks like the cover of a book I'd like to read. I'm assuming though that this is a front and back wrap around. If it's not it should be. Otherwise the print should be centered.

Could we see this as it would look with just the cover? It seems to me that the print might be overwhelming and I'm not sure that the planet shouldn't be wholly seen on the front cover.

I'll be interested to see where the rest of the comments go.

 

[ralphkern]

Is that the Nostromo from Alien?

 

[Gary Compton]

Here we go Parson with front cover. The one above is a wraparound paperback cover.

Ralph, I haven't a clue what you are on about. LOL

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Wow, that is a strikingly beautiful space-opera cover! The blue is perfect! I personally like the fonts, too. To continue Parson's thought: when can we read this??

(One question...is the ship in the foreground supposed to have its engines shut off? I see no space-opera exhaust coming from its rear end. I'm kind of hoping it is supposed to be dead in the water/vacuum...I don't like the thought of anything disturbing this rhapsody in blue.)

 

[ralphkern]

You publish SF and you don't know Alien?!? :/

Seriously, I think that's the ship from Alien - it is a fairly iconic one and it might be best to choose another.

 

[Gary Compton]

No! because I thought the whole thing was a pile of Sh*t!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

It looks vaguely like that ship -- and also like a few dozen other ships on covers and in movies. So I don't think you need worry about it, Gary. It's just (and I don't say this in any insulting way) a generic ship. It's the composition of the picture that makes it special.

But unless you have a huge blurb to put at the bottom, I think you should move Jo's name much further down, and make it smaller. Otherwise, I think the cover is excellent.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

It's pretty, but move Jo's name further down the page and consider that it's a static image. Nothing's happening. You want rockets blasting or guns blazing or something that makes the reader think something is happening.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Foxbat]

I like it. I love the blue tinge. I'm not actually a big reader of Space Opera (although I do...will.. try and read all our Chrons Operatures) but I think this is the kind of cover I'd be likely to give a second look to if I were browsing a book store.

I think it has the potential to be the best of the trilogy covers but perhaps Teresa is right - move Jo's name down a bit.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

I kind of like that it's a static image...it doesn't seem like a frozen moment in time, but rather that there is a pause full of potential for action, or change here. Kind of like the gunfight at the end of The Good, the Bad & the Ugly...so very many different things could occur immediately after the moment this image captures. It makes me wonder about what is going on, and want to find out. (And we've seen an awful lot of flaming engines and streaming lasers in space opera covers...perhaps a static moment is the next big wave?)
I'm no expert on covers though, so just my 2 cents.
I agree about moving Jo's name down a bit. And I still love the blue.

edit: just looked again...I really can feel space here...the proportions of their distance from each other, that the two ships and the station are floating in reasonably close proximity to each other. It's really good, IMO.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Looks fine - but if you give the ship in the foreground a little steeper an angle, it may make the cover look more dramatic: ie, its plane of axis from - to \

Simply a suggestion to experiment with.

 

[Gary Compton]

Thanks guys the gap below the name is for a cover quote, like Abendau's Heir.

And I have never watched Aliens, Star Wars or the X-Files, now Star Trek - that's my baby

 

[Gary Compton]

On the engines. We had a discussion about thrusters on Sunset Over Abendau and we thought it better the ships were moving ominously through space.

I could put them on easily but dont think I need to but I will have a think.

 

[Boneman]

I like ominously...

 

[Gary Compton]

On the ship: I don't think mine is anything like the Nostromo which is shown below.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I think it's the thrusters on the back have the look of the Nostromo. But, I don't think it's a problem - the cover is very different from anything in the alien world. Plus, Abendau is supposed to have a classic space opera feel to it, so a conventional-looking ship is fine.

Re the static image - Sunset leaves us on a long pause from which Abendau's Legacy takes off from - so I'm not sure that it doesn't actually suit the book well.

I assume the space under my name will get adjusted in the final version once the quote is in.

I really like it, fwiw. (Although my fav is the pinky-purple of Sunset. Showing my girly-credentials. ) but I think this one is the most striking.