Hopefully designed that darn book cover - opinions please

[zmunkz]

I like this cover. I dont mind the plain black writing... since the background is fairly detailed and busy, I actually think it would be a mistake to do too much with font styles/colors. The way you have it works well. Same thought on the “jack stone novel” thing... simple is better in this case, and I think that looks just fine.

I might add a semi-transparent white stroke around the text though, just so it doesn’t get lost in the parts of the background that are also black.

 

[Montero]

Some sf fonts. You need to look at the licensing to see if they are free for commercial use or not. They are not super-fancy (unlike some fantasy fonts with lots of trailing twiddles) but do have hints of sf.

Robo Font | dafont.com
Steelfish Font | dafont.com
Roddenberry Font | dafont.com
American Captain Font | dafont.com
Google Fonts
Rainfall Font | dafont.com
Revolution Font | dafont.com
Space Marine Font | dafont.com

The last one may be more military sf
I think I'd stay in black too, probably. Or if you do pick an alternative dark colour, then you might want to pick one from the colour palette of your picture. Some software allows you to pick a colour from your picture and use it to fill other bits of it.

Also - take a look at similar books to yours, see if the title and author are in caps or lower case. It varies between genre as to whether you use caps for both, caps for one and lower case for the other. It is one of those subliminal things that you don't necessarily notice.

You just might want to tweak the title so it is not overlaying the tree branches as that tangles. Or that could be where you put a faint white outline on the letters that do overlie.

When you are an unknown, it is usually best to make the title a bit bigger than your name. They are perhaps a bit similar sized on yours. You want your name to be clear, but until your name sells the book whatever the title is.......
If it turns out that for your genre title is caps, name is mostly lower case, that might be the answer anyway.

 

[AlexH]

What version of Photoshop are you using? I use version 7 (from about 2000) and it's possible to shade/gradient/drop shadow (and all-sorts) the text. If I remember rightly, you right-click the layer in the Layer list and go to Layer Options. zmunkz suggested a stroke around the text, which I'd also try.

If this is printed, I think some of the text (e.g. bottom of the 'y' and the barcode) could get cut off? I think the spine text needs to stand out more too - again, a stroke could help.

 

[Parson]

As to the cover, I'm not sure you need a more future looking city. I would expect that a lot of the sky scrapers of 50 years from now will look much the same as they do now. The real question is what does your book say about the city. If they describe a city that is obviously different than the cover you have a small problem. I always find it a major grump when the cover of a book is unrelated to what is on the inside. An example of that is here in the States, Jack Campbell's lost fleet series has the captain carrying a large gun and seems to be pursuing as enemy. In the books I don't remember him ever carrying a gun and certainly all the pursuing of the enemy came in terms of fleet action. (an example of an aggravation, but the books are so good I've come to ignore the covers.)

 

[Jo Zebedee]

My worry is there is little in it that screams sf

 

[Parson]

My worry is there is little in it that screams sf

Good point. I thought that the "eye" might, but now that I think of it, that is likely more of a Fantasy symbol.

 

[Montero]

Does it have to scream SF?
After all - it will be in the SF section in a book shop.
The meta data will be there for it on Amazon - it will be listed as SF. You are not approaching readers "cold" on this. It is good if it says SF, or doesn't contradict SF... (Doesn't have two girlies in foofy dresses with curly font )

Now contradicting what I just said a little - trying for the SF look.

In terms of SF - it is in the future with someone with amazing powers. But there are no space ships mentioned in the world building - so having a space ship theme doesn't seem sensible - currently a lot of SF has generic space with or without a space ship pictures even if space ships are a minor part of the plot.
Could be very difficult to have a picture that represents both your story and screams SF.

I think SF ish fonts will help. Could even try just writing SF Thriller on the cover where it currently says "A Jack Stone Book" - though that is not usually done.

However, repeating what I said earlier in the thread - before you finalise what changes you are making - do go and find similar sorts of books to yours and see what the covers are - for editions in the last year or so. You do in part want to represent your book, but you even more want to say to readers "this is another one of those". Now it may turn out that that would be a matter of making it scream SF. Or maybe not. You will also find that when you look at books that have been out for a few years, the covers will have changed - they'll have been re-badged to meet current trends. If you have beta readers, you could ask them for what books you think it is like. It can be hard to pin that down for yourself.

Incidentally, half of the Netforce books are just a computer chip in the background and massive title and author name - no real picture.

So don't just listen to us lot and what we think a cover should be - go look at what is currently selling online.

 

[Dave Barsby]

@AlexH I think my Photoshop is only v6 and I'm not very adept with it. Also the design specs conform with Lulu's specs (which is what I originally published via and this is a revision) so hopefully nothing will be chopped off.

@Parson. I know what you mean about misleading covers but this is a photo I took of Central Park a couple of years ago so it's the right location, no worries about that. Also the eye is supposed to relate to someone who can 'see' everything, and as magic is just science we can't yet explain I hope people will see it as a representation of a technological oracle instead of Sauron.

As for screaming SF I'm not sure that's the way to go. This is a near-future thriller, a bit 24-meets-Minority-Report (or as my former agent put it, Jack Reacher in a couple of decades). No spaceships, lasers or robots, just a proliferation of RFID, OLED, electric cars and the like. Therefore I don't know how to sci-fi the image whilst staying true to the story.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Are there any different flying vehicles in your near future? Drones proliferating, aircars, anything like that?

Of course, with the city being inverted, that might be weird.

I don't think this sounds like it ought to scream SF, either. I wouldn't mess with the colors or anything like that. It's nice the way it is, picture-wise, and I think it does what you're intending. As Montero said, it will be in the right section of the bookstore and online, and the blurb says what it's about. The only place you have to worry about the cover attracting people totally "cold" is a yard sale -- and by that time, they'll know your name. Which I wouldn't change, either.

 

[pambaddeley]

I agree with Montero that the font needs to look more SFish or maybe thrillerish if you are overlapping into that genre.

 

[tinkerdan]

The standard size thumb might actually be readable in this.
I like the wraparound image for covers so you have my vote.

the below thumbnail is a bit smaller than the usual for Amazon

 

[DelActivisto]

It looks professional. I wouldn't change a thing. It's obviously you, and the cover speaks to us from that vantage point. Tweak it if you'd like, but I think it looks pretty good.

 

[Dave Barsby]

Thanks for all the suggestions people. I've tried tinkering with the text colours but it ended up looking too messy - stark black text seems to work best when it's a colourful, busy background. I also found I couldn't really move the title away from the branches without reducing the font size and that would be an issue in a thumbnail.

I would have liked a more SF scenario on the cover but I can't see how I could do it. The only options seem to be paying someone to do a cover for me (can't afford that), spending years training myself to be a top-notch computer artist, or nicking an image off the net and hope no one notices / sues.

So after all that, I've made my name a bit smaller and that's it.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Needs changes.
The font of title and author are different !!!
Colour too saturated - reduce the saturation.
The eye/O totally doesn't work.
Also positioning of author name doesn't work.

the Jack Stone bit at the top is okay in my view.

 

[Cathbad]

I like the eye/O, and think the different fonts would work if they were reversed, making the title more bold.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Font mixing should be done only in exceptional circumstances, eg if the author/whatever has a logo (eg the band Yes).
He's got one serif (or as good as) and one non-serif too...

 

[Montero]

I went and looked up Jack Reacher and with all the covers, both author and title are in capitals
Amazon.co.uk: Lee Child: Books, Biogs, Audiobooks, Discussions

I looked up a couple of sf authors
Peter Hamilton
Amazon.co.uk: Peter F. Hamilton: Books, Biogs, Audiobooks, Discussions - author and title are in caps. Also quite a plain font fairly similar to Jack Reacher

and John Scalzi
Amazon.co.uk: Peter F. Hamilton: Books, Biogs, Audiobooks, Discussions
and again (with one exception) author and title are in capitals and in quite a plain font.

So if it twere me, I'd move to having title and author in caps, in the same font. Or at the very least try it and see what it looks like.

I love the photo. I love the inversion. I don't love the author and title.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

If you move to having author and title in the same font, I'd definitely go with the title font. That would also save you from having to re-do the O.

I really wouldn't mess with trying to SF it up -- it's not the genre you're going for, from the sound of it.

 

[tinkerdan]

These are a few recent books I've acquired::

All of the advice you are getting is good; however it doesn't seem to be written in stone so you might still want to make your own judgments.
When we do copy for Brochures we do have a rule to minimize the types of fonts to as few as possible though two types are acceptable and three might work but beyond that begins pushing it.
As for the case of the letters; obviously there is some wiggle room
The last two Friday books are books I've had for quite some time.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

The Charlie Stross ones are a great example of how to do it.