Which Cover?

[longknife]

Please check out my blog and let me know which cover you think is best.

[Mira]

I definitely preferred the first one. I think the light makes the whole thing stand out, which got my attention.

Nice cover!

[Nicole R]

Uh oh, I'm not going to make your job easy...I prefer the second one. I love the desert sunset with the cactus silhouette. To me, it immediately invokes a stronger setting. The bell at sea seemed like two disparate entities, not one seamless cover image. I also think the sea arches in the first one took away from the bell. I like the second version better both visually and because it does a better job relating to the story.

Good luck! And, by the way, they both do look very nice.

[Quill]

Neither. I like the feel of the covers -- the colors and artwork -- but they are too confusing with the multiple images, and the typography is hard to read. I'd delete the spiral at least, and maybe the bell. Maybe darken the bell so the title is more legible. I'd consider moving the title into the dark space below where your name is and moving your name to the top (or put it under the title). And I'd get rid of the publisher name; it's too much and not needed.

With e-books even more than print books, the cover has to look good in thumbnail size and convey a single feeling or impression. Yours currently has too much going on in it.

Good luck with the project!

[Sommer Leigh]

I'm kind of with Quill on this one, especially with the spirals. I thought they were those symbols a lot of artists put on their work so they won't be copied and used elsewhere... it took me a few minutes to realize they were part of the cover. They are very distracting and I think take away from the impression of the actual photography.

If you keep the first one, I'd get rid of the publisher name (it's unnecessary and almost as big as your name!) The title is incredibly hard to read right now with the background colors and the black outline of the letters. I'd move everything to the bottom where your name is and move your name to the top. I'd get rid of the space in between each lines of your title so it's more compact and I'd make the the two secondary lines smaller. I think checking out a different font might help too - the weight of the letters is really heavy and doesn't make the words any more legible. Get rid of the black outline. When you make the two secondary lines smaller it'll get even more illegible. Depending on how it looks, I might even use a dark gradient to darken the very bottom of the cover where the title sits so that the water is less of a distracting texture behind it, but it would depend on how the text looks on top of it. I'd make your name smaller, and move it to the top, maybe on the middle section of the bar the bell is hanging on. When your name isn't recognizable, it doesn't have to be very big. I'd make the bell smaller so we see more skyline.

If you keep the second one, I'd do everything I said above, *especially* making the bell smaller so we see more of the sky. The sky is where all the color is in this cover and if you block it or cover it there will be nothing to make your book cover *pop*. Since you've already got a dark section at the bottom on this one, your title text will pop a lot better.

I hope that helps. Probably not what you were hoping to hear, but covers are *so* important and they have to do so many things all at once, and I don't think either of these covers are helping you. If we can't easily read the title, it doesn't matter how pretty the background is. A good exercise is to shrink the book cover into a thumbnail size you'd see on Amazon or B&N or anywhere else online and see if you can still get an idea of what the book is about at a glance. Good luck!

[Ryan]

If I had to pick one, I'd say number one. Agree with the lighting comment. Too much going on in number two. Throughout the creative process whether it be writing, video, etc, I'm always amazed at how less is more. Even with my latest round of promo-postcard design, I still ended up whittling away at the original idea even though I started out telling myself not to try and put too much on the card.

With that in mind, here's my 4.20 cents.

Scratch the publishing logo and just put it on the spine. No one is going to say, "I'm buying this book because it's by Bluewood!"

The light opacity swirlies don't need to necessarily go but they need to be moved or something. The swirlies don't feel right as is for some reason. Are you trying to convey sound coming from the bell?

Try "The Sailor" on one line then "And the Carpenter" on the next line just to see. Text drives designers crazy. My brother-in-law and I have been going back and forth forever with the text for the back of my postcards.

Maybe bring the sentence "Book 1 of Father..." down into the bottom third somewhere.

Play around with rule of thirds a little bit. Maybe the bell image can be shrunk down a little so we can see a little space between the bottom of the bell and the top of the monolith. The bell takes up half the page right now. Not sure why that rule works so well but it does.

Maybe a light opacity picture of "Father Serra" or something human could be good.

Final 2 cents....Make sure to let this stuff rest. Take a break from it and just let the images and text change and rearrange in your head away from the computer. It'll come together.

Good luck man.

Cheers
Ryan

[Ryan]

A good exercise is to shrink the book cover into a thumbnail size you'd see on Amazon or B&N or anywhere else online and see if you can still get an idea of what the book is about at a glance. Good luck!

This is good advice from Sommer but remember that you can upload a different more abbreviated image for Amazon and most retail sites if the book cover doesn't look good as a small image.

[Mira]

Okay, absolutely not arguing with anyone here, because I'm impressed with the feedback on this thread!

But I just want to weigh in with the truth about myself, which is I really don't look closely at covers. I look at a cover, and think: "Oh, pretty" and then maybe I'll buy it. I have to really love, love, love a book before I study the cover.

So, for me, it's just the initial impression of "pretty" that works. But that's just me....

[longknife]

Neither. I like the feel of the covers -- the colors and artwork -- but they are too confusing with the multiple images, and the typography is hard to read. I'd delete the spiral at least, and maybe the bell. Maybe darken the bell so the title is more legible. I'd consider moving the title into the dark space below where your name is and moving your name to the top (or put it under the title). And I'd get rid of the publisher name; it's too much and not needed.

With e-books even more than print books, the cover has to look good in thumbnail size and convey a single feeling or impression. Yours currently has too much going on in it.

Good luck with the project!

In case someone else hadn't said it, the spiral comes because they are stock photos and haven't been paid for yet.
This will be published both in print and digital format.

[Ryan]

Ahhhhh...those are watermarks.

My uncle has some great photos from the Southwest. He may "lend" you one to use for a cover. You might work your Veteran status with him.

http://hitzeman.zenfolio.com/

If you are designing those covers yourself, consider posting an ad on Craigslist or putting feelers out for a professional designer. People want projects for their portfolios. Just be honest about what you can pay. You'd be surprised at the quality you can buy for a $100. I'm a chronic Do-It-Yourselfer but I've learned that certain things are best left to the pros so I can focus on other things. You can still be involved in the design/process while letting the In-Design and Illustrator gurus work their magic.

Cheers

[longknife]

Ahhhhh...those are watermarks.

My uncle has some great photos from the Southwest. He may "lend" you one to use for a cover. You might work your Veteran status with him.

http://hitzeman.zenfolio.com/

If you are designing those covers yourself, consider posting an ad on Craigslist or putting feelers out for a professional designer. People want projects for their portfolios. Just be honest about what you can pay. You'd be surprised at the quality you can buy for a $100. I'm a chronic Do-It-Yourselfer but I've learned that certain things are best left to the pros so I can focus on other things. You can still be involved in the design/process while letting the In-Design and Illustrator gurus work their magic.

Cheers

The covers are being done by my publisher. They are co-located in the UK and New Zealand so the biggest problem I have is that I don't think they've ever been to California or the Sonora Desert.