Am I missing anything on my eBook cover?

[Lemurion]

Just getting ready to go with an ebook, and I thought I really should get some feedback on the cover.

Spoiler:

I'm aiming for that 70's-80's fantasy look more than anything.

[gmw]

I love the image, it's beautifully done ... but (you knew that was coming, didn't you )

It looks more like a historic fiction cover than fantasy to me. There is nothing there that suggests fantasy to me. I am not sure how critical that is, but that's my reaction to it.

I'm not totally in love with the yellow of the title, but otherwise I do like the font choices and text layout. (Not sure what the logo is in the corner, it will be lost in any thumbnail view anyway and is probably redundant.)

[Lemurion]

Fair enough, it was done on a very tight budget so it's a 19th century PD painting that represents a scene in the book fairly well. I thought going with a look that was a bit off on a beautiful image was probably better than a crappy photoshop job.

Logo's a buddy's epublishing group - getting him to market it.

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by gmw

It looks more like a historic fiction cover than fantasy to me. There is nothing there that suggests fantasy to me. I am not sure how critical that is, but that's my reaction to it.

Yea that is the biggest problem. It does not look like a fantasy book. What is your budget for a cover?

[Lemurion]

The budget was zero - and finding something that didn't look like crap and was free for commercial use was difficult....

That was an understatement, btw.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Just getting ready to go with an ebook, and I thought I really should get some feedback on the cover.

Spoiler:

I'm aiming for that 70's-80's fantasy look more than anything.

I think just a couple of duplicate layers and some stuffing around with colour and saturation and you could possibly make the cover a bit more what you're looking for.

I don't really know this stuff very well, but I played around in Gimp a little and came up with this:

Spoiler:

It's obviously not perfect, but it has more of that light and bright saturated feel.

[Lemurion]

That's a good thought, but the scene it represents is during a storm, so if anything I'd go darker, not lighter.

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

The budget was zero - and finding something that didn't look like crap and was free for commercial use was difficult....

That was an understatement, btw.

Yeah I know. With out knowing anything about your story it would be hard to offer more solid advice then - eh, that picture screams "historical fiction" and I would say most fantasy readers would pass it buy with out reading the blurb. The cover is your first hook. It is where most readers will make the determination whether or not they will read your blurb.

The brand new cover I just put on Enemy of an Enemy was a pre-made that I bought for $40. The cover on "The First Quartet" I made from stock photos on Dreamstime for around $25. I have had little to no luck in the free arena.

[Matth79]

Not a fan of the Font, it doesn't say "fantasy" to me, and who the heck are the something empire. I'd think it was a naval / pirate tale.

To hint at fanatasy, maybe "Where magic meets metal"

[crich70]

Maybe add some sort of fantasy character into the foreground or sky like an elf holding his bow standing on the rocks or a dragon in the sky, or even a few standing stones or a castle on the cliff above. (assuming they fit the story anyway). Or maybe a mermaid in the surf?

[Lazer]

I think the photo works for the fantasy genre with the subtitle. You might see how it looks with Amadar in white. Not sure I like the yellow. - TL