cover feedback

[Cinisajoy]

I like your American Ballerina cover except she needs her butt covered. Maybe a different model. That pose just looks awkward. Oh wait. Never mind. Matches the blurb perfectly since she is awkward.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Wow. Thanks Dazrin. You are really making me think. (Thank you for checking my covers. I'm attaching a screenshot of them.)

You are welcome, I don't normally get into these items but this has been interesting for me and I hope helpful to you.

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Here's the deal. I am not a genre writer. If someone put a gun to my head and said, 'What genre do you come closest to?' I would say, Suspense.

That does change my perceptions of the three other books. I didn't read the blurbs, just went from the covers.

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

However, (and this was my fault of course) I went along with the romance nature of the covers the new cover designer did, figuring the bottom portions of the covers suggested the non-romance elements (and that the blurbs would help too).

Several people have since told me that the covers for THE FIND and JAMIE'S GAMBLE do not fit the story. They say that the books are suspense and the covers should reflect that.

Brandon Sanderson has a quote in one of his writing workshops/classes about fulfilling promises, paraphrased poorly: a successful book needs to make promises to readers and then fulfill them in interesting and unexpected ways. He was talking more about content than covers but I think it applies to covers to. For those three books I think the promise is "this is a romance" so I can understand confusion if they are more suspense than romance.

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

(I'll attach a screenshot of Lehane's latest books.)

Yes, he has a slightly different font for THE DROP but everything else is the same font (including title and name) ...

His fonts are fairly close to each other but he has at least three different fonts for his titles. The first two books (Mystic River and The Drop) use different title and author fonts from the last three. He has also changed the kerning of the fonts between World Gone By and The Given Day, even if they are the same font, so that makes a difference too.

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

So your post has really made me think about what to use for the fonts (whether the same or different) in the titles. At this point I'm still leaning toward using the same font (Bebas Neue) for the titles.

Looking at the samples from Lehane, it certainly can be done and done well. I look forward to seeing how yours come out.

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Like now, I'm looking at SAVING BABY and AMERICAN BALLERINA. Both books have identical fonts, but I wouldn't think they were part of a series. SAVING BABY says suspense. I (LOL) don't know what AMERICAN BALLERINA says, but I don't know, I don't think either are pigeon holed into a specific genre label, and actually I think that is a good thing. (The cover designer who did the later covers did a cover for SAVING BABY and it was of an empty crib and it just seemed so cliche to me.)

Yup, I like them both. Changing the color, size, and location (left side vs centered) make them distinct even with the font the same.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

For you American Ballerina cover, the font for your name works for a number of reasons. One is the color vs the background and I do like the slightly embossed look.

With the Man of God Cover, the green does not work.Also, it looks flat. Try a different color and the embossed look.

As for trying another font, try a rounded type sans-serif font as well as the same one you have now with the changes.

Okay. Thanks Jon. The green is definitely going to go and I'll check on the fonts.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I like your American Ballerina cover except she needs her butt covered. Maybe a different model. That pose just looks awkward. Oh wait. Never mind. Matches the blurb perfectly since she is awkward.

Ha ha, Cin. Yeah, the character is out there in this one.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Brandon Sanderson has a quote in one of his writing workshops/classes about fulfilling promises, paraphrased poorly: a successful book needs to make promises to readers and then fulfill them in interesting and unexpected ways. He was talking more about content than covers but I think it applies to covers to. For those three books I think the promise is "this is a romance" so I can understand confusion if they are more suspense than romance.

Thanks Dazrin. I agree. I should've seen the problem (of the covers misrepresenting the stories) earlier but really I was in a quandary as to what genre (if any) my books were. What I still struggle with is if the book covers are okay having a more symbolic representation of the story (as in the SAVING BABY cover) or require a more literal representation (as in the MAN OF GOD cover). But I suppose there's a feeling that eventually comes that says, 'Yeah, that's what I want it to convey.' (Hopefully anyway!)

Originally Posted by Dazrin

His fonts are fairly close to each other but he has at least three different fonts for his titles. The first two books (Mystic River and The Drop) use different title and author fonts from the last three. He has also changed the kerning of the fonts between World Gone By and The Given Day, even if they are the same font, so that makes a difference too.

Yeah, you're right. I noticed the title for THE DROP being different but did not notice the other differences. I think I'm going to stay with the same fonts to give a strong branding aspect (like I think the font for the title for THE DROP shouldn't be so different than the font for the other titles), but experiment with adding texture to the titles and my name. That may provide just enough differentiation (as well as the difference in cover concepts) so that the books are similar enough to be branded but different enough to not be thought of as a series.
/QUOTE]

Now, not to beat a dead horse. LOL I now understand what you mean by the "both pictures" but I don't see what the below sentence means. How can the pictures not be adjacent to each other if I'm keeping them? And how is the title "above"? Above what? The bottom picture? And how is (whatever you meant) that easy to mess up and make it look muddled?

If you are keeping both pictures I certainly wouldn't have them adjacent to each other with the title above, too easy to mess that up and make it look muddled.

Sorry, but these things bug me. LOL

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Now, not to beat a dead horse. LOL I now understand what you mean by the "both pictures" but I don't see what the below sentence means. How can the pictures not be adjacent to each other if I'm keeping them? And how is the title "above"? Above what? The bottom picture? And how is (whatever you meant) that easy to mess up and make it look muddled?

Sorry, but these things bug me. LOL

Sorry, I will try to be clearer.

Right now your covers are like this:
[Picture of a couple]
TITLE
[Other picture]
AUTHOR NAME

This would be the arrangement I was talking about, which I don't like:
TITLE
[Picture of a couple]
[Other picture]
AUTHOR NAME

My opinion is that most of the time having some sort of break (text in this case) between two different pictures is good and that mashing two good pictures together does NOT result in a better picture. More is not always better.

Either way, it sounds like you are not going down that direction, so I don't want to be more of a distraction.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Sorry, I will try to be clearer.

Right now your covers are like this:
[Picture of a couple]
TITLE
[Other picture]
AUTHOR NAME

This would be the arrangement I was talking about, which I don't like:
TITLE
[Picture of a couple]
[Other picture]
AUTHOR NAME

My opinion is that most of the time having some sort of break (text in this case) between two different pictures is good and that mashing two good pictures together does NOT result in a better picture. More is not always better.

Either way, it sounds like you are not going down that direction, so I don't want to be more of a distraction.

Okay, gotcha. Thanks. But I kinda liked Ralph's Place.

I threw some texture into the title. Changed the color of the red, added some texture to that (it's hard to notice in the screenshot), got rid of the green in my name.

Any thoughts?