Which one of these covers do you like the best? (Opinions needed)

Dr. Drib · 11-29-2014, 07:08 PM

I'm looking for a gut reaction on which one of these three images gets your attention.

Think 'strange' and 'out of the box' when viewing them, please.

Thank you.

crich70 · 11-29-2014, 07:54 PM

The 2nd one seems the strangest to me, but the 3rd is the most visually appealing I think.

xstitchfan · 11-29-2014, 08:04 PM

I think the third cover is the best one. It's Sci-Fi creepy and visually bold! Joan in NJ

JSWolf · 11-29-2014, 10:18 PM

The third one could be better by having some faces peering up from the bottom of the toilet.

Catlady · 11-29-2014, 10:31 PM

First one.

Gregg Bell · 11-29-2014, 11:03 PM

The neon text in #2 and #3 is kind of shlocky (which granted, you may be after) and as thumbnails I don't think it's readily apparent that they are toilets.

I like the first cover, perhaps for the wrong reasons beause of what you're looking for. It looks more professional and the blue is very pleasing. The name on the angle definitely looks like it's going down and it's intriguing. It's not clear that that's a toilet,though. From your title of course they'll figure it out soon enough,but if you want the initial glance to say "toilet" it won't. Especially being blue.

Do you really need your cover to be shlocky?

Personally I wouldn't give #2 or #3 a second glance when I saw the neon text. #1 I would be intrigued by.

Dr. Drib · 11-30-2014, 05:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The third one could be better by having some faces peering up from the bottom of the toilet.

I thought of that, but my skills at manipulating images are crude, at best.

Thank you for the suggestion.

meeera · 11-30-2014, 05:35 AM

The third, but it needs work on the typography.

Dr. Drib · 11-30-2014, 05:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meeera

The third, but it needs work on the typography.

In what sense? (I'm using the choices in Picasa.)

Thank you.

ATDrake · 11-30-2014, 05:59 AM

^

The neon font colour for #3 has poor contrast with the lighter portions of the background image, IMHO, making it difficult to read the text at the small image size which is basically what people would be seeing in most search result listings. Perhaps some form of contrasting-colour outlining could help with this.

Also, it looks kind of unmatched to have the shaky-cam-effect font for the title, but use a standard sans-serif for the author name/etc., while keeping the colour the same. Maybe it would look better if all the neon-green text used the same font.

meeera · 11-30-2014, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

In what sense? (I'm using the choices in Picasa.)

Thank you.

Well, you've got two lines of important coloured text placed exactly where a dark part of the image meets a very light part. The line of the toilet bowl disrupts the eye trying to read the title and the author - I was unable to fully read either in the thumbnail, so dealing with this is essential for ebook covers especially. The contrast is all wrong with the light-ish green fighting with both black and white, and being particularly difficult to read over the white parts of the image. Either placement or colour/shade needs changing. Personally I'd try making the image a little smaller so that the text sits more fully in the darker areas of the cover, and see how that looks, if you're DIY and not very acquainted with cover design/image manipulation. I'm not a big fan of your font pairing either; I don't think the two harmonise well.

Read a few articles about typography on book covers and about common errors in book cover design, and you'll find plenty to work with.

Is the audience you're looking for the same as the audience for your other book? Was it a particularly successful work, which will add to your marketing? I'd be put off by "Author of 'Mounting the Fat Lady'", and it's visual clutter also. Also, your cover gives me no sense of what kind of book this is - is it SF? Literary? YA? There's a visual language to genre and book covers, so if your book is a certain genre it's worth considering how and whether to work with that. "The People in the Toilet" sounds like a children's book to me, but there's no way you'd put "Author of 'Mounting the Fat Lady'" on a children's book.

Do you have access to a better quality image? This one has all sorts of artifacts on the toilet seat, which I'm finding distracting.

mr ploppy · 11-30-2014, 12:53 PM

I like the one on the left.

Dr. Drib · 11-30-2014, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ATDrake

^

The neon font colour for #3 has poor contrast with the lighter portions of the background image, IMHO, making it difficult to read the text at the small image size which is basically what people would be seeing in most search result listings. Perhaps some form of contrasting-colour outlining could help with this.

Also, it looks kind of unmatched to have the shaky-cam-effect font for the title, but use a standard sans-serif for the author name/etc., while keeping the colour the same. Maybe it would look better if all the neon-green text used the same font.

I understand what you're saying.

After some thought on this, I feel I agree with you that the type face is not quite the effect I want.

--- To complicate issues, I'm contemplating changing the title.

Thank you for your thoughts on this.

Dr. Drib · 11-30-2014, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meeera

Well, you've got two lines of important coloured text placed exactly where a dark part of the image meets a very light part. The line of the toilet bowl disrupts the eye trying to read the title and the author - I was unable to fully read either in the thumbnail, so dealing with this is essential for ebook covers especially. The contrast is all wrong with the light-ish green fighting with both black and white, and being particularly difficult to read over the white parts of the image. Either placement or colour/shade needs changing. Personally I'd try making the image a little smaller so that the text sits more fully in the darker areas of the cover, and see how that looks, if you're DIY and not very acquainted with cover design/image manipulation. I'm not a big fan of your font pairing either; I don't think the two harmonise well.

Read a few articles about typography on book covers and about common errors in book cover design, and you'll find plenty to work with.

Is the audience you're looking for the same as the audience for your other book? Was it a particularly successful work, which will add to your marketing? I'd be put off by "Author of 'Mounting the Fat Lady'", and it's visual clutter also. Also, your cover gives me no sense of what kind of book this is - is it SF? Literary? YA? There's a visual language to genre and book covers, so if your book is a certain genre it's worth considering how and whether to work with that. "The People in the Toilet" sounds like a children's book to me, but there's no way you'd put "Author of 'Mounting the Fat Lady'" on a children's book.

Do you have access to a better quality image? This one has all sorts of artifacts on the toilet seat, which I'm finding distracting.

Thank you for your thoughts. It seems as if most of the comments here agree with you on this - about a complication of image meeting with font.

The audience is the same, in that I am looking for readers who enjoy encountering something that's a "bit off" when they read. I want them to encounter something unusual. Too, the familiar tropes one encounters in reading Edgar Rice Burroughs and/or Lin carter will be used. In fact, it's a kind of 'burlesque' on those familiar tropes.

This is a short story, so I'm not certain if that aspect should be promoted on the cover.

To clarify a bit further: The "Mounting" story I saw as literary; whereas, the current short story (for this cover I'm talking about) is more genre-based.

Thank you for your comments, which I'm paying very close attention to.

gmw · 12-01-2014, 07:56 AM

Without meaning to sound ... whatever ... I don't much like any of them. There is no sense of depth or reality to images, I suspect the colour manipulations have taken that away. I find the colours (in the bowl) too messy/murky/confusing/distracting so that it is no longer obvious what the outer ring really is. If you really are looking to be a more abstract image then the centre one does it - the blues and green on the right I don't really like at all.

I like the idea of the one on the left best. If you could curve the font over so that it really looked like it was flowing with the water then that would look better and add a sense of depth to it ... though I wonder if we have to pull back a bit to really get a sense of what we're looking at.

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11-29-2014, 07:08 PM	#1
Dr. Drib Grand Sorcerer Posts: 44,751 Karma: 55645321 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Peru Device: Kindle: Oasis 3, Voyage WiFi; Kobo: Libra 2, Aura One	Which one of these covers do you like the best? (Opinions needed) I'm looking for a gut reaction on which one of these three images gets your attention. Think 'strange' and 'out of the box' when viewing them, please. Thank you. Attached Thumbnails

11-29-2014, 07:54 PM	#2
crich70 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,305 Karma: 43993832 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Monroe Wisconsin Device: K3, Kindle Paperwhite, Calibre, and Mobipocket for Pc (netbook)	The 2nd one seems the strangest to me, but the 3rd is the most visually appealing I think.

11-29-2014, 08:04 PM	#3
xstitchfan Connoisseur Posts: 56 Karma: 159214 Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: New Jersey, USA Device: nook touch, nextbook 10" tablet pc windows 8.1	I think the third cover is the best one. It's Sci-Fi creepy and visually bold! Joan in NJ

11-29-2014, 10:18 PM	#4
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 74,137 Karma: 129333562 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	The third one could be better by having some faces peering up from the bottom of the toilet.

11-29-2014, 10:31 PM	#5
Catlady Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,345 Karma: 52398889 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, AGPTek Bluetooth Clip	First one.

11-29-2014, 11:03 PM	#6
Gregg Bell Gregg Bell Posts: 2,264 Karma: 3917588 Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Itasca, Illinois Device: Kindle Touch 7, Sony PRS300, Fire HD8 Tablet	The neon text in #2 and #3 is kind of shlocky (which granted, you may be after) and as thumbnails I don't think it's readily apparent that they are toilets. I like the first cover, perhaps for the wrong reasons beause of what you're looking for. It looks more professional and the blue is very pleasing. The name on the angle definitely looks like it's going down and it's intriguing. It's not clear that that's a toilet,though. From your title of course they'll figure it out soon enough,but if you want the initial glance to say "toilet" it won't. Especially being blue. Do you really need your cover to be shlocky? Personally I wouldn't give #2 or #3 a second glance when I saw the neon text. #1 I would be intrigued by.

11-30-2014, 05:35 AM	#8
meeera Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,659 Karma: 66420972 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Libra 2, iPadMini4, iPad4, MBP; support other Kobo/Kindles	The third, but it needs work on the typography.

11-30-2014, 05:59 AM	#10
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	^ The neon font colour for #3 has poor contrast with the lighter portions of the background image, IMHO, making it difficult to read the text at the small image size which is basically what people would be seeing in most search result listings. Perhaps some form of contrasting-colour outlining could help with this. Also, it looks kind of unmatched to have the shaky-cam-effect font for the title, but use a standard sans-serif for the author name/etc., while keeping the colour the same. Maybe it would look better if all the neon-green text used the same font.

11-30-2014, 12:53 PM	#12
mr ploppy Feral Underclass Posts: 3,622 Karma: 26821535 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Yorkshire, tha noz Device: 2nd hand paperback	I like the one on the left.

12-01-2014, 07:56 AM	#15
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,809 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	Without meaning to sound ... whatever ... I don't much like any of them. There is no sense of depth or reality to images, I suspect the colour manipulations have taken that away. I find the colours (in the bowl) too messy/murky/confusing/distracting so that it is no longer obvious what the outer ring really is. If you really are looking to be a more abstract image then the centre one does it - the blues and green on the right I don't really like at all. I like the idea of the one on the left best. If you could curve the font over so that it really looked like it was flowing with the water then that would look better and add a sense of depth to it ... though I wonder if we have to pull back a bit to really get a sense of what we're looking at.

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