Cover Art that you've made (and really liked it)

sr71plt said:

If the background color of the high school one was something else, it might attract attention in an online distributor lineup, but as black and white, not so much, I don't think. The other two even less so, as whatever the background is doesn't convey anything about the product to me. I think anyone shopping a book cover chart on the Internet will zip right past any of these.

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I still haven't decided on anything. These covers are more like prototypes for two free ebooks that I haven't gotten around to finish yet. I made both of those in an hour, so I didn't expect it to be a pro.

Still, thanks for the word. I'll keep that in mind when I finalise the cover art.

sr71plt said:

This one gets away with a very dark background by making the display type very discernible. The cover's strength is in its simplicity. It has an Oriental feel about it that is enhanced by the straightforward simplicity, like a Japanese garden.

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Thanks! That's the effect I was aiming for. I take my hat off to people who can make complex compositions work, especially at thumbnail scale, but for myself simplicity is best and makes it easier to keep my cover style consistent.

A couple of others of mine:
https://dwtr67e3ikfml.cloudfront.net/bookCovers/66dc7db34c47ec4ae95485ad1854340038df15bc
Similar composition but different colour and font choices. The story has a black-white-grey motif running through it, so the colour reflects that. With this one the title is my hook so there's no point in adding elements that would distract from that; I've gone with a typewriter font because it's a story about digging up the past.

https://dwtr67e3ikfml.cloudfront.net/bookCovers/630c329ddab7b07770354e528ccd344f5ae1af14
Colour choices: this is a romance between an atheist Australian woman and a Muslim. Green and gold are Australian sporting colours, but green's also used to symbolise Islam, so it works for both of them. The story has an Arabian Nights angle where calligraphy is important, so I picked a font that evokes that Arabic feel, in a coppery colour because of the title.

sr71plt said:

Here are two of mine that don't work, I think, in thumbnail:

This one is for the New Orleans noir detective mystery that I placed with in this year's Lit. April Fools contest. The background is a Mardi Gras mask. In thumbnail that becomes unrecognizable. Also, the cover doesn't convey genre--neither in design nor in titling. We tried hard for a better cover but couldn't come up with anything. The one thing it does do is convey the author brand name, and it's selling well.

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Maybe use a different color for the title font? Or fade out the background behind the title? It's pretty font work, but the gold color and shapes of the letters get lost in the background. B&W background with color title? But if it's selling well, it's probably best not to mess with it. It's a pretty cover, though.

The cover on this one just becomes unrecognizable in thumbnail, I think. The black background takes over and drowns everything else out (which dark backgrounds try to do and therefore should be avoided). Even the author name is totally lost on this one in thumbnail. In terms of sales, it's gone nowhere. I think the cover image conveys the content very well, but buyers aren't digging into it any further than a "can't see it" cover in thumbnail.

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The title is a little awkward, in my opinion. It's not as strong as some of your others (I think "Deliver a Virgin" is perfect. It says so much in so few words). I also would have gone with a totally different font for the title. If I had to guess, the sales might be low because 1) shirtless guys with saxophones can sometimes read as humorous or 2) the sax and shirt hide the guy's chest.

OliviaM said:

2) the sax and shirt hide the guy's chest.

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Seconded. More chest, please.

sr71plt said:

This conveys as just black with unrecognizable stuff in it at this size and resolution (and a thumbnail would be smaller, and you can't bank on an online distributor getting the resolution any better). Sorry, but I don't see any element of a cover as a marketing tool in this.

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That's amazing. Not your critique , but the fact this item has outsold all other items I have listed under the Connor name. Amazing.

sr71plt said:

This is an arresting cover. The first issue I would have is what the collection of images, titling, and font are doing to convey content. Having the question itself may be enough to invite further delving into the book (in which case the cover is doing its marketing job), but as is, nothing there conveys genre or content. It does give me a sense of mood. It does arrest attention, though, so it may be enough to do the marketing job of a cover.

The second issue is that the spelling of the first name of the author gets lost in the background image. So, selling on the basis of author brand sustains some damage.

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Except with each cover there is description or a blurb of what the story just might be...

Michael Wallace sat contemplating what he had just read. It was an ad in the local news paper classified section. The ad read, "If you could go back in time with everything you know now, would you?" There was a number to call. Mike contemplated that ad for three days. Then he dialed that number.

So, if you were offered the chance for a do over, would you take it?

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Zeb_Carter said:

That's amazing. Not your critique , but the fact this item has outsold all other items I have listed under the Connor name. Amazing.

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This made me laugh.

I don't think Cover art's something that can be justified by one man's perspective. It's what it is - a damn art. It appeals to some, it doesn't to others. Speaking for the entire damn reader community is stupid.

I personally liked a lot of covers posted here. Some could use improvement, but they're still good.

Damn, this thread could have been quite good, if not for Debbie downer running around with his almighty opinion (which, unsurprisingly, no one asked for).

Good luck next time, Bard.

Boy, it has been a while since I even looked at the one I did but it's linked in my sig. I didn't absolutely love the colors yhe way they turned out but I was satisfied. I've only ever done one other cover but it wasn't for my Magica work

I didn't really plan on needing any covers until the day if and when I decide to port my stuff over to some ebook sites, but then I discovered Wattpad and decided to see what would happen if I posted my stuff there. Wattpad isn't an ebook site, you still read the stuff on the web, but they use cover images. If you don't make one, it creates a default cover with basic text and your avatar image. So I figured I should have one.

Given the scifi/fantasy nature of my stuff, a stock photo isn't really going to give me what I need, and neither did I want to pay an artist. I can hack stuff together in Photoshop fairly well though, so I decided to go with abstract. The base of this was two separate photos of models wearing lab coats from a site selling lab coats, and then a third photo of a porn model with her shirt open and nothing underneath. I jammed them all together and overlayed it with blocks of solid color fitting what I wanted.

It turned out pretty much exactly how I pictured it in my head before I started, though ultimately I guess it's kind of shit compared to most cover images out there. I may ultimately reconsider the background and text colors if and when I do use this for an ebook.

And BTW, Wattpad isn't all that great in the end anyway. I have since been told that the entire place feeds on social networking, to get views one must friend up with other writers and do mutual referrals. There doesn't seem to be much by way of people just skimming through the newly posted stuff.