Feedback On ErotiPorn Cover

[NikkiBastion]

http://www.staceytaylor.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/styles2.png​

ETA: smaller image

Call it practice...I was tinkering around trying to come up with a cover for this incest/taboo/mature/fetish/novel/novella tale I've submitted here, but also still experimenting with self publishing. This is what I came up with...

And in case you're the squirmy sort, the characters in this tale are 63m/33f.

It's not specifically what I'd prefer but for a short, I'm not prepared to spend a lot of money hiring a cover artist unless they'd cut me a break and charge me 20 bucks for the more tongue in cheek version I had in mind. It's not even a humorous tale but I can't get the tongue in cheek cover idea out of my head.

Anyway, if you saw this on a book shelf what would you think?




ETA: "Somebody's goin to jail" isn't what I had in mind in the way of feedback though!

 

[Kim_vegas]

Just looking at the cover: The girl admiring his big tummy? Maybe arousing for the character of the story, but that isn't sexy for me.

 

[sr71plt]

It's not proper cover dimensions, is it? About the only print books I've seen in those dimensions are children's books--and it doesn't fit e-book cover dimension requirements.

But I wouldn't look any further into the book, no. The already-mentioned belly.

As far as cover art technique, too, the titling is too small in proportion to the image.

 

[_Lynn_]

I wouldn't pick the book up if I saw it on a shelf. Besides the already-mentioned belly, the stubbly hairs on his arm and stomach look weird. And the incest theme turns me off.

 

[NikkiBastion]

What are the proper dimensions for the ebook covers? I'd read it was 800x600 but have read various so, went with the standard.

The grossness of it is well understood, and deliberate - that'd basically been the underlying issue with these two and wasn't supposed to be sexy but tongue in cheek. My ideal cover for this had been the standard romance novel embrace, only the male is the old fatass with the big hairy gut - exactly the guy who does NOT belong on a romance novel cover...and then the beautiful innocent young woman falling out of her top, in the typical romance novel cover embrace.

I kept flashing back to Stephen King's nod to the genre when he did this sort of thing for Misery, using his likeness for the male.

The cover isn't intended to make you think oooh sexy. I was going with WTF Ewwww, no way!

 

[sr71plt]

Take a look at romance/erotic books on online book sites. Do you see any where the horizontal is greater than the vertical?

You're trying to sell the book in large numbers, I would presume. "WTF Ewww" would not be the first mass-buyer response marketing approach I'd think of taking.

Your own artwork, I hope(?) Or at least something you have rights too(?) (The girl looks strikingly like an 'Alice' illustration to me.)

 

[NikkiBastion]

That's the image, not the cover, by the way...but yes, I realize that it's not wider than it is long.

I was going more with parody than pushing that as sexy or erotic.

Those are two from stock photos acct I had, but with different backgrounds so I chopped them out and put them in one, and then used the sketch filter in the graphics program. Both were actual real people.

 

[sr71plt]

That's the image, not the cover, by the way...but yes, I realize that it's not wider than it is long.

I was going more with parody than pushing that as sexy or erotic.

Those are two from stock photos acct I had, but with different backgrounds so I chopped them out and put them in one, and then used the sketch filter in the graphics program. Both were actual real people.

It needs to be taller than wide--and not too far off the proportions of the other book covers on display on these sites. There must be website restriction on this or they wouldn't all be so similar in dimension.

This might not be the actual cover design, but I don't see these images easily moved to proper dimension of a cover design--and the display type needs to be more prominent.

 

[NikkiBastion]

Ahhh, yeah it scrunches it a little bit

http://www.staceytaylor.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/dmsthumbsm2.png

I know you've all probably got awesome resources but I did find this one online last night, used the above image to tinker with, see how it'd look...it's a quick, down and dirty cover maker thing. Just add images, submit, download pic.

3d-pack.com is the site.

 

[sr71plt]

That actually deemphasizes his belly, which can only be a good thing. The online distributors don't use that 3-D effect, though, I don't think.

And other than having studied art composition and telling my publishers what I'd like to see, my resources on getting a cover done are others than me--my publishers.

You see how the author's name completely disappears, though, don't you? You want the author's name to be as memorable from a cover as the book title (which you also have to squint to see well here). And this size is bigger than the thumbnail they're going to give you in a "buy me, no me" distributor gallery.

 

[NikkiBastion]

You want the author's name to be as memorable from a cover as the book title

Absolutely, in my other stuff...probably not so much with this particular one

 

[Stella_Omega]

i was thinking that your original image, scrunched the way it shows here, would make an awesome front cover-- her smiling face with the cherries-- a lovely graphic spine with just the small band of darkness at the bottom, and his fat belly on the back cover, like the punchline to the joke.

You DID say that you write more literary than genre erotica... That's what it looks like to me. And for that, I salute you!

 

[Kim_vegas]

I agree with Stella. Having the girl's face on front cover might make me believe that its a standard erotic book and the fat-ass-hairy-belly on the back cover will add to some humor .. something that will make me flip through a few pages .. but if you are planning to sell it online .. its not gonna work coz unlike a book an e-book's only front cover is publicized not the back cover.

PS: How many items have you 'bought' till date that gave you the first impression "WTF ... eeewwww!!" ?

 

[NikkiBastion]

Somebody liked it...they bought it Works for me.

 

[Etaski]

I'm not surprised. And I just wanted to add that I found the cover much more interesting than *any* cover I've seen on a romance novel or self-published e-book, and I wouldn't have taken any of the advice above if that image set the tone for what I wanted to write about. (Except Stella...)

Also, if I'd seen that, physical or electronic, I'd at least have stopped and taken a gander to see what the novel was about. Who knows, I may have bought it.

Such a hang-up on the big belly....god, that was the attention-getter! And the cherries in her mouth with the adoring eyes were just perfect. A bit late, I know, but I wanted to say I like it.

 

[NikkiBastion]

Why thank you kindly.

Wasn't my first choice but it reflects the actual story perfectly.

Thanks for the feedback!