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Any feedback you can give me on my current book cover?

2.3K views 28 replies 19 participants last post by  AjaxMinoan  
#1 ·
Version Two:

Image


It's certainly not finished yet, but figured I'd get all the feedback I can now, so I can clean it up even more while I work on it!

Thanks in advance!
 
#2 ·
The illustration is obviously pretty badass, but I think the typography needs work. As you can see in the thumbnail, its far too small, and when its blow up it looks a little... I dunno, just a bit tacky.

I suspect that the artwork might be a little too big (as in take up too much of the cover), and you'll have trouble sorting out the typography so it all works in a thumbnail size.

But its a good starting point because the art is cool. I am assuming this is epic fantasy or something?
 
#4 ·
To me it looks like the area from the titan's knees downward would make a better place for the title/subtitle lines, and the author name would be more comfortable skimming the titan's shoulders, slightly lower than where the subtitle is now.

You might need to change the text colors as a result-I think dark text (dark steel gray or steel blue with the same metallic effect) with a white glow effect underneath might work well on top of the titan's legs and the splash of lava fire at his feet. For the author name, the text colors would probably be fine up top but for some reason the sans-serif font on that looks very futuristic to me and clashes with the hammered metal effect on the title/subtitle. Don't have any better ideas though.
 
#11 ·
If the title of the book is Immersion, that should be the biggest word on the cover. The series title, Titans Online Book One, should be a smaller font, I think. But then I've never written a series yet.

Love the image though.
 
#12 ·
LiterallyJen said:
For me, I'd like to see more contrast in the colors of the background and the titan so that he stands out a bit more. As he is, in my opinion he blends in too well with the background.
I agree with this, plus I also second everyone's suggestions about text placement, etc. I suspect :) you're being too protective of the good artwork. Maybe make the main image smaller and "halo" it with a darker background for the text. Good luck with it.
 
#14 ·
I'd like to see the author name up top with and your original idea of "Titans Online" above "Book One: Immersion" at the bottom. Or...I'm not sure if this was your original intent: "Titans Online: Book One," since Immersion is the title. With the author name on the bottom, the cover seem out of balance.

If you were to go this route, you may have to move the creature up, to keep the molten flames image, which is a pretty cool!
 
#16 ·
  Is the protagonist this  big monster? If so, he has no face and thus no emotion. Why should I sympathize with this thing? Is this the story of people in a MMORPG?
  If I found this in a search, I would think I had found a game.
 
#17 ·
Steven, I might also suggest considering switching the name and title's positions. You have a lot of room around his legs; why not have your author name up top, and use that creature's leg area to give you space to make the book title nice and big, with the series title somewhere beneath or above that? :)
 
#18 ·
AjaxMinoan said:
Is the protagonist this big monster? If so, he has no face and thus no emotion. Why should I sympathize with this thing? Is this the story of people in a MMORPG?
If I found this in a search, I would think I had found a game.
You got it right -- essentially the game takes place inside of a VR MMORPG.
 
#19 ·
Steven Mills said:
You got it right -- essentially the game takes place inside of a VR MMORPG.
I have an idea for such a story too. I think it could ring familiar with a lot of people, but it seems a difficult subject to write about. It would seem hard to create a believable level of game jargon, and yet not be confusing to the reader; especially one who had not played these types of games, but has heard about them. I'm glad you made it a Virtual Reality game in your story. It's the only way it's doable.
 
#20 ·
AjaxMinoan said:
I have an idea for such a story too. I think it could ring familiar with a lot of people, but it seems a difficult subject to write about. It would seem hard to create a believable level of game jargon, and yet not be confusing to the reader; especially one who had not played these types of games, but has heard about them. I'm glad you made it a Virtual Reality game in your story. It's the only way it's doable.
Yeah it's certainly been an adventure. That being said, I'm still targeting a very niche audience -- gamers. That's fine with me though as it's passionate for me to write about so I find it comes easier than most!
 
#21 ·
Jeff Tanyard said:
It's an improvement, Steven. :)

I agree with the others about moving the author's name to the top and all other text to the bottom. There's simply more room at the bottom, so it makes sense to put the bulk of your text there.

Frankly, I think dark text against the fiery background would look pretty awesome. 8)

If you want, feel free to email me the image. I'll see what I can do with the text.
That would be awesome of you, Jeff! I'm certainly no artist so I've been kind of learning as I go. Can you PM me your e-mail so I can shoot it over to you? Thanks again!
 
#24 ·
Jeff Tanyard said:
Thanks, Kristal and Phronk, for the kind words. This cover design stuff isn't easy for me, so it really helps to hear when I manage to do something right. ;)
Oh my, I agree completely! This looks great Jeff, both blown up and scaled down to thumbnail. I'm able to use this, right? :D