I never created a book cover before, but I needed to have one for my favorite short story, Lethal Injection. It's not published yet, but I plan for it to be soon. I may give away some electronic copies in the near future, but I can't do that just yet since results are not in from a short story contest for which I submitted.
Please let me know if you would download a copy of my short story just from viewing this book cover. My heart is not set on it, and I haven't done a synopsis just yet. I want to know if the cover is appealing first before I commit further. Is it too plain, too unbalanced? There is actually a maroon border around it that cannot be seen because of the background color from my blog.
Thanks for any feedback I get! And if you really don't like it, tell me because I don't do book covers...just wanted one really badly! :)
I like it but I feel like I need to know what its about to tell if it goes well with the storyline. Plus I think you should have white or red written text beneath instead of the white strip with black letters.
ReplyDeleteI don't think many people get digital books based SOLELY on the cover (unless maybe it's a free download). It's not like a physical book, where you physically have that pretty art in your hand.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Trueambitions in that I feel the white strip is distracting. I think the title may be too small to show up well on Amazon. (Which may be bad in general and I think is particularly problematic here because the title caught my attention!) I'd make the letters bigger, possibly put the title on two lines, and don't cut off the chin with a bar unless it needs to be cut off for some reason...
I've heard others say the main purpose of a cover is to tell what genre the book is. IF that is true, and if it applies to short stories, this cover doesn't really tell me--could be literary, could be sci-fi, could be general... So something to give us more of a hint might help.
On the up side, I like that it's fairly clean. A lot of covers get really cluttered, IMO. The mask (?) seems very melancholy, so if that's the intent, that works.
I can so work with the suggestions, true and julie!
ReplyDeleteThe whole of the story is about a man who is put to death by Lethal Injection (thus the title). But the unraveled story becomes one of his son who reconciles past abuse and reveals his own truth.
Definitely going to work on a version without the white space. It's just that the graphic title that I created at cooltext.com looked like crap on a black background.
Thank you for pointing this out.
Have you thought about a different graphic concentrating on an actual body part to add a sense of reality to the title - maybe like a closeup of a male arm with a chemical line running down it? Or a closeup of the chemicals with blood running from the bottom of the bottle? Just a thought...
ReplyDeleteThe mask seems a little theatrical to me and doesn't connect
First, my eye is drawn to the right eye (on the left). I'm thinking you photoshopped it to make it vacant, and I like the effect, only it distracts me because it seems too large or not fitted appropriately in the eye cavity, too close to the eyebrow. The next thing I notice is the upper lip. This I like--it seems like poor makeup, or a chapped lip, and makes me wonder about the character, given the white abstract face. Maybe that's not your intent.
ReplyDeleteI like the top of the head being cut off and have no feeling about the lower part missing, as someone else said. And the white block is not distracting to me. I think the cover is compelling, but since I don't know the story, I don't know if it's a good image for it.
The story blurb would be my deciding factor, whether to download or not.
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ReplyDeleteI like this cover and I'm interested in the story. But covers are not my hook. It is what the story is about that hooks me.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn, I did have some ideas on other graphics when I initially was looking. I found a hypodermic needle with blood dripping from the tip, but it looked so complex and the story is very short, so I went with abstract instead. The body part thing is very interesting.
ReplyDeleteCarol, I bought the photo at istockphoto.com and I only photoshopped the title. The spookiness of the mask made me purchase it. :)
As Julia and others have mentioned, I think the blurb is a good idea and I'll work on that.
If I publish the story on my blog in the near future, I hope to get some beta feedback from you guys!
Thanks for the suggestions and comments. I'm going to play around with it some more. I definitely have to keep the mask as I've now become attached to it for some reason.
It got my attention. Perhaps with a catchy blurb to go along with it, you might get some more ideas...
ReplyDeleteI almost think a syringe sticking out of one of those eyes might be cool :)
I am trying one with a trickle of blood streaming from the right eye, Mysti. :D
ReplyDeleteCool minds think alike, hmm?
The other right eye, oops!
ReplyDeleteYeah, my imagination is rather morbid. :)
ReplyDeletei think that is a perfect cover, i would really want to reed that short story any time. i know many ppl would say that have to know what wits about so that they can say if it is a good cover. but it got my attention when i saw it. i kinda just tumbled across it as i did research on this. i love it and i say go for it :) good luck with everything
ReplyDeleteThank you for the encouragement, Zullie! It always helps to get feedback. I like to be intrigued by cover alone myself. :)
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