Cover Advice

[Quokka]

That's definitely my favourite now, I think it gives a better feeling of isolation or loneliness.

[Karen Dales]

The Basic black without the white boarder is really nice. The second one does look like a book on astronomy, pretty as it is.

Karen

[ctg]

Originally Posted by Scarfy

Here's the first one without the white box... Sorry they're not very big images. I could upload bigger ones, but I'm concerned about starting to spam the forum!

Hmmm, I wasn't sure about having a spaceship on the cover. But I can't draw spaceships anyway..! I might have been able to rope my brother in to creating one of the starfighters from the novel, but it would be a lengthy process, so probably not worth it.

That's a cool cover, but with the spaceship(s), you can do what Kara did in the BSG and use the excess trails to provoke movement urgency and movement towards the planet. The ship doesn't have to be fully illustrated and if you are using fighters then a swarm of trails going towards the planet could work.

[Scarfy]

Originally Posted by ctg

The ship doesn't have to be fully illustrated and if you are using fighters then a swarm of trails going towards the planet could work.

It's at this point I'm tempted to write a spoiler for my novel...

[Scarfy]

Oh, and yes, I will ditch the white border around the planet...

Thanks a lot, guys

[ctg]

Originally Posted by Scarfy

It's at this point I'm tempted to write a spoiler for my novel...

Well, I think you should put spoiler in the picture. Not fully, but just enough to give the readers and watchers enough to spark their imagination. I doubt your ships are size of the planets or moons, so I believe trails would be enough.

[BookStop]

I definitely like the black now that you've gotten rid of the box - good suggestion whoever suggested it

[Barney]

The all black cover is austere, which is cool. But if it was in a display with books with more colourful covers would it get lost? Perhaps it would stand out more, I don't know.

Definitely agree the all black cover looks better without the white outline. Have you tried a cover where you have the planet, AND the background of blue stars, but only up to the borders of where the white box used to be?
The cover would still be mainly plain black but with some subtle colouring.

[Ursa major]

I prefer the first one, but without the white box.


Just a little thing, though: the planet looks a bit too close to the tilte now. (Or - and more likely - it may be that the title should be slightly lower.) Sorry to be a bit picky.

[Scarfy]

Barney - I know what you mean, but not sure it would really work... I could knock up a version tomorrow and see how it looks, but I think I already have an idea in the back of my mind that I may not work very well.

Ursa - I've lowered the title down a bit, so it's closer to my name a further away from Arlos (the planet)

[Barney]

Originally Posted by Scarfy

Barney - I know what you mean, but not sure it would really work... I could knock up a version tomorrow and see how it looks, but I think I already have an idea in the back of my mind that I may not work very well.

If you think you won't like it you probably won't, despite whatever it looks like. I really couldn't decide which of the first 2 options I preferred but then I read some of the posts and found myself persuaded by the people who argued for the plain black cover. It was that more than my initial reaction I went with.

Decisions, decisions! And congratulations for getting to the point where you are actually choosing a book cover. Lots of people (me included) are still slogging in the foothills, way earlier in the whole writing process. Best of luck with whichever cover you choose

[Scarfy]

Thanks, all

John [Jarrold], if you're reading this, any opinion on the covers..?

[John Jarrold]

The second one reminds me of covers we did for Greg Bear novels at Random House UK in the 90s. The first is definitely more austere - like Al Reynolds without the ship and the foil under the artwork! My personal feeling is the first, without the box, is better.

[Scarfy]

Thanks, John. I think that's all settled then

[Scarfy]

Oh, if any one is interested the second cover was inspired by this:



Although that one is done a lot better than mine...