Cover Advice

[Scarfy]

Hi All,

Just wanted to get your opinions on which of these two covers I should use for my novel.

The first, the black one, is the one that I'm currently intending on using. Whilst the other one is one I put together when I thought the first was too dull. However, having shown both to a number of friends, they've said that the black one is better.

Opinions..?





Steve

[pyan]

The black one.

Simple, striking, classy.

(IMHO!)

[BookStop]

the second cover looks like maybe it is a book on astronomy. The first cover, although similar enough doesn't strike me as non-fiction. no idea why.

[chopper]

yep, i prefer the top one too.

[JDP]

I prefer the second one:

- the box on the all black one seems superfluous, given that it's black within and without; it's not really framing anything yet draws the eye away from the important stuff.

- the second frames the title better and makes your name stand out more. I feel it's quite fictiony, and put me in mind of several Stephen Baxter covers.

I do think they're both good though.

[Scarfy]

Aw, man... Split all the way down the middle it seems... :|

I think I'll stick with the black one.

The planet on the front cover is where the Knights (the starfighter flight group) ends up half way through the book. After a battle goes horribly wrong, their carrier becomes stranded in enemy territory and that planet is the only thing that they can see.

It's meant to look a bit lonely, mysterious and a little bit foreboding. Maybe I've not quite achieve that...

[gary compton]

Are you self publishing or going through Lulu or somebody similar?

I prefer the bluey one,did you get a designer to do it for you or did you do it yourself?

Interested as I am publishing myself

regards gary

[Mouse]

I like the second one. I agree with JDP about the border on the first.

[Scarfy]

I made it myself...

I'm still undecided about which cover I want to use. If it were 25% hated the black one and 75% liked the blue one, then I'd go for that... But it's almost a 50/50 split.

I guess I have to decide which one is the more eye catching. And I guess that's the blue one...

[gary compton]

Just a friendly piece of advice, if you are doing it yourself be careful you dont use copywrite pictures without obtaining permission.

Regards Gary

[Scarfy]

Thanks, Gary. Luckily I've done everything myself, so I should be in the clear

The planet on the cover was produced via an software plugin, so it's not a photo of the moon or a Nasa image or anything like that

[Troo]

Could you do me a favour and re-do the first one without the white box? I have an inkling that it would look far better, but without the original file can't play about with it meself

[ctg]

I like the second one, and I think it would be even better with a spaceship on it.

[Quokka]

Originally Posted by Troo

Could you do me a favour and re-do the first one without the white box? I have an inkling that it would look far better, but without the original file can't play about with it meself

Actually I'd like to see that as well, as it stands I like the second one but I was going to post that using that pic inside the square of the first cover might look good but I think Troo's idea is better .

[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.