Entangled

The author says:

Young YA (ideal reader: 12 years old) about teleportation. Most important question: is the title readable?

Nathan says:

Most important answer: No.

There have been successful books with cleverly unreadable covers, but (a) they usually have a big TradPub promo push behind them, (b) the author usually has an existing following, and (c) they’re not for a young YA audience.

Heart Bypass: The Road Map

The author says:

This is a book I wrote for people who are going to have open heart surgery. It’s advice seen through the patient’s perspective. I did this with no understanding of covers and I know it’s poor.

Nathan says:

Just so I could understand the content a bit better, I pulled in the Amazon description:

The author found himself facing open-heart surgery. Researching the Internet, he found lots of scary stuff that led to terrible fear. The books he found didn’t give a good idea of what it was going to be like from the patient’s point of view, and so he resolved to keep a day by day diary of the whole process, from diagnosis to recovery, detailed here in “The Road Map”.

The Road Map doesn’t replace existing books, nor does it attempt to advise you on surgical matters. It relates the details of diagnosis, preparing for surgery, and recovery: the things that can only be experienced by those who have undergone a heart bypass procedure.

I think that, because the book emphasizes the personal and experiential side, you ought to begin with the image of a person. Maybe someone being advised by a doctor, or someone in a hospital bed receiving a shoulder-hug from a visitor. Emphasize that this book isn’t about the organ, it’s about the person.

I just searched “patient” in iStockPhoto, and there are scads of images showing a patient in comforting consultation with a healthcare professional (most of them run between $12 and $33 for a license to use them on a book cover). Happy hunting.

Remember Us

The author says:

“Remember Us” is the third book in the Odemark series. This cover must have a look and feel that matches the other two covers: the orange hue, ground fog, embers, and a point of lighting are important. The cover art shows the main character Simon arriving at Pikes Peak, Colorado, after traveling over the plains for months. Simon sees the crashed space station from a distance and is seen from an angle facing away from the reader. The sense of distance is important since the space station will become more visible as he and the caravan he travels with gets closer. The scene is meant to be tranquil and lonely since Simon is viewing the home he fled from.

I’m looking at making small adjustments to the overall series. For example, updating the back-cover font to Robot Slab, using a mixed case for the hook sentence, and perhaps using a color author picture. FYI, the Abandon Us cover was updated based on the critique from this site, so I look forward to your input on this cover before the book is published. This is the hardcover version, so titles and text are placed to allow for wrap.

Nathan says:

For reference, here are the previous two covers in the series:

I have two comments:

  1. The spot of color on the Abandon Us cover provides a welcome spot of contrast. I would suggest something of the same on the Remember Us cover — perhaps a distinct pinkness right around the setting (rising?) sun, or a fragment of color on the figure itself.
  2. It might be worth exploring a subtle but distinct tint progression through the three covers, which will give potential readers a clue that they’re a series in a set order.  For instance:

(That sucks, as a thirty-second version should; I hope it get across the idea.)

Other comments?

When Things Go Bang [resubmit]

After consulting with his readers, the author has determined that this is indeed YA.

[original submission and comments here, under an earlier title]

Nathan says:

It’s a very professional cover. I think the only things missing are signposts that indicate at least one of the eras in which it takes place (1942/1959). My first ideas are a letter on his jacket, or banners on the wall, or a 45 RPM record player on the side table. I think you could play with using a military-style stencil font for the subtitle.

Other comments?

Alamein’s Avenger

The author says:

1942/1959 historical time portal adventure.

Jim’s parents are on the verge of splitting up, and he’s obsessed with finding a girlfriend. Then dead Uncle Buddy emerges from a stain in the wallpaper and takes Jim back to the Battle of Alamein, to fight in WW2. Buddy helps Jim deal with life’s problems. Back in 1959, Jim runs away and is saved from drowning by Old Beardy, the beach hermit, who acts as Jim’s second mentor to get him on the right track.

Intended audience: baby boomers.

Nathan says:

That last sentence of your description stopped me cold, because this is definitely NOT the cover for a book aimed at baby boomers. It’s got all the visual markers of a YA novel.

I was going to comment on things like the needlessly hard-to-read title or the muted colors of the head in front of the bright portal, but I think that would be rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. If boomers are your target audience, you need to make this book look like the kind of book that boomers look at and say, “Oh, that’s for me!”

Try some more market research and start again.