The author says:

Johnny Donal’s life in the South Carolina Lowcountry should be good but love gone awry, lies, double-dealing, and murder combine to make it miserable.
Donal, a retired cop with a successful investigations agency and he should be enjoying life. He isn’t. That he has a stellar reputation as an investigator; that he has a source of independent wealth; that he can pick and choose cases should, if anything, add to his good life. None of it does.
Instead, Donal is troubled. His lover Victoria left him and, worse, he’s batting zero with his attempts to get her back. He also has a client with a strange attitude about the circumstances surrounding her missing husband and Donal isn’t sure that he can trust the woman. Then a friend is murdered and that case intertwines with Donal’s missing husband case.
Despite a double dealing client, negative involvement with influential locals, and political obstacles all cluttering his investigation, the question becomes can the Donal, who has problems of his own to resolve, uncover the identity of the killer and bring him to justice?
Plot and subplots take the reader on a journey filled with duplicitousness and murder. As the story unfolds Victoria returns, but the fears that drove her away in the first place lurk just beneath the surface. All hell breaks loose when the killer tries to take Donal out. Closing the case and bringing the killer to the bar of justice will no longer suffice. Vengeance becomes the only option.

Nathan says:

I’ve seen several of these covers recently, which repeat segments of a single image around the layout.  I hate ’em.  Or rather, I don’t see the point.  If an image is strong enough as a focal point (as a chain is), then the repetitions are distracting; if it isn’t, then more isn’t better.

From your description, your book is target at roughly the same demographic that reads Harlen Corben or Lee Child or Michael Connelly.  So why doesn’t it look like them, so that those readers will recognize it as one of their own?  Here’s what I get from surveying books in that genre:

• strong, narrow type, usuall sans serif
• a strong but nonspecific central image
• bold colors in a limited palette

Going from that, here’s a five-minute redo of your cover:

Now, this is definitely not the final I’d go with; I’m not sure I like the font I picked, the colors could use some tweaking, and the pure black background behind the chain is bland; I’d probably find some grungy texture to be the background, possibly sheet metal or the like. But you can see where I’m going.

(By the way, I know we’re not here to critique blurbs, but yours could use some streamlining.  Read it aloud in Gravelly Movie Announcer Guy Voice and see what could be tightened.)

Other suggestions?

The author says:

This is novel of the thriller/horror genre and centers around the life of a small town electrician who is in the process of breaking out and starting his own company. A early morning emergency call to his first customer starts him on a journey into the darkest corners of what we perceive as reality. He is to encounter impossible and horrifying things. Old things.

Nathan says:

1) THAT FONT MUST GO. A low-key photograph such as this one isn’t necessarily a problem, but it does shift more of the burden of communication onto the font, and this font simply isn’t up to it.  It is a distinctly non-scary font.  The replacement font doesn’t have to be out-and-out scary, because often those overboard fonts end up looking like a joke (for example, all of the “blood-dripping” fonts).  But something slightly distressed will do just fine.

2) I’d say to curtail the color palette of the photo a bit; you don’t need a full range of pastels to show on a thriller/horror cover.  If you overlay everything with a grunge texture, it can do double-duty of making the color more uniform, and adding that “gritty” connotation that works so well for this genre.

And since I had a few minutes to spare and it was easy to work on, I did this to illustrate what I’m talking about:

This is the five-minute version, and it shows; neither the font nor the texture is what I’d call my final choice. But it shows you what I’m talking about.

Any other comments?

March 23, 2014 Edit:

The author has made some revisions:

I like the addition of the birds in the sky; it’s an extra detail rewarding those who look at the full-sized cover.

I like the font for the title, but I’d still like to see it both bigger and brighter.  The same for the byline; I don’t necessarily think the author’s name needs to be read from the thumbnail, but it really disappears here.

March 24, 2014 Edit:

Another revision:

I would move the title down so that it’s centered in the darkness of the trees. And I still think the text would be served by a lighter/brighter color (not as much as in my five-minute rework, but some).

Other thoughts?

The author says:

This book has already been published, but I would like to have some help to improve the cover.

Book Content

A non-fiction book about preparing for the Camino de Santiago covering things like:

– When to go and what to take (and what to leave behind!)
– What to expect during the walk
– Addressing lots of practical things like insurance, cultural shock, health, communication etc
– Pilgrims anecdotes to illustrate the points
– Links to other resources

Nathan says:

Now, I’m not a Camino de Santiago expert (in fact, I had to google it just so I’d know what we’re talking about here), but I would surmise that a guidebook such as this goes broadly under the category of “travel guidebooks,” for which it looks fairly appropriate; travel guides consistently have a no-nonsense vibe about them that says, “You can trust me.”

I think the design weaknesses here can be best seen in the thumbnail: The title merges into the background, and the subtitle wars with the title for importance.  Here’s what I would do:

• Find a font that’s similarly no-nonsense (likely, but not necessarily, another sans-serif font) which has a thicker silhouette.
• Use that font for the title, subtitle and byline.
• Play with putting those (the title, subtitle and byline) in a darker color that will stand out against the background, possibly with a slight drop-shadow.
• Make the subtitle smaller so it’s easy to tell which is the title and which is the subtitle.
• I like having the byline to one side to balance out the signpost in the photograph, but I’d move it in and up some so that it really balances the signpost.

Anyone think anything different?