The author says:

The attached file is my latest and final submission.

The book blurb for what it’s worth: Sometimes you have to break in in order to break out… Raphael, the world’s first superintelligent AI, has gone missing from its lab. If the security tapes are to be believed, it has simply vanished into thin air. A case of tech-theft or something far more sinister? Its creator, Andy, has complete faith in the security protocols he built into his AI, but others are not convinced. Confined to his home, he is now in a race against time to set things right, all the while staying one step ahead of the skulduggery and infighting within a company that seeks nothing less than control of the new economy. Dive into trolley problems and machine morality in this sci-fi howdunnit of Ex Machina meets Rear Window as you try to figure out whether Raphael is a guileless automaton or a monster that will do anything to get what it wants.

[original submission and comments here]

Nathan says:

Gosh, it does my heart good when someone submits a cover, gets constructive feedback, and follows through on that feedback. Well done.

My two comments:

• The way the title overlaps the sun’s glow is a little awkward; I would either tweak the layout to get rid of the overlap, or add a dark outline to the title to separate the red of the title from the orange of the sun.
• I would both enlarge and separate the robot and wheelchair figures, letting each take up more real estate closer to the edges. Especially with the robot, there’s nothing to be gained by leaving all that blank space behind it.

Other comments?

The author says:

(Prototype with two possible versions; has Shutterstock watermarks.) This is a 32K word story in the “LitRPG” or “GameLit” genre in which characters are playing some sort of roleplaying game with specific rules. Similar authors: Michael Chatfield, M. H. Johnson, Travis Bagwell. In this one, there’s a post-apocalyptic (21st century) village. Its people learn about a tower built by a game-obsessed AI who challenges them to go there and fight their way to the top, past robots.

Nathan says:

If you’re going for a post-apoc vibe, the second cover is DEFINITELY the way to go.  Not only is the figure drawing on the first cover a little off (perspective is hard), the initial impression is one of fantasy, not sci-fi — you have to look longer to realize that there’s actually some tech in the faery-like body armor.

Concentrating on the second cover: I’d see what can be done about making the title bigger; having title and byline the same size is visually confusing, and unless your name is “Stephen King” etc., it’s the title that should probably be larger.

The two layouts I’d play with are one with the title at the top (on two lines), and the subtitle left-justified to the left:

…or maybe subtitle at the very top, and title to the left in that open space, left-justified:

Other comments?

The author says:

A collection of short erotic stories which, broadly, have some religious element in them.

Nathan says:

Well, you’ve definitely overcome the problem of “not sexy enough” on your last cover!

I think that, if the religious element is part of the appeal, it needs to be played up more. Romance novels often use religious terms like “sin,” “heaven,” “angel,” “devil,” etc. in their titles, so that alone doesn’t really give the reader an inkling of religious flavor in these stores. I think adding some gentle religious imagery to the background might help, like so:

I don’t think this particular fresco works especially well — it’s just one I grabbed from Google as a demo.

Other thoughts?

The author says:

Inspired by escape rooms, Puzzling Escapes locks the reader in a fascinating and rich scenario full of riddles and clues. You and your friend Astrid decide it would be fun to investigate an abandoned spaceship. But as soon as you’re inside, the doors lock and the power fails. Can you find all the clues and solve each puzzle?

Last time I submitted a cover for this book, I leaned heavily on the space aspect. After much back and forth, I wanted to try a cover which looks much more like a typical puzzle book. Some of the tropes I tried to include are bold solid colors, simple font treatment, a more descriptive title, and the simple geometric design.

[original submission and comments here]

Nathan says:

The only thing I’m going to say is that the green-yellow color (“puke yellow”) doesn’t work for me — I’d be a lot more attracted to the cover if it were a brighter, cheerier yellow.

I’ll leave the rest for our dependable commenters.

The author says:

Fantasy: Edhenland, a place of peace and plenty, of family and friends, with storyteller’s tales of past history and adventure, but with no danger or things to fear because of so few unknowns. Until now!

In a short time the animals of the Big Orchard Neighborhood find there are yet Great Ones living in other neighborhoods, and also their lives of peace without threat or fear may be over. Outside their protecting mountains may be, almost certainly are, threats to fear greater than anything they have ever imagined. Newly grown animals, long wanting adventure will now find more than they could ever have imagined. So too with the Great Ones, the few remaining people of Edhenland. In more ways than one their futures will depend on what they are about to discover.

The top picture panel of the cover depicts a scene from Chapter One. Close friends Eli Elk, Benjamin Gray Wolf and Samuel Great Eagle are conversing as they walk. The eagle just brought new of a serious nature that may effect their very lives.

Nathan says:

This is the hardest kind of cover to critique, because I hate being unrelentingly negative but…

Your artwork’s just not there yet.

You definitely have talent, but you don’t have the requisite level of skill and technique yet. Undifferentiated line widths and colored pencils only call attention to the deficiencies in the art.  The impression given is that of a talented adolescent — which means readers will expect the same of the writing: that it will show promise, but that the reader will have to lower expectations in order to enjoy it.  That’s not what readers want to pay for; they want to be confident that they are in the hands of a master storyteller, not that they have to say, “Well, it’s not TOO bad…”

(And lest you think I’m just critiquing the artistic skill, I’m also talking about the design skill as well. The two actionless vignettes seem more intended to show “Look at what I can draw!” than to entice the reader with the contents, and both the sliced-off-circle layout and the title/byline font seem like randomly selected choices.)

Remember: If you want to give your book the best chance to find readers who appreciate it, you need to accept that there may be some skills, like art and design, that are not where they need to be. Your best bet is to find someone with the necessary design chops and work with them to make the best presentation possible.

And I meant it when I said you show talent (assuming you are the artist).  Talent is the jumpstart for skill. Now work hard and make it grow.