The author says:

Meet Mr. Scratch, the nefarious villain. Scratch exists as drawings on paper, but he’s certain he’s better than you. He’s just succeeded in splitting apart the family of his greatest nemesis, but an interdimensional mix-up prevented him from enjoying a victory lap.

Meet Mark. He created Mr. Scratch. Never thought he’d meet him one day.

A supervillain travels to the real world and meets his creator in the dark comedy BLACK HAT BLUES.

Nathan says:

It’s a nice cover that completely misses. If I were to guess about the book from the cover, I’d think it’s about a nuclear family set in a winkingly-ironic version of what the Fifties thought the future would be like. I don’t get anything about villains from this cover, or about comic-book characters invading the real world.

(Also, waaay too much halftone filler.)

Other comments?

The author says:

A collection of erotic vignettes about the loss of sexual innocence. Containing four short stories, I am aiming for the “fans of Anais Nin” type market – those who like their erotica with a bit of literary sophistication.

Nathan says:

I see three main problems with this:

1. Nothing is large enough to be comprehended in thumbnail. There’s no hook to make the 95% of your potential audience who will initially encounter it at thumbnail size click to take a larger look.
2. The type is nothing but variations on Times New Roman, the default font on literally almost all word-processed documents ever. That makes it look extremely lazy.
3. The flower petals (which I originally took to be footprints) are way too subtle an indication of your content. Even the covers of the current editions of Anais Nin’s books have a clue to the subject matter, and the erotic ones are pretty clearly erotic:

The good news is that antique images such as these are easily found from public domain sources, so they won’t set you back.

Other comments?

The author says:

ONE SLIP is a literary fiction novel. Here’s the blurb:

It all happened so fast. Connie Silverstein got a call from a friend whose daughter had an accident and was in the hospital. Could Connie watch her four-year-old son? Despite it not being the best of circumstances, Connie races to the hospital and picks up the boy. Todd’s a sweet kid, a charmer, who calls her “Aunt Connie.” He asks if they can go to the beach. Connie hesitates—it’s windy and the waves are rough—but then takes him there. The unthinkable happens. Todd’s sucked out in a rip current and is rescued, but only after he’s suffered considerable cognitive impairment that may be permanent. Brain damage. Connie is desperate to help Todd, but his mother is bitter and shuts her out. Traumatized that Todd’s injury happened while he was in her care, Connie can’t forgive herself and is consumed by guilt. Friends and family assure her that accidents happen to everyone, and she shouldn’t be so hard on herself, but only Connie knows the terrible secret that what happened to Todd wasn’t an accident.

[original submission and comments here]

Nathan says:

You’ve posted a lot of process shots in the evolution of the cover in the original thread; I think you’re a lot closer to understanding how to market your book to your target audience.

More than the one you submitted above, I prefer this one:

I find the slightly warmer blue tint to be more inviting to the eye, and both the font and type treatment of the title are more deliberate and thoughtful.

On the other hand, given that the intent of so much literary fiction seems to be as uninviting as possible [he said snarkily], maybe the former is better.

Comments?

The author says:

The book is a sci-fi technothriller set 10-15 years in the future. It involves AI, robots, a tech theft, and a home invasion. Think Ex Machina meets Rear Window meets trolley problems. I want it to appeal to scifi readers who like Michael Crichton-style technothrillers / Hard sci-fi / Asimov’s robot novels. The cover is not a mockup, but I want to get other opinions before I publish the book. Specifically: 1)Does it convey the genre expectations? 2)Does it stand out? 3)Does it make you want to click on it and find out more about the book?

Nathan says:

It definitely says “techno.” I’m not sure about the “thriller” part.

When I look at the “technothrillers” category, here’s what I see (click to see it large):

Here are some commonalities I see:

• More often than not, a thin sans-serif font.
• A lot of silhouettes.
• High-contrast color schemes dominated by one color (a cold one, most likely).

I know you wanted the cover to “stand out,” but before it does that, it needs to draw the attention of your target audience, which means it needs to contain the instantly recognizable cues that that audience looks for to find books aimed at them.  I think if you tweaked your existing cover with those visual cues in mind, you’d have a winner.

Other comments?

The author says:

The Spirit, The Scribe, The Journey is a collection of excerpts from personal spiritual journeys. The target reader is someone who resonates with wisdom other Christians received from God. The genre is christian spirituality.

Nathan says:

The problem here is that absolutely nothing on this cover conveys “Christian” — the only part with even a sideways connection to Christianity is the word “Spirit” in the title, which is scarcely an exclusively Christian word.

The type also has some problems. The title is in Algerian font, which is “the font resorted to by people who want an elegant or magical font but won’t look further than the fonts already on their computer.” It’s overused for all the wrong reasons. And while the byline font isn’t as bad, (a) it clashes with Algerian, and (b) its position against the bank page calls attention to the fact that it’s sorta supposed to look like it’s written on the paper, but it ain’t. (And neither font looks like it could have been produced by the quill pen on display.)

The blank space at the top of the journal page also looks oddly unused.

I’m assuming that we’re working with a stock image here, and if you’re determined to use it, here’s my ten-minute redo to correct some of the problems.

I added the slight sunrise-y glow because, well, Christianity is about hope, and it seemed right.

I’m not sold on the handwriting font I used (ten minutes, after all), but it at least indicates the direction I think you need to go.

Other comments?