Atlantis Lost

The author says:

This is the beginning of a fantasy series set in the modern oceans, where the last merpeople in existence live in secret, struggling to survive. Over the series, the mers come out of hiding and reshape their relationship with humans through war and peace. The book is set in real underwater locations, and is illustrated with B&W stylised photos of the animals which live there, hence the choice to use a photo for the cover (I took the picture, so no copyright issues). Each book in the series will have an underwater photo from the appropriate location as its cover. This is intended for eBook publication. The cover is as close to finished as I can make it, so not just a concept test.

Nathan says:

Nice photo.

For a cover like this, which is essentially a background photo behind type, you really need typefaces that are going to carry the weight.  This typeface doesn’t.  I can see that you’re trying to convey a slightly antique, slightly fantastic mood with the type, but this typeface is too generic and overused (you also miss an opportunity to play with positioning between the initial caps and the rest of the words in the title).

Also, if “Pelagius Nemo” is the byline (and even I’m not 100% sure that it is), this might be an occasion where “A Novel by” is justified (or something more specific — “An Undersea Adventure by,” “A Saga of (and Under) the High Seas by,” etc.).

Other comments?

Updated: September 10, 2018 at 7:28 am

Comments

  1. I’d suggest a better pen name. Besides not being immediately recognizable as the byline, coat-tailing rarely works (I’d imagine less so when referencing Pelagius).
    As for the cover, you need more dynamic text. You have all that empty space (water) so fill it. Push the title out to the bleed variance and make LOST larger so it’s almost as wide as ATLANTIS. A drop shadow can also help the lettering stand out.
    The graphic at the bottom is cool. It appears to be four tridents (is that twelve?) connected by a Gordian knot and encircled by rope. It’s also covering part of the only interesting part of the image. Why not use it as the centerpiece of the overlay rather than an afterthought? Higher res, of course, and possibly three-dimensional.

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  2. Thanks for the comments. I like the idea of a dodecadent. Can you recommend a free font that would work?

    Good point on the byline. Will add a “by” for clarity. Pelagius Nemo is the main character throughout the series, though, and parts of it are narrated by him.

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    1. You can have a subtitle like ” The Adventures of ‘Main Character’ ” but you don’t want to list the MC as the author. The byline needs to be your real or pen name.

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      1. Concur. Even if the conceit of the book is “that old seadog Pelagius Nemo is writing his memoirs,” the name on the cover must still be yours. Your author identity and brand are separate from your character identity–you might write a different series later, after all.

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  4. Since the photo is so featureless, the type is going to have to carry the weight of the design. This is the direction I’d go with it: https://i.imgur.com/NyfsKwI.jpg

    The font is Booker, on dafont.com.

    Also, if you ever plan to make paper versions, be aware that blues are difficult to get to reproduce properly, and they often go very dark. I expect the bottom part of the cover above would print almost black. You’ll have to adjust the version for print much lighter to get it to end up anything like the above.

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      1. LOL. Booter is the font I used in my third example. Great minds, I guess. I like how you made your version taller. It suits the typeface.

        You’re right about darker blues. For the paperback version to upload the brightness and contrast will need to be increased.

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      1. Yes, this is very nice, and a significant improvement.

        My issue, aside from fonts–which are already being tackled by my co-posters, here on CC.com–is the idea behind the image being used in the first place. The submitter says that:

        Each book in the series will have an underwater photo from the appropriate location as its cover.

        But there’s absolutely nothing, nothing at all, that identifies this photo of water, and a few fish, from any other photo of water and fish. I mean, other than the fish not appearing to be your typical home-aquarium fish, this could be a fishtank. You have soil, (dirt!), a big honking bunch of blue water, and TWO, count ’em, two fish. That’s it. There are no ruins, no wrecks, no coral reefs, there is absolutely not one damn thing that says “this was taken at XXXXX, the location for this book.” If there were identifying features, then some folks might find it enjoyable to say, “Oh, hey! Capri! I’ve dived over there and…” Or something. But this–this is simply not special. I could find 20 other images from Pixabay or Depositphoto that would be better cover images.

        I don’t have a problem with the concept–but the execution is lacking, if the covers are supposed to be unique and identifiable from the imagery. These aren’t. Or, at least, this isn’t. The treatments by BJ and Augusta, particularly, salvage it enormously. But I feel–and perhaps it’s simply me–that the description by the submitter and the image I’m seeing have a disconnect.

        Are we supposed to recognize the locations? Or…??? Because I’m not feeling it, if that’s the intent. Don’t forget–using anything on the cover, that the reader will only recognize once they’ve read the book, is not ideal. We don’t want the reader to have to read the book to get the cover; the cover is what, folks? All together, now: your cover is clickbait! So, we want to make those readers out there, the ones that are dying to read your book, click on YOURS and buy it. 🙂 We don’t want them to only “get” the cover after they’ve read the book. That’s backward.

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  5. https://imgur.com/a/uk15rEM
    I came across this amazing picture of that ruin the other day and thought to myself, I hope I find something to use it in…
    added some fish (with shadows) and bubbles and Atlantis MF as the font (because the name was so right for this, lol) but there are lots of great fonts you could try
    Downcome looks cool with this as does Code bold and I liked Castellar a lot with this too. All gave it a slightly different feel so you’d need to judge that for yourself.

    I did like your trident a lot but was too lazy to cut it out…lol It would make an awesome series identifier. I’d try it with the words into the circle and the number centered.
    The pictures used were all free as is the font
    https://fontsup.com/font/atlantis-mf.html
    its available lots of other places too.
    (You can have this pic)

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    2. This is 2000% better than the original cover. Instead of worrying about the type, you focused on the real problem: the utter blandness of the image, which could hardly have been more boring and less informative.

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    3. I will finally be home after being away for nearly six weeks. In the next day or two l will see about replacing the foreground shark with a mermaid in exactly the same position.

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  6. I’m sorry, but I think the photo has to go. I know you’re really proud of your photos and it’s a nice photo, but this book is about merpeople. Nothing about this photo says merpeople. Nothing suggests fantasy at all. It could be any kind of story involving the ocean.

    The photo also has no real focal point, so the design feels edgeless and centerless. It’s got a ton of unused space.

    Sure, better typefaces can carry some of the weight, but they shouldn’t have to because the image should be doing that work.

    Ideally, I want a badass merperson with a harpoon gun or a seahorse mount or whatever it is they do in your book. If you must use a photo, it should be a fantastical one with a strong focal point, like an undersea ruin. But we need something to tell us this isn’t a book about someone going scuba diving.

    P.S. I would also discourage you from putting your fish photos inside the book. If there’s a scene where a merman is fighting a human but the illustration is a blue tang, I’m going to be disappointed as a reader. And eventually I’m going to start feeling like the whole series is just a vehicle to share your fish photos.

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    2. This is 2000% better than the original cover. Instead of worrying about the type, you focused on the real problem: the utter blandness of the image, which could hardly have been more boring and less informative.

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    3. Gwen nailed the real problem with the original cover. The type was not the issue. It was the image, which could not have been more bland or uninformative. Until that problem is resolved, any questions about the type are moot.

      Shelley’s suggestion is an order of magnitude better. But if the book is really centered around merpeople, then I think it is absolutely imperative that at least one appears on the cover.

      I know you are anxious to use your own photos on the covers of this book and others in the series, but these images are meaningful only to you. They tell the potential reader—who has no prior knowledge of your book—nothing about it. There is not a clue about the nature, subject, themes or ideas of the book…other than the fact that it may have something to do with the undersea world, and that is already suggested by the title. It is not even clear that the book is fiction. You need to convey something about the ideas behind the book, the conflict between the merpeople and humans, their struggle to survive or any of the other things you describe.

      In short, you need to rethink this cover from scratch.

      And, while I am at it, “Pelagius Nemo”? Please…

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  7. If he could find a great mer person maybe he could incorporate his vision, using his photo as the back drop. I’d recommend using the sand bottom part and zooming in as much as possible without getting to grainy. it’s a bit grainy already so you’ll probably need some masks to make that look purposeful.
    To be honest, I didn’t read the post at ALL before I made my mockup. I saw his cover and immediately thought of the picture I’d seen and how it would make a great Atlantis backdrop and added the fish because that’s all he has in his pic so thought they must be important. I was making the cover for myself, for fun, to use that picture in the ten minutes I had before returning to work from a lunch break…lol
    Augusta’s Version could be amped up with scarier more interesting fish. that’s a great cover that really matches the posters vision. making the ground brighter, more visually interesting would help too. but any ‘fixes’ to the picture sort of ruin the point of using his own picture so why not go whole hog and put a really interesting graphic on the cover like that mer person?

    Starting with a picture that grabs the eye is much easier than making a dull picture interesting. And while the poster’s picture is nice it wouldn’t grab anyone’s eyes because there’s nothing really to see. Just adding some dramatic light would help but the content just doesn’t make you think ‘what’s going on there’so even if you get a second glance your blurb will really have to rock it to bring in the sales.

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      1. @BL: I agree with you about Shelley’s version, but yours is pretty nice. I’m not wildly in love with the Merwoman, but man, at least there’s some visual interest in this. Nice job.(I prefer the first font, over the Atlantis font, myself. Yes, it’s tropey, but…so what? Remember that cover that was screaming for the THHGTTG title font? So we suggested Harlow Solid Let? It was perfect, tropey or not. Didn’t matter that of course, it was suggestive of THHGTTG. That was the entire point, and, most importantly: it worked.)

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        1. I don’t remember… Can you link the post or remember the title?
          I love that booter font too! Booter has a ‘friendlier’ vibe somehow. If his story is even slightly humorous it would be the way better choice.

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          1. Shel: It was this one: https://covercritics.com/?p=1838#comment-area

            @Nathan: would it be possible for an archive to be established? I mean…if you try to search, it looks solely for the titles, apparently. It’s quite time-consuming to look for anything in here–you have to slowly page back, over and over. Even a simple linked list, would be much better. A gallery-type archive where we could see the title, cover and link to the submission, would be SUHWEET. Any chance?

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        2. I think a simpler, more ‘realistic’ mermaid (or mer-couple) would work better. She’s a bit ornate for my taste.
          Fish and bubbles definitely add interest, as would a better texture on my ruins’

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    1. Yeah, the merpersons are both a bit dead-eyed and plastic, like they are on their way to shoot an episode of Underwater Bachelor. The sharks turned out nice, though.

      I assume the symbol is important since he put it on the cover, but have no idea what it represents. I did that mostly to challenge myself to create a 3D version.

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  13. “I assume the symbol is important since he put it on the cover…”
    I’m not sure if what an author thinks is important is the best criteria…🤨

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  17. BL. Loved, that. Your mermaid is awesome. A few strands of floaty hair and some highlights and she would really rock. I love everything you did there. I loved Ron’s too. Sorry for the late response, I forgot all about this post and forgot to click notify button.

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