The author says:
Eloise is a princess in hiding, an orphan, and an heir to the throne her uncle wants. In her grandfather’s day, Uncle Frideric would have staked her out for a dragon’s meal. Two birds with one stone, so to speak. Fortunately, virgin sacrifices to the dragons are passé now. Until the day she rescues a baby dragon, whose parents are searching desperately for him. Then she might just be food for wyrms, if they don’t realize she’s their heroine first…
Nathan says:
A lot of authors have found that using a sigil or symbol is a good substitute for the other, more expensive kind of fantasy cover (one which uses custom illustration), so I don’t fault that instinct.
Most of the problems here are readily apparent from looking at the thumbnail: All of the filters and ornamentation make both the dragon symbol and the text harder to comprehend/read; the chrome treatment on the dragon ends up looking like a hood ornament. The lack of contrast between the yellow patch in the background and the ornamentation on top of it just exacerbates the problem.
And that title font… (It’s close to Flair Roman, but not the same. Our resident font expert, Hitch, will identify it instantly.) It’s not really strong enough for the title, and stretching it top-to-bottom doesn’t help.
My fix-it advice: Turn off all of the beveling etc., up the contrast, and check it IN THUMBNAIL to make sure that both words and symbol are instantly understandable. Only add back any filters one at a time, and check them IN THUMBNAIL each time to make sure that you aren’t doing more harm than good.
Other comments?
What Nathan said, but…
I would indeed fault the instinct that drove you to use a symbol on your cover. A symbol, by its nature, conveys an idea. If the idea is a special one or a complex one, then it requires some preknowledge on the part of the viewer to appreciate it. But since no one has read your book yet, they cannot know what deeper meaning the dragon might have. Otherwise, all that the symbol tells anyone is that there may be a dragon involved in your story…but the series title tells them that. The symbol adds absolutely nothing other than the basic fact that Book 1 of The Dragon Wars involves dragons.
Another problem with using a symbol is that your cover is much, much too generic. Other than the fact that the book is, apparently, a fantasy and probably one that involves dragons, it really says nothing about this particular book. Which is to say, this cover could just as easily fit any one of a hundred other fantasy novels. What is there about your book that makes it unique, makes it special? What sets it apart from every other fantasy novel? Is there a character who is specially interesting? Is there something that happens in your book that is visually striking? Is there an idea or theme that makes the book its own? The title is “Fire’s Maiden”—that sounds like something that is just begging to be visualized.
Contradict me? Defy me?? BAH!!!
I think that sigils/symbols can work much better on fantasy covers than with many other genres because they can connote either heraldic imagery or magical/mystical symbols. I’ve seen it work well. (I’ve also seen it work NOT well, but…)
I think you kind of hit on the problem when you say that sigils/symbols can connote the genre of a book…but I think that a cover needs to do more than just say “fantasy here.” It should inform the reader about the book beyond what section of the bookstore it belongs in.
Using a lone graphic device like this on a cover can work, but it has to be done so carefully and with such skill…which means selecting and using a symbol that is more than generically meaningful…that it is something best left alone.
The dragon symbol used here might be made to work if some other visual element(s) were added to give it some significance or relevance beyond merely conveying “dragon”—something deriving from the story or its themes.
I simplified it but it’s still hard to see in thumbnail.
https://i.imgur.com/p4t4brI.jpg
I’m the author and a newbie. I’m kinda stuck for cash to spend on it, or I’d license something like this: https://leeshahannigan.com/2016/9/27/hw5rrqrqvmijwhmoju4ujnql8vppj3
I did play with it more after submitting – putting a gold wash on the dragon so it matched up with the rest better. I’ll fix the font tonight, and look at some of the other suggestions to see what I can do, then submit a new version. B.L. Alley, what program did you use for the effects you did on the dragon? I recently got Photoshop and Affinity, but haven’t really done much in years, so my skills are very rusty.
I’ve never had money for my book covers so you’re certainly not alone. I didn’t do anything to the dragon other than composite it and add some highlights. The internal pattern was already there. I found it on Pixabay.
https://pixabay.com/vectors/dragon-animal-beast-creature-2754284/
I primarily use Jasc Paint Shop Pro 5.01 from 1998, with the occasion detour into GIMP for blends and flares.
Have you looked through Pixabay for images you can use? If you find something you like you’ll need to run an image search and contact the poster to verify it is original and/or free to use commercially. You might also try DeviantArt. There are many artists offering their work cheap or free. In all cases credit the creators.
Thanks, I also found the background, mandala and dragon on Pixabay. I think the one you found is pretty much the same one only with different effects. Since the effects are SO different, I thought you’d pulled it up from my cover and changed it.
One thing I do when I find something close but not quite right is go to the poster’s page and look at their other pieces.
This person does some nice work. Maybe they can create something for you for a low price or even free for the exposure. https://pixabay.com/users/blackdog1966-8141061/
BL’s re-do helped a lot, but many of the original issues remain. How about doing something that helps the cover tie into this idea—“she rescues a baby dragon, whose parents are searching desperately for him”—which I think is a theme that sounds unique to your book.
The Hannigan illustration is, as you suggest, pretty spot on…but, as a lot of my colleagues here already know, I am not a huge fan of stock art. One of the dangers is winding up with this sort of situation, where your cover art winds up on a dozen other books—
https://www.charliehills.com/gallery/picture.php?/564/category/3
After all, one of the goals of a cover is to set a book apart from all the others around it!
But if you cannot afford to commission a new, original cover illustration, there may still be ways for you to make your cover both unique and informative. The thing is to use your imagination…think outside the box. You might even still be able to use sigils/symbols, but in a more creative way. What might suggest, for instance, dragon parents and a dragon baby?
Here is something to consider: The famous English illustrator, Arthur Rackham, often used silhouettes very creatively and very effectively. His most famous effort along these lines was probably his illustrations for “Cinderella”—
https://www.pookpress.co.uk/rackhams-cinderella-silhouettes/
(a quick search will find you many more examples from other books)
—which used B&W silhouettes with occasional spots of color to great effect. Something along those lines might not be difficult to put together and might perhaps make a very attractive cover.
I do want to say that I would recommend against using Harrington–immediately recognizable, due to that M–if you can find something else that’s more…memorable *and* readable. There are a spate of “Celtic” or “medieval” or “Fae” or fantasy fonts out there. Adding the 3D effects and all that made the Harrington less readable, which is not a good idea.
Even though it’s very widely used, good old Cinzel Decorative is an easy font. Although, it’s all caps. Aegean has a somewhat similar feel to Harrington, in a way. Savaro might suit you.
Some newer fonts that are becoming popular are Brilon, which is a wonderful font–but that might lean more fantasy or even romance, for you (although I think it’s simply lovely for pretty much anything); Lawrence, by Fenotype, is quite nice but has a bit of flair to it. Or, Wellingborough. With the Flourish or the Capitals face, natch.
It would help if you could say why you chose Harrington, initially? What did it say to you that you liked?
Choice of Harrington was a failed attempt to find something a little fancy, still readable, that might signal Fantasy. I’ll check out the others you list tonight, thank you! I don’t care much for Celtic for this story, and sometimes it’s hard looking for ones that don’t scream HP or a particular franchise of some sort.
I take it you’re seeking a free font, is that right?
Yes, I’ve been downloading them all week of various styles for different projects. Cash flow is non-existent for a few months while we deal with other issues.
I like the metallic looks. I guess that’s bad? But anyway, here’s a verson with a different font, simpler effects, a dark wash on the background to improve contrast, and I got rid of the mandala (which I liked as representing the girl, but oh well).
https://dlcampanile.wordpress.com/2020/01/11/cover-mockups/
Is it any better?
It’s more bland now. The only thing that pops is the sigil. I liked the original background more.
Of course, I just finished this mockup so everything is going to look bland in comparison:
https://i.imgur.com/PR2qVRi.jpg
Also, the group will state again that your cover tells the potential reader nothing about the story. There is a razor-thin line here where you must let people know what your book is about without including specific details from the book (becasue the potential reader doesn’t yet know its significance).
That’s an awesome cover, all right, but um, takes the reader in the wrong direction lol. I guess the covers I’ve been taking for inspiration are more like Twilight, Hunger Games, The False Prince, Game of Thrones etc., where they do use a single simple image on the cover. I’m going for a young YA audience, not so much fire and brimstone, and the princess/royalty/intrigue side is at least as prominent as the dragons, so I thought the heraldry look was appropriate. I can lighten up the dark overlay – but then I lose some contrast.
I figured, but saw that image (three images actually) and had some fun with it. Any time I can challenge myself to try something new I usually accept, so getting the title to receive light from the fire was fun.
Truth be told, I have also simplified my covers greatly. I originally created complex scenes from each book, but my current covers feature only a few suggestive elements at most. In fact I just finished a new set of Arosil covers that will show up soon that have simplified them even more by emulating the old pulp covers from the Golden Age of science fiction without copying any specific one.
What you are doing is exactly what I have done with my own books, even those that were published traditionally: Zero in on one or two elements that get across the nature, idea or theme of the book. And at the same time (hopefully) attract attention.
(I have taken a tack similar to your planned Arosil books with several of mine, where I tried to emulate a particular period of publishing. I’ve done this most specifically with the Velda series, where I was inspired by the paperback hard-boiled detective novels of the 50s.)
I do want to emphasize again that it is not enough to just suggest the broad genre in which a book fits. It is necessary to say something about what makes your book different from all the rest.
Here is a sneak peek. Don’t let anyone else see.
https://i.imgur.com/mmtD7HM.png
Those are pretty cool!
Right? The images are oil-painted versions of the previous covers and I wanted the lettering to look drawn as well.
The covers you are using for inspiration are probably taking you in the wrong direction…if for no other reason than that sort of thing is immensely hard to pull off successfully. (And I might point out that the simple covers for GoT you are talking about are much later ones, done long after the series had already become well-known. The first editions were in fact illustrative.)
“The False Prince,” if you will go back and look at it, was more than a simple image. Instead of just a simple image of a crown, it was a broken crown, which suggested something specific about the story…or at least that there is a story.
That is what you need to do: add some visual element that suggests something very specific about your novel.
I do want to point out that Ron speaks truth here. It’s not like GOT had that simple symbol cover initially.
The whole “symbol” thing works great–for trade-published books with a whole lotta “get out and push” marketing efforts behind them. It takes a creatively deft hand to make it work for a book that doesn’t have a team behind it sending out 100 review copies to reviewers and all that. And yes, before anybody jumps in here, of course I know that midlisters don’t get that treatment.
Hitch is absolutely right! There is a world of difference between a book that has the backing of an advertising and marketing team and a book that is just put out there all by its lonesome to fend for itself.
This is why the cover of a self-published book is of special importance: it will probably be the first time a potential reader will have heard of/seen your book…and it has to make a really good impression!
(The issue of review copies is a pretty serious one, too. A traditional publisher will earmark X number of copies of a book for passing out for free to reviewers and at trade shows such as ABA. That is a tough thing for a self-publisher to be able to afford!)
A long time ago and far far away (the 90’s), I was a commercial book reviewer, back when trade pubs of all sizes and shapes sent out review copies in print. At that time, big-selling authors or name-brand writers (like Leonard Nimoy’s crack at a SciFi series) would get hundreds of paperbacks sent out to gin up excitement and WOM (word of mouth).
It’s hard for a writer to do that herself now. I mean, if for no other reason than, she doesn’t have a contact list to whom to send them. If you don’t have a reviewer list, where would you send them?
You can find a path to sending out digital copies, via Author Marketing Club, but the reality is, it’s easier to get solid, viable reviews if you can send out print–which Amazon makes it nearly impossible to do.
Funny I was just criticized for pointing out the bias against indie authors (I wasn’t making excuses, I was illustrating the challenges I had to overcome to even get my books published).
Legit reviewers usually only accept submissions that already have a specified number of reviews. Also, one of the most worthless pieces of advice from successful authors is to build a mailing list to let readers know when you release your book and provide other updates, but what they can’t tell you is how they gathered those readers in the first place. They can’t because getting discovered by the right people who both like the book and tell others is pure luck and no formula can guarantee that.
As you pointed out many also require ARCs or promotional copies which indies cannot provide. Most books stores either won’t take indie book, place them on a separate shelf in the back, or charge us stocking fees and take such a high percentage we lose money on every book.
Uploading a book to Amazon is ‘easy’, but the entire industry is geared toward books from mainstream publishers. Even the indie publishing houses are failing left and right.
My advice never changes: “do everything to the best of your ability and cross your fingers”.
A few years ago, in response to an online discussion about how book covers are created, I summed up much of my argument on this web page.
http://black-cat-studios.com/book_cover_design.html
A lot of it addresses specific issues that came up in that discussion and may not be particularly relevant to the present conversation, but there may be some useful ideas or germs for thought.
BL wrote: “Funny I was just criticized for pointing out the bias against indie authors (I wasn’t making excuses, I was illustrating the challenges I had to overcome to even get my books published).
Legit reviewers usually only accept submissions that already have a specified number of reviews.”
Seems like a couple of different subjects are being raised here.
Yes, there is a prejudice among book retailers and book reviewers against indie authors. But, as has been pointed out many times, this is a perfectly understandable prejudice. What this has to do with you getting your books published kind of eludes me, though.
I am not sure where you get the idea that “Legit reviewers usually only accept submissions that already have a specified number of reviews.” This is news to me. I have done scores of traditionally published books and have never run across anything like this.
You’re right, I must be making this stuff up because I couldn’t possibly have a different experience than any of you publishing ‘experts’. I’m just a dumb retired tradesman (with multiple degrees and certifications in a dozen different trades). The whole reason I and everyone else submit covers here is because we cannot obtain representation and must do everything ourselves or purchase artwork and other services at extreme discounts. It certainly doesn’t help to tell anyone their cover sucks and the only way to fix it is to buy expensive imagery, or hire a professional artist. Thankfully enough people offer genuinely helpful advice so that many of use have been able to create much better art for our books. Certainly not professional level, but passable.
Those who are dismissive of experiences such as mine are usually operating from a different perspective and are often connected to mainstream publishing in some way. Of course traditionally-published books don’t have trouble finding reviewers. The minimum requirement typically only applies to indie books, the same way those mainstream publishers don’t have to pay stocking fees to appear on book store shelves.
I’ve never said the bias isn’t understandable. I get why no one wants to take a risk on an unknown but it remains a frustrating set of obstacles we must overcome, and the more new authors understand that the better prepared they will be to tackle those obstacles. I know of a number of authors who sold far more books than I have yet have quit because they expected a lot more. Personally I’d be thrilled to have their numbers.
B.L., you have two choices:
1) You can stop getting your feathers ruffled and considering it a personal insult when someone expresses a different opinion and experience than yours. Ron’s “I’m not sure where you get the idea … [I] have never run across anything like this” in no way calls for “You’re right, I must be making this up” etc.
or
2) You can stop participating here.
Your call.
I do not want to get in the middle of anything here–BTDT–but, BL, as I mentioned, I was a paid, commercial book reviewer in the 90’s. I worked for two mags and a handful of then-existing (now defunct, of course) websites.
I never had a requirement for already-reviewed books, and in my now-decades in the biz, I’ve never met another “real” reviewer that did. Are there bloggers out there that might? Sure. But places like MBR, for example, have no such requirement. Nada, zip, zein, zilch and if you send them a paperback, there’s no fee for a review.
You can also bite a bit of a bullet and put up ARCs at NetGalley. I am not promoting NG here; I think that they are very expensive for what you get, but…you do get some reviews (albeit, all on NG, not on Amazon, so the value is questionable). Personally–if it were me–I would absolutely go the (Nathan, I have no dog in this race, no promo interest in this service, so…) Authormarketingclub route via the ReviewerGrabber Tool; I would generate the Amazon Top Reviewer mailing list; send out cleverly-tailored bulk emails, and then gift eBook copies and garner reviews that way.
I have made this recommendation to any client that has asked, and it’s worked pretty well for nearly all of them. Some…well, they didn’t do the work, or couldn’t figure out how to do the emails, etc. But, before I recommended it, I did that–all of it–for a client, so that I would personally know how hard or easy it was, and I garnered 10-20 reviews, for each of 3 books, for that client. Is it tedious? Yes. But it’s a HELL of a lot better than sitting there mailing out hardcopies at $10/pop or more.
I will say that a widely known “reviewer trade secret” is that reviewers prefer paperbacks or hardcovers, because they resell them when they are done. Unless you’re writing for the NYT, it’s not a great-paying line of work and the revenue from the used copies helps. Now, the problem with that approach is that at Amazon, you can’t mail paperbacks unless you have the name, phone number and physical address of the person to whom you’re sending it, so you can imagine that reviewers don’t want to give that out. Can’t blame ’em.
So, you’re stuck sending out digital copies, which DOES limit your reviewer pool somewhat. (You could gift-certificate them the paperbacks, of course, but that presents other problems, namely, not everyone pays the same–Prime customers don’t pay shipping, non_Prime do, they opt for different shipping methods, state taxes, so on and so forth.) Personally, I’d do paper, IF at all humanly possible for the resale value–you get more reviewers that way.
On top of that, BL, how would anyone know? I certainly never looked up some other reviewer’s opinion of a book; it would taint my own, in too many cases. I just think someone fed you bull, OR, you’re relating an experience around newspaper reviewers, or book buyers in bookstores. I know that newspaper reviewers and major mag reviewers do not want Indy books, period, for all the obvious reasons, mostly “deluge” at the top of the list.
That’s my experience, as a commercial reviewer of books.
Hitch
Here is some good news. While it is indeed an uphill struggle for a new author to break into traditional publishing, there is not remotely the prejudice against new authors that many think there is.
When this subject came up a few years ago, I took a pretty detailed look into it. I talked to some editors at traditional publishers and I also scrutinized the latest catalogs of more than dozen top traditional publishers. What the latter revealed was that a significant proportion of new titles were by first-time authors…sometimes as much as 30-40% of new titles in some cases, though for most publishers the ratio was much lower. Regardless, their were new, first-time authors in every catalog. The editors I spoke to confirmed this. Some things they said were just common sense: For instance, no publisher can get along publishing the same authors all the time. Another editor was very pragmatic about it: New authors are simply much cheaper to publish.
And one has to think of it this way, too: every famous best-selling author today had to have had a first book. At some time they were a first-time author no one had ever heard of.
I think what throws a lot new authors is that they don’t realize what publishers are really looking for…which is not yet one more Harry Potter clone or urban vampire story. They are instead looking for the next Harry Potter. Something that is genuinely new and original…and well-written. To this end, one of the editors I spoke to made a very good point: Why in the world, she said, would she pass up a potential best-seller just because it was the author’s first book?
The main hurdle that the new author has to face is the sheer numbers represented by the competition. A traditional publisher can only issue so many books every year so they have to be extremely selective…which means sometimes having to take a pass on something otherwise worthwhile. Or take a pass on something that only achieves 80% or 90% of what it could be.
Being into fantasy and science fiction myself, I wouldn’t say there’s really anything incredibly wrong with this cover; the main problem is just that there isn’t a whole lot incredibly right about it either. As our esteemed host points out, sigils and symbols and fancy patterns in place of illustrations are a common trend for fantasy covers now. Genre trends are something of a dilemma for new authors: on the one hand, you can chase them with all the shamelessness of a brazen mercenary, which will bring both instant recognition of what you’re selling and (it’s highly likely) instant dismissal for being a pale imitation of whoever first set that trend; “Nice cover design… from an obvious George R.R. Martin wannabe!” On the other hand, you can try to do your own thing and be all artsy and original… and very likely fail to attract very many buyers from your target audience; “That is a rather interesting design… but I’m really not sure this book’s for me.”
Ask some industry insider from a traditional publisher in an honest mood (catching him boozing usually helps), and you’ll typically get the same “helpful” unhelpful advice: “Make it the same as all the others of its kind… except, y’know, different.” If he’s in an especially honest mood, you’ll probably get him to admit nobody knows anything about why what’s selling right now is what’s selling right now, or what the next big thing is going to be. None of these publishers anticipated J.K. Rowling or Stephenie Meyer or E.L. James’ success, and none of them actually knows who’s going to be the next trend-setter everyone will be imitating.
Of course, if you actually get a traditional publishing outfit to take up your book, the proprietors will already have expensive in-house artists on their staff (or freelancers on call) to create a completely original thousand-dollar cover design for your book and you won’t be needing our services because no one will be consulting you about what goes on the cover anyway. Presumably, the reason you came to us is because you’re one of those “starving artists” who can’t get a traditional publisher to take a look at your work no matter how good you are; which sucks, but that’s life, and life isn’t fair. If you’ve been around for very long, I strongly doubt I’m even the first one to tell you all these things.
To get back to you and your cover specifically, what problems it has are minor and fairly easily solved. As others have already noted, yellow (or gold) on green is difficult to see, especially in thumbnail; so obviously, you should try using a different palette with colors that aren’t so close to each other on the color wheel to provide more contrast. Christmas-y as it may sound, red on green actually might work pretty well for you, as it did for Stephen King’s The Eyes of the Dragon decades ago; but do be sure to experiment with some other color schemes too.
As for giving everything a metallic sheen, your first instinct was the accurate one: shiny things on a cover attract people’s eyes the same way a piece of tinfoil attracts magpies. The problem is one of feasibility; traditional publishers can afford to spring for a die-cut cover with glittery metallic ink or precision-cut foil embedded in it, whereas you can’t. I strongly doubt self-publishing platforms actually have any such cover enhancements available as options, but even if they do, those options will almost certainly cost you far too much money you don’t have. As such, simulating metallic textures using standard-color inks on your necessarily two-dimensional cover is fine, but I’d also recommend experimenting with other textures (like stone, lava, silk, ornamentation, or any other dragon/maiden-related things) to give your text and sigil a bit of variety.
Finally, we come to the subject of specificity: as others have noted, a dragon sigil is not bad for showing everyone this is a fantasy novel involving dragons, but that’s about all it can do. Throwing in a silhouette of a maiden textured to make it look like a sigil would help expand the prospective reader’s expectations and understanding of the contents, but (of course) just juxtaposing the two sigils would tend to point to a generic dragon-holds-damsel-in-distress-hostage story, which your book isn’t. At the same time we don’t want this cover to be too generic, we also don’t want it to get too cluttered with detail, as this will confuse and confound a prospective reader’s eye in the thumbnail.
One possibility has just occurred to me, however: considering that your summary suggests this is meant to be a heartwarming “girl and her dragon” kind of tale, have you considered the possibility of portraying the maiden as being like a falconer, except with a dragon in place of the falcon? A textured silhouette of a maiden holding out her arm with a cute little fledgling dragon either perched on it or in flight and about to perch on it could be a unique and very potent kind of symbol that cuts straight to the heart of the story. Coincidentally, with much of the internet currently abuzz over The Baby Yoda Show (a.k.a. The Mandalorian) these days, your Baby Dragon Story (a.k.a. Fire’s Maiden) might be just what a lot of fantasy readers would like to see right now.
Mind, I’m not promising you people will see it that way; again, nobody really knows anything about why what’s selling is what’s selling. I’m just saying, what you’ve got here may be very similar to something that’s currently selling… except, y’know, different.
Thank you, this is actually really helpful. I’m working on a completely different version – tossing the sigil etc. I will put up a very rough idea after work today – the compositing will take me a while to get right, but just to see if I’m on a decent path. I don’t want to spend a week on a cover idea that’s still crap. On the silhouette idea – that still requires a great deal of artistic talent. I’ve seen it done well – Charlie Holmberg’s Paper Magician series and Amber Argyle’s Stolen Enchantress (sort of a cross between silhouette’s and illustration) come to mind – I’ve also seen some I hate.
RK wrote:
“None of these publishers anticipated J.K. Rowling or Stephenie Meyer or E.L. James’ success, and none of them actually knows who’s going to be the next trend-setter everyone will be imitating.”
This is true…but you are talking about the contents of the books. The covers of J.K. Rowling’s first novels were very traditionally illustrative. Ditto the first editions of Martin’s GoT series.
“Of course, if you actually get a traditional publishing outfit to take up your book, the proprietors will already have expensive in-house artists on their staff (or freelancers on call) to create a completely original thousand-dollar cover design for your book and you won’t be needing our services because no one will be consulting you about what goes on the cover anyway.”
And there is a really, really good reason for this, too. Authors simply are not objective enough to be all that helpful in creating a book cover. It is much too easy for them to forget that the one and only purpose for a cover is to not illustrate their book but to sell it.
While it is always nice to try to get all the details right, in the end it really doesn’t matter in the slightest whether a heroine’s hair is the right color or the hero has the right number of buttons on his uniform. You will have to have already read the book in order for these things to matter—and if you have done that, then the cover has already served its purpose and any mistakes it may contain are moot. A fundamental truth is that all the exactingly precise details in the world will go for naught if no one ever picks up the book and reads it. Indeed, a book cover that fails to attract a potential reader has failed as a cover.
I remember all too well an author who drove me nuts, fiddling with every minute detail of the appearance of one of his main characters…even though he never actually explicitly described her anywhere in the book at all!
“Finally, we come to the subject of specificity: as others have noted, a dragon sigil is not bad for showing everyone this is a fantasy novel involving dragons, but that’s about all it can do. Throwing in a silhouette of a maiden textured to make it look like a sigil would help expand the prospective reader’s expectations and understanding of the contents, but (of course) just juxtaposing the two sigils would tend to point to a generic dragon-holds-damsel-in-distress-hostage story, which your book isn’t. At the same time we don’t want this cover to be too generic, we also don’t want it to get too cluttered with detail, as this will confuse and confound a prospective reader’s eye in the thumbnail.”
I could hardly agree more! The symbol does nothing more than identify the broad genre of the book. It is only a slight improvement on having a white cover with the words “fantasy novel” on it.
“One possibility has just occurred to me, however: considering that your summary suggests this is meant to be a heartwarming ‘girl and her dragon’ kind of tale, have you considered the possibility of portraying the maiden as being like a falconer, except with a dragon in place of the falcon? A textured silhouette of a maiden holding out her arm with a cute little fledgling dragon either perched on it or in flight and about to perch on it could be a unique and very potent kind of symbol that cuts straight to the heart of the story.”
This is a really excellent idea! It would get across an important, fundamental idea about your novel in a single image that could be appreciated in a glance.
That being said, I am never much of a fan of silhouettes, which too often depend on a potential reader immediately recognizing what they are supposed to be looking at. And, of course, you lose all of the potential visual interest and information that would come from costume, color and expression. But…the links I posted to the examples of Arthur Rackham’s silhouette illustrations—in particular those he did for “Cinderella”—show how effective the technique can be if used skillfully and with imagination. For instance, one of the main problems I have with silhouettes is that they are essentially blank holes in the cover, with little or nothing within their boundaries other than a solid color. Texturing the shapes really doesn’t change the basic problem. But if you take a clue from Rackham, some details can be included within the silhouetted shapes without losing the silhouette effect. The use of more than one color is a possibility, too. For instance, the girl’s silhouette might be one solid color, the dragon another and any background details (mountains, trees, castles…whatever) a third. And try to keep faces in profile and arms and hands visible (notice how effectively Rackham uses gesture and how the faces of his silhouetted characters are always in profile!).
See, especially for the use of color, this example https://www.pookpress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/BLOG_RackhamSilhouettes_Header_1.png
or this https://www.pookpress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Arthur-Rackham-Cinderella-Silhouettes-double-spread_9781528700009.png
So I think that RK has put you onto a really good idea here!
Here is a really (really) quick little sketch to show you the sort of things I was talking about…
https://www.charliehills.com/gallery/picture.php?/565/category/3
The great thing about silhouettes is that by themselves they’re not too eye-catching, but if you add enough details via varying colors, gradients, and/or textures, you end up with vector art; which almost everybody likes, especially on the covers of YA novels. I remember that that one author with whom we had a mighty struggle over the silhouettes he wanted to put on his cover and whether they were suitable. When he finally took his drafts to a semi-professional designer, she put several wedding-themed silhouettes on the final cover with white detailing and highlights to show the characters decked out in bridal dresses and tuxedos; basically, vector graphics.
Of course, that guy wanted his characters’ appearances left up to the readers’ imaginations, which I don’t think is any matter of concern to our current author/cover designer. Still, as I say, with enough detail (even just simple things like different colors and textures for the maiden’s hair and clothing, maybe a long brown glove for her outstretched arm, and different colors for the dragon’s scales and teeth and claws), silhouettes are no longer “blank holes in the cover” as they take on some appearance of depth and weight. This kind of detailing is exactly how South Park manages to be both a very simply illustrated and yet very sophisticated kind of animation.
Deena, what about something like this? It’s three images from pixabay, and the font is Foglighten06 (free). Adding slight gaussian blur and noise to Poser/Blender models makes them look more organic, as will playing with the brightness/contrast. (this one could use a shadow layer as well, but you see where I’m going with it)
Posted in case it helps you think in new directions!
https://imgur.com/OkmOYTJ
This looks really nice…and is certainly an improvement on the original!
There some fiddly cosmetic details about color and whatnot*, but, as you say, you are posting the cover as a suggestion…and on those grounds it’s very good indeed!
*Oh, what the heck. I’ll mention just a couple…
I’d make sure that the girl’s hair color doesn’t look greenish…if for no other reason than to enhance the contrast between the girl and the dragonlet. I’d think about varying the color on the little dragon a bit more so it doesn’t look quite so colorized. In fact, perhaps even consider something other than green. You might think about having its head in profile or 3/4 so it is more immediately recognizable. This would also help give it some life and personality. And possibly a little more atmospheric perspective to the background to help separate it from the foreground figure.
All, as I said, pretty much just cosmetic stuff!
You had a great idea, by the way, in applying a little blur and noise to the Poser model since, as we should all know pretty well by now, a blatant pseudohuman is the fast track to showing up on lousybookcovers.
Heh, thank you–all feedback is good!
I wish there was a trick to make Poser people look more organic, but the problem is most of them don’t stand or pose like people at all. At least dragons aren’t real so we don’t get the same disconnect of an “unnatural” pose.
I like it, I could work with that! I’ve been going through every darn dragon picture on Pixabay and didn’t see that one. Could you post the links to those images?
My one comment, though, is I was absolutely sure that was that actress, what’s-er-name. I keep thinking “Halle Berry,” but that’s not it. Somebody else–Alyssa Milano, maybe? STRONGLY channeling some actress that’s rather famous, would be my only point kibitz about that cover.
It’s a self portrait of the photographer and she is okay with her image being used on a book cover, she just wants a pic of the final cover. Already checked!
Syd:
I didn’t say it was “Starlet X” or “movie star y,” I meant only that it very, VERY strongly channels the look and feel of an existing actress. It can be problematic, but, hey, if not for Deeana, great.
I understand. I don’t see it BUT I’m terrible at face recognition so I wouldn’t!
Sue thing!
https://pixabay.com/photos/middle-ages-sovereign-woman-3947824/
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/dragon-3d-fantasy-4538393/
https://pixabay.com/photos/castle-old-ruins-view-historical-972776/
Oh, and just in case you want it, too~
https://www.dafont.com/foglihtenno06.font
Thank you! I’ll play with those tonight.
I would would either look for a dragon with its head facing forward or alter this one to do that. It would not only make the dragon more immediately recognizable but enable it to have some personality.
Kind of like this https://www.charliehills.com/gallery/picture.php?/566/category/3
I found one I like, just working on getting it put together. I pretty much only go to Pixabay or others that I know are free for commercial use.
You’re smart to go with a “heraldic sigil” direction. These covers are not just economical and genre indicative–they’re extremely popular among readers. The winner of the Epic Reads book award for best cover was this. So you’ll attract exactly the right readers.
I concur with other people’s suggestions about what to change: The contrast issues, the fonts (and aspect ratio), the filters that are probably more than necessary.
This would appear to have been the winning cover:
https://www.leighbardugo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/KingofScars_cvr.jpg
which is the cover that appears on the awards page https://www.epicreads.com/bookshimmyawards/
The addition of the three claw marks tearing across the shield makes all the difference.
I guess. I confess, while it’s “pretty” in a way, it doesn’t really blow my skirt up. Hmmm…different strokes, different folks.
I agree…but at least the cover artist tried to do something that suggested “story”—something happening—rather than just settling for identifying a broad genre. I have to allow a couple of points for that.