The author says:
Debaser is the tale of a Wikipedia-esque website where any edit comes true. Users can change the outcomes of events, kill or reincarnate, alter red-letter dates, etc — but only if they stay within the guidelines of the community and don’t take things too far. Part of a series of interconnected cross-genre shorts giving standalone backstories to a diverse group of jurors on a trial. Series is titled Duty Calls. This one is realistic dystopian fantasy for fans of Cory Doctorow, Dave Eggers or a tamer version of Chuck Palahniuk.
Nathan says:
It’s a clever idea. Really. But I don’t think it works at all.
I’m going to leave more substantive input to our faithful commenters.
I agree. The idea is clever but it just doesn’t work as a cover.
Yeah, actually, it kinda looks like you clicked on what you thought was a book and somehow landed on a URL error page. Cute idea, but the execution doesn’t work and given the idea, I’m not sure what execution would work. Therein lies the rub.
I did this super quick after looking at covers by your comp authors, for a potential idea of where you could take this.
https://imgur.com/SrXHtFh
I don’t like the idea of the title and byline on a cover twice, so if you go with something like this, I’d change the entry on the cyclo to maybe the name of the juror in this short story? and have an edit link visible, maybe with a warning?
Just a possible angle to preserve the use of your graphic
Yes, that’s decidedly better and headed in a direction that might make for an interesting cover.
It’s fascinating that we have a story, arguably clever, the idea for which makes the cover so problematic, LOL.
Thanks! Hopefully it helps the submitter towards the cover their idea deserves!
I like the idea of the visible tablet or phone. I think that gets him/her a lot further down the road. It’s the faux-Wikipedia/Wikimedia wiki thing that’s tough, unfortunately. Hmmmmm
Perhaps our resident geniuses here, you included, can come up with something that will be smokin’!
heh, “genius”
Maybe fill the phone/tablet with the Cyclo logo?
Another option could be to use twelve stick figures/silhouettes/graphic representation of human head https://pixabay.com/vectors/person-individually-alone-icon-1824147/ (standing for the jury) in a row with one contrasting, and this could be used on all the books in the series, with a different juror highlighted on each cover. Maybe they’re in a half circle around the Cyclo logo. Maybe they’re in a half circle around a tablet/phone with the Cyclo logo.
maybe something like this?
https://imgur.com/cLUXafD
this is a quick mockup but something where the title is pulled off the webpage into the real world might work.
I love ya, Shel, but I gotta admit, that one is not blowing my skirt up. As I said previously, DAMN, this is a hard one.