The author says:

This book was released in October with the cover as shown. I guess I thought most readers were like me: more interested in the description on the back than the picture on the front. Apparently I guessed wrong, and I’d like to come up with a new cover. This is primarily a literary story about the nature of consciousness and what makes us human, but the genre is near-term hard science fiction (emerging tech, not spaceships or time travel). Thanks for any suggestions for improvement.

Nathan says:

Before we get to the design particulars of your cover, I want to address your marginally passive-aggressive comments on covers in general.

You may have noticed that there are, like, a LOT of books competing for each reader’s attention. Wikipedia says that in 2013, over 300,000 books were published or republished in the U.S. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the time to reserve judgment until I’ve read the back covers of 300,000 books; I have to use other clues and cues to narrow down the books in which I might conceivably be interested.

In other words, I need to be able to instantly gauge the interest factors shown on the cover for genre and style to guess if I want to bother reading the back cover.

For self-published books, the cover serves an additional purpose: it can present the book as a professional-grade work, as worthy of the attention of your readers as something published in New York.  Despite all of the rote repetitions of “don’t judge a book by its cover,” readers use the covers of self-published books to tell them if the author/publisher is sufficiently self-aware and self-critical to understand what actually looks good and appealing for a book cover — because an indie author who decides, through a combination of hubris and ignorance, to use an amateurish cover for his book probably has used that same combination of hubris and ignorance in judging whether the contents of said book are ready to compete for money with professionally published works.

Conclusion: The cover is important.  It is absolutely the first impression available to 99.9% of your potential readers, and you can’t afford to screw up that first impression.

So, on to your cover in particular:

• I can’t tell by glancing at it — which is all the exposure most readers will have to it initially — its genre, or even whether it’s fiction or nonfiction.  I can’t tell if it’s cozy or gritty, challenging or easily-read.
• The two main image elements — a photograph of snow mountains and a texture-filled silhouette of a phoenix — don’t seem to relate to each other in any way; they’re just random images, and not presented particularly evocatively.
• The standard serif font is likewise not evocative.  You can convey a lot in the typeface, but this one doesn’t tell me anything.

Rather than try to reverse-engineer your present cover to meet the role of a book cover, I’d advise you to do some market research:

• Find a half-dozen books which you would expect to appeal to readers of your novel.
• Take careful note of any common elements among the covers, and how elements of the design convey the differences between them.
• Sketch out a cover with an eye toward trying to appeal to those readers.

Good luck!

Any other comments?

The author says:

Dr. Elijah Snow wanted to record history, not become a part of it. But after stealing the T714 time-displacement craft from his US Air Force benefactors, he quickly found out that witnessing an event without participating in it was easier than it sounded. Accompanied by his quirky A.I ‘Fuzzy’, Dr. Snow sets out to document many of the major historical occurrences which had always intrigued him. From the Mongol Invasion to the crowning of the Danish king Harald Bluetooth, Elijah does his best to record without getting involved. But invariably he ends up embroiled, time and time again, in these events, never failing to leave his footprint on the pages of history.

[original submission and comments here]

Nathan says:

A much stronger design concept this time out. Now we can get down to fine-tuning.

First: I like the idea of the echoing silhouette, but not THIS silhouette. His foreshortened limbs look odd, and he’s in an unnatural stance.  I also suggest rotating the successive silhouettes, which will give a more “out of control” impression.

Second, you have too many fonts.  Unless there’s a compelling reason, I always advise to use at most two fonts on the cover. What I would suggest is using two-and-a-half fonts, as it were; I know a lot of stencil fonts come in more and less distressed varieties; if this is one of those, use the less distressed version for “First Epiphany of the” and save the more distressed version for the big words.  Then use the tagline font for both the tagline and the byline.

A final word; from the original description (and somewhat from this description, though less so), I have the impression that this is at least partly a humorous story.  If so, then you need to find some way to indicate that on the cover, which is pretty humorless.

Other comments?

The author says:

This is a psycho-drama about the eight (almost nine) year old Aaron, who’s been locked away in a mental asylum for several months now for what he did to his classmate Marissa. His story is told in a series of flashbacks as he gradually gains the sympathies and friendship of his assigned caseworker Dr. Catar explaining how and why he engaged in the rebellious behavior that got him institutionalized. Dr. Catar then faces considerable opposition from his superiors as he comes to believe Aaron does not belong in the asylum and starts campaigning for him to be released.

Nathan says:

First up, this crowd may be over-sensitive to this kind of thing (thanks to the discussion surrounding previous covers), but the first impression I get is one of the morning after an eight-year-old one-night stand.  I don’t know if child-sex figures in your book, but whether it does or whether it doesn’t, featuring an image indicative of it on the cover will probably drive away a lot more readers than it attracts (and those it attracts will probably be attracted for the wrong reason, because ew).

I don’t mind the childish hand-drawn type because it’s actual hand-drawn type, not a pre-made font that tries to imitate hand-drawn type. However, I would definitely blur or otherwise soften the edges so that it looks less like it was drawn digitally.

Not technically a “cover” comment, but I question whether an eight-year-old would use the arcane grammar of the title (unless the eight-year-old in question were a pre-pubescent H.P. Lovecraft).

Of my three comments, I think the first one is by far the most important.  Unless there’s another shot from that same photoshoot in which the boy is at least wearing a shirt, I would advise you to scrap it and find an unrelated image which doesn’t have that same “ick” factor.

Other comments?

The author says:

This is a picture book intended for adults to read to young kids, or for older kids to read to themselves. The aim is to present the science behind how an Aurora occurs but without losing the sense of wonder and awe that science can sometimes kill off. This is done by simplifying the scientific explanations, adding some drama, and the use of rhyming language. This book is the first in a series titled ‘Tales of Science and Magic’.

Nathan says:

A commendable project, and I have no complaints about the art (which is good, since that is the one thing that can’t be changed here). So let’s look at the type.

I was going to point out the mismatch between the whimsical flavor of the supertitle and the simplicity of the rest of the type, but I think we actually need to go back further.  The cover art is obviously hand-done, and while the type tries to match that, it’s just as obviously a computer imitation of hand-drawn lettering.  I think you would end up with a far superior project if you asked one of your contributing artists to hand-letter the cover!

There’s a particular problem with your credits block.  I would (a) separate the “Written by” info a little from the multi-line “Illustrated by” part. I would also make sure that none of your illustrators’ names are split by a line break.

Other comments?

The author says:

Take two of my cover upgrade for “Chasing Redemption.” I found a background image that gives a clear impression of SPACE, and even added in a space vessel. The photo resolutions are low (using sample images) and the lighting/shadows are not really correct on the vessel, but it gives you an overall feel for my idea. I’m also very tempted to nix the vessel and just go with the background image. I fear it’s going to be too difficult to add something to this background without it looking too cut-and-paste.

[original submission and comments here]

Nathan says:

Much, much better.  I can instantly tell the genre and setting from the thumbnail.

I would vote not to lose the spaceship (or not to lose the idea of a spaceship — you may find one with lighting that meshes better, though I doubt it; you’ll probably have to go in and paint a reflective glimmer along the far bottom edge of the ship).

My only suggestion, and I leave this open to commenters to support or nix this, is to add a hint of contrasting color somewhere on the color.  May a red-orange in “Chasing,” or in the shadows on the byline; maybe some subtle maroon veins in the shadow-side of the planet.

Other comments?