The author says:

Genre: Horror Synopsis: Nobody saw them. Nobody cared. They were the perfect camouflage. It used them to hide in plain sight as the world walked on. Dan saw them. He looked up and saw the invisible people, and when he held out a helping hand, It latched on.

Nathan says:

Conceptually, it’s a very strong cover.  I think some fairly minor tweaks could yield huge dividends.

1. Think about small revisions to the layout. If you concentrate on the thumbnail instead of the full-sized image, some of the weaknesses jump out at you: There’s an awful lot of black space that isn’t doing anything, the gray tones in the central graphic tend to merge together (you can’t even tell that the chin is there under the tagline), and the byline is awfully small for no good reason. If you enlarge the face (and let some of the forehead slip under the title to give room for the chin at the bottom), increase the contrast especially on the chin area, and double the size of the byline, I think the cover will have twice the “first glance” impact.
2. I don’t think the horizontal blur on the title has the effect you want it to have. My first reaction, and I’m pretty sure this is common, is to rub my eyes in case my danged allergies are clouding my focus.  I’m also not sure the red splatters work well — they make it harder to immediately read the title, which already has a creative but counter-intuitive layout working against easy readability. (Speaking of that layout, it places an inadvertent emphasis on the “IS” of “INVISIBLE.” There are also some kerning issues.  One thing I would try, to see if it’s easier on the eyes, is reducing the “I” of “IS” to three-quarters its current size, anchored along the bottom baseline, and then do the same to the “S” but anchor it at the top. Just a thought.)
3. Also, regarding the tagline: I think the phrase “Looks can be deceiving” is more familiar to most people.  When I tried to figure out the word behind “fatal,” I read it as “Looks can be defective.”  Red against black is surprisingly difficult to read.

(As an aside, I think your synopsis tries to hard to be mysterious that it ends up being too fragmentary to be enticing. But this site isn’t really for criticism of synopses.)

Other comments?

the author says:

I hope that it’s okay that I’m submitting the THIRD version of this cover! I’ve been working hard on it, and got help from Katie Miller who posted on this site and has been absolutely priceless. I love all y’all’s help, thank you!

[previous submissions and comments here and here]

Nathan says:

Definitely more creative and less generic.  Anything I saw from here on out is not so much “stuff to be fixed” as “stuff to consider”:

If you make the silhouettes larger, to take up more of the cover space, you can increase the size of the type proportionally. I’d especially experiment with overlapping the silhouettes of the two figures — as long as the presence of two separate people is readily seen, you can overlap and then make them bigger, taking up more of the background.  the fact that this would increase the size of the type seems like a plus to me.

Do you really want “OF” to have that much emphasis in the title? I’d definitely tweak it and see if reducing the size of that one word makes it flow better. The same with the byline; maybe reducing the size of “AK” and shifting it upward will allow “BUTLER” to grow into the arm space and thus get bigger.

Other comments?

The author says:

A frank and hilarious guide to every man’s mind-numbing nemesis: Shopping. Guys: spent one too many Saturdays marooned at The Mall? Rejuvenate your manhood with the Shopping Survival Guide for Men. This indispensable sanity-saver exposes the hidden history and insidious psychology of shopping (Hint: it’s crazy), plus cool-headedly guides you through the treacherous, credit card-melting mazes of shoes, handbags, lingerie, fitting rooms and more.

Nathan says:

Witty and engaging!  Only two thoughts:

1. Go ahead, make your byline bigger. You’ve got the space.
2. The smiling head with a pipe immediately makes me think of “Bob” from the Church of the Subgenius. If that’s a conscious reference, great; if not, you may want a slightly different image — say, with a hat?

Other comments?

The author says:

Blackest of Lies is set in 1916. It aims to suggest an alternative view of Lord Kitchener’s death at the hands of the German Navy in the cold waters off Orkney. There were many questions raised concerning the security of his journey which started immediately after the tragedy and have rummbled on until the present day. This book suggests that Kitchener was murdered in his house by the IRA and follows the efforst of the security services to keep the murder a secret by employing a military doctor as a resonable stand-in to fool the public at a distance. But, when he is sent to Russia via Scapa Flow, it is in the interests of friend and foe to ensure he does not return. It is left to Lt Hubert, the man who suggested him, and Anne Banfield of Special Branch to race after him to prevent his death in the coled waters of the Pentland Firth. Thsi book is aimed at those who are interested in espionage, the security branches and the Great War.

Nathan says:

Very confident in its use of images, a muted color palette, and type.  Here are tweaks I would recommend:

1. I don’t know about most people, but I know I’m not history-savvy enough to instantly grasp the setting from the images shown.  Perhaps a subtitle/supertitle giving just a smidge more info — “A Conspiracy of the Great War” or somesuch — would be appropriate.
2. I can’t tell what exactly I’m supposed to pick up from the upper image. If it’s the military imagery, it might be worthwhile to move that photo up so that the medals are more clearly seen, and make it a bit less transparent. That would also help the train tracks be more easily recognized as well; readers would benefit from instantly understanding “military” and “railroad” than “what am I looking at?” in that first three-quarters of a second.
3. I’d probably also try a bit more space between the title and byline, but maybe that’s just me.

Other thoughts?

The author says:

The title is a portmanteau of logo and cartoons. I wrote (and hired a cartoonist) 120 single panel gag cartoons. The cartoons are built around a word and its definition. Not multi-syllabic words no one cares for or could ever remember (except for a couple I couldn’t pass up), nor highly technical jargon, but interesting words rarely used in the banter of daily conversation. Readers expand their word knowledge and get a good chuckle at the same time. The prospective cover, for instance, is of one of the cartoons (attached to this email). I’m attaching a couple more cartoons to give you a better feel of the book.

 

I would be very interested in hearing other voices ( bad choice of words there) in hearing other people’s opinions of the book cover. I truly appreciate the help you and your group offer.

 

(I’m thinking of putting in a splash of color – perhaps yellow on the feet of the chicken patient and pale blue coverings on the chicken surgeons.)

Nathan says:

Thanks, Dennis. I hope our comments are as helpful as you expect. (Bring your A game, folks!)

I definitely agree about the color. In fact, I’ll go one further: I think you should fill that big white background space with color, maybe a light blue.  Even the covers of books of entirely black-and-white cartoons should be colorful. (Look at the covers of any of the Dilbert books.)  And the black border? Make it a color — either a darker version of the light blue, or maybe a burgundy.

While you’re at it, you don’t have to put the text entirely outside the borders of the cartoon; that’s a lot of wasted space.  there’s plenty of room beneath the end of the bed for the byline, and the title could even drop until it starts to overlap the medical monitor.

Anyone else have thoughts?