The author says:

BLOODLINES is a new adult, upmarket fantasy novel (part one of a duology). It follows two protagonists in the same city: Rorri, a refugee, drug addict, and hopeless romantic who falls in love with his magic tutor (which is where most of the cat-related things come from); and Pak, an outcast orphan boy with a tragic past, a cursed weapon that makes him do terrible things, a love for animals, and a crush on his only friend. Both are haunted by the distant antagonists in an ongoing war (people called the Duen) and both are subject to racial/class prejudice. Rorri has a secret (he screwed up bad), and Pak is searching for answers relating to the weapon, which ultimately ties to Rorri. Also they’re elves but like, lowkey elves, not Tolkien elves. Elevator pitches are hard 🙁

Target audience is 20-30 year old queer and neurodivergent fantasy readers (I plan to do targeted marketing via Facebook), people who like the Magicians Trilogy by Lev Grossman. It is both plot heavy and character motivated which is why I’m saying it’s upmarket.

I made the cover, my biggest concern is that the cats will throw people off. They’re mostly symbolic in the book, not necessarily a hard plot point.

Nathan says:

The problem isn’t the inclusion of the cats (although it took me forever to realize that the bottom cat was the reflection of the top one), it’s that nothing says “fantasy.” Cats can certainly be magical, and there’s nothing wrong with using them as your central image, but just including a cat doesn’t tell the reader that it’s a fantasy novel, and the typeface you chose has nothing fantastic about it either. Remember that, at the very least, your cover needs to immediately signal its genre.

This is something you could easily solve with (a) a different typeface, and (b) maybe a border.

But while you’re at it, please lose the posterizing filter — it adds nothing, only detracts.

Other comments?

The author says:

“The Slave Prince of Zimbabwe” is a historical-fiction novella set in the year 1200 AD. Our protagonist, Drazhan Khazanov of Ruthenia, has found himself forced into bondage and brought all the way from his homeland in eastern Europe to the Sultanate of Kilwa on the southeastern coast of Africa. His master the Sultan has offered him a chance at manumission if he can abduct the fierce and beautiful Mambokadzi of Zimbabwe. But when she foils Drazhan’s attempts to capture her and offers him an alternate path to the freedom he craves, they find themselves confronting the wrath of not only his former master but also the mightiest empire in the medieval world.

Will likely appeal to fans of action-packed adventure stories like those of Charles R. Saunders, Robert E. Howard, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Nathan says:

Action-packed adventure stories should look like action-packed adventure stories.  Howard and Burroughs had something important in common: Their paperback covers were beautifully illustrated by Frank Frazetta, whose artwork was dynamic and active.

Obviously, we can’t all be Frank Frazetta (in fact, only one person could be), but ACTION is needed on the cover of an action-packed adventure story.

If you need more inspiration that will work well with your style of colored line art, look at the covers of the classic Conan the Barbarian comics:

That’s art with adrenaline right there.

Go bold.

The author says:

‘The Dragon’s Curse’ is the first installment in ‘The Legend of Iveswood,’ an epic YA fantasy series woven with illustrations. A young thief struggling for years under the weight of a curse—to uncontrollably shape-shift into a vicious dragon—learns that the kingdom of Skylia is under threat of a primordial figure of reckoning, and realizes he may redeem himself in the eyes of the people if he can save them. Inadvertently befriending a range of characters with their own hopes and dreams along the way, he and this ragtag group must unravel a mystery centuries-old in the making, all while potentially playing with fire… (The illustration is a mockup I plan to redo in a traditional medium once the palette and placement are established).

Nathan says:

Glad to hear it’s a mock-up.

Here’s what I would do:

• Place the hand with the sigils/scars/whatever on top where it can be seen.
• Lose the “torn parchment” effect around the letters; it doesn’t contribute anything, and makes the title harder to read in thumbnail especially. (Calligraphy can be hard enough to read without any help.)
• Tighten the focus be losing the outer inch of the illustration. The black robes don’t contribute anything but negative space.

Other comments?

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.

The author says:

In Curb Children, a subcultural literary fiction novel, an adult millennial in 2022 recalls his punk rock raver teen years and the loss of a trainhopper friend to suicide in 2008. The target audience is people between 18-42, and anyone who enjoys strong narratives with diverse countercultural characters. For fans of S. E. Hinton, Bret Easton Ellis, Charles Romalotti.

Nathan says:

My standard quip is that “literary” novels go out of their way to look like nothing in particular — sensationalism is gauche, you know. But even then, there’s an element of marketing necessary to those covers.

In this case, nothing — AT ALL — is discernable in thumbnail.  Not only is the title unreadable and the byline invisible, the map which takes up the whole cover isn’t recognizable as such.  It’s the opposite of any eye-catching cover; it won’t even be a speedbump as potential readers browse the selection in the online store which comprise most of an indie-published book’s potential sales.

You mention three authors you’d expect to appeal to readers of your novel.

S.E. Hinton:

Bret Easton Ellis:

Charles Romalotti:

No particular commonalities except some universal good design: Simple images, clear colors and contrasts, readable titles.

Go and do thou likewise.