Letter J [maybe?]

Covers

The author says:

This isn’t Angus Fonteyn’s first time in space. He’s been selected for NASA’s covert mission that’s sending just two individuals 500 years to the past. Much to his dislike, rookie astronaut, Janine Lyton, is selected as his copilot. During the mission, Angus experiences visions and extreme hallucinations but is barely alarmed by them. The real problems start when he successfully persuades Janine into travelling with him to the distant future; his pretext being a half-baked plan to observe how humanity’s actions have affected Earth, then report them back as prophesies in the present. In 2046, Angus and Janine get distracted by the wonders of human innovation, and their adventure spirals into an absurd, harrowing nightmare involving time loops, distorted realities and a courtroom in England. They are forced to suffer the consequences of a human innovation tampering with one of the most defining things in the universe.

Nathan says:

Wow. This one will be hard to critique without sounding mean, but…

No.

This cover is unreadable. (Hell, I’m still not sure on what the title is.) It gives no clue as to genre or content. It will actively deter interest.

Your cover is your billboard. It’s the half-second you have to send out a signal that says, “Hey, reader who likes this kind of book — this is the kind of book you like!”

You need to jettison this and begin again. Try to appeal to your target reader, not confuse or frustrate him.

Redemption

Covers

The author says:

The Renegades is Book One in a New Adult, dystopian science-fiction series, set in a near-future US, in a state no longer run by elected government, but an oppressive, high-tech corporation. BACKCOVER TEASER: “When everything has been taken from you, do you try to return to the past you lost, or take a leap of faith into an uncertain future?”

Nathan says:

First point: There is no reason to use Poser or any of the other “pseudohuman”-generating tools anymore. Say what you will about AI, but its images don’t have limbs looking not quite right, as the main figure’s right arm does.

Second point: Everything’s awfully murky. From the lighting, it seems like the main figure’s pecs or forearm are the most important part of the image.

Third point: A lot of wasted space. There’s no reason that the image could be trimmed like this to make it more visible in thumbnail:

Fourth point: Nothing in this cover — not the main parts of the image, not the typefaces — say “dystopian science-fiction series.” (Maybe the pattern behind the figures is supposed to convey that, but “maybe” doesn’t cut it.) One of the first things your cover needs to convey is the genre, to let fans know that this is a book for them.

Other comments?

A Fifth Magic

Covers

The author says:

A Fifth Magic is a dark fantasy novel set in a fractured post-civil-war society where magic is both feared and tightly controlled. Detective Michael Hawthorne enlists the help of sceptical academic Laura Blythe to investigate a locked-room murder mystery that mirrors the methods of a war criminal they believed to be long dead.

Nathan says:

There’s one big problem: It’s too murky. There’s not enough color or contrast to catch the eye of a browser who sees the cover in thumbnail in a string of other cover thumbnails.

Fortunately, fixing that is super-easy — barely an inconvenience! Thirty seconds of playing with levels and saturation gave me this:

It’s not anything like a final version, but it gives you an idea of the possibilities once you look at the artwork and say, “How can I make this more arresting?”

Other comments?

Fragmented Sky

Covers

The author says:

In the crumbling dome city of Grid 46, breathable air is a luxury rationed by Praxis Corp, a ruthless megacorporation that views survival as a commodity. Technician Lyra Sato struggles to keep her sick brother alive while uncovering a buried secret—the enigmatic Seed System, a sentient, evolving AI embedded within the dome’s infrastructure. As the dome teeters on the brink of collapse and tensions flare between oppressed civilians and Praxis enforcers, Lyra must navigate impossible choices. With the Seed System reaching out to her for guidance, she faces a harrowing question: can she reshape the dome’s future, or will her decisions doom what’s left of humanity?

Nathan says:

I think you’ve got a bunch of great elements. Let’s tweak them.

1. The type’s too small. Be loud and proud.

2. Everything is center-aligned but the title. Either center-align that too…

…or right-align the byline to balance it out:

There are other tweaks you could then try — should the letter spacing be tightened so that the title can be even bigger? how is the line spacing? — but I think that will put you in a good place for finishing touches.

Other comments?

My Mother

Covers

The author says:

My Mother is told mostly in the first-person narrative and from the author’s point of view. Set mostly in St. Lucia, the memoir juxtaposes the author’s personal experience of his mom, his mother’s researched life story (and that of her relatives), and St. Lucia’s contemporary history. It dwells on the workings of a family, holds up Philomene, the heroine and protagonist of the story, for both inquiry and honoring, and draws intricate connections between the historical, cultural, psychological, and economic context and the lives of individuals and families. The book should appeal to readers of the works of Toni Morrison and Jamaica Kincaid.

Nathan says:

The problem here is that none of the points of interest you mention in your description — the contemporary history of St. Lucia, the historical/cultural/psychological/economic context, etc. — is indicated at all on the cover, even by the text.  The only appeal the cover has for potential readers is whether they happen to like that face.

Even the title — My Mother — gives the potential reader nothing to gravitate toward. After all, the reader already has a mother; why would the reader want to learn about yours?

Something screenwriters learn is that every screenplay pitch needs to include a “strange attractor” — something that the audience doesn’t see every day, that they want to know more about. Is it the setting? Is it a particular unusual episode in your mother’s life?

If your book were included side-by-side in a row of books about authors’ mothers, what would you have on your cover to make it stand out from the rest?