The author says:

A middle-grade soft science fiction/coming-of-age novella that will hopefully appeal to fans of Sir Philip Pullman, Robert C. O’Brien, and Margaret Peterson Haddix.

Graeme Pendlebury is a genius. Or at least his fellow fifth graders think so, and he’s in no rush to correct them. He dreams of enrolling at MIT and becoming a physicist. . . Until he goes there and finds a pencil case, with his name on it, full of diamonds. Things only get weirder for him after that.

Nathan says:

Here’s a selection of Pullman’s covers:

Here’s a selection of O’Brien’s covers (definitely some older covers in here):

And here’s a selection of Haddix’s covers:

If your readership is their readership, then your covers need to at least have some commonality with their covers, to signal to those readers, “This book is for you!”  That means dynamic, colorful covers.  Yours is minimalist, low-energy, and borderline incomprehensible (it might make sense once one reads the synopsis, but if so, you’ve got those backwards — the cover is what intrigues a reader first to move on to the synopsis second).

I think you may have started with, “What cover do I have the skill and resources to put together easily?”  You need to scrap that and start with, “What does this cover need to sell the book to my target audience?” Then figure out how to get there.

Other comments?

The author says:

[Jacket Copy – Literary/Historical Fiction] In 1978, the tension on the streets of Managua was electric. The whole city teetered on the edge of becoming a war zone. The Somoza family held the people of Nicaragua in a stranglehold, stripping the country of everything of value and making beggars out of honest citizens. The only thing that kept them in power were the feared Guardia Nacional. In order to survive, Paco eked out a living as a street musician, busking and playing university parties. His politics were those of someone never sure of where he would get his next meal.

But when a violent government crackdown erupts on the streets, he’s forced to choose sides in order to survive. Thrust into a fierce guerrilla war, what begins for him as a struggle for survival becomes something more. The heavy cost of the revolution becomes clearer with every battle fought, and every traitor executed. Paco must find the balance between fighting for a cause he increasingly comes to embody, and maintaining his humanity.

Every Arm Outstretched examines historical events through the lens of the human heart. How do we determine right and wrong when society itself has become corrupt? Do we owe our ultimate loyalty to our comrades or to our ideals? And can the end ever truly justify the means?

Nathan says:

It’s a very well-done cover. My only major issue is that, in 2020, the symbol of the raised fist has become very much associated specifically with Black Lives Matter. While your usage of it here is correct historically, I fear that its presence on the book might give the wrong first impression to readers.

The other thought I had was to give some small indication of guerrilla warfare. Perhaps the otherwise innocuous silhouette could include the silhouette of a long gun (probably an AK-47 would be even better, but I’m not confident that that can be rendered identifiably in silhouette).

Other comments?

The author says:

Legacy of Hunger – Set in Ireland, 1846, historical fantasy drama/adventure (not romance). Not an actual scene in the book, but a conglomeration of several pivotal scenes. The standing stones are a portal into the fae world.

Nathan says:

The cover is beautiful as-is, at least for print sales; I think that some tweaks for the ebook cover would be prudent — pull in closer (it’s okay to have the series title across her skirt, honest), and separate the byline from the background more clearly, so that salient details are more easily seen at less than full size.

Other comments?

The author says:

Magical Realism

Emma’s perfect marriage has fallen apart and she’s not sure why. She’s an avid canoist and camper, so paddles off to a quiet shore to try and figure things out. A beautiful blue heron keeps pace with her, her only companion. There, she meets Little Bear, a mystical spirit who helps her look deep into herself to find the answers she seeks, and to let go of her warring emotions. When he disappears, all that’s left is a blue heron feather that she voted she’ll keep forever.

Nathan says:

I think you missed on this.  “Magic realism” connotes a dreamlike quality to me, of things that don’t necessarily make logical sense or follow cause-and-effect.  The imagery implied by your description — a lone canoeist, a secluded (possibly misty) lake, all would make perfect cover images. Instead you have a tightly drawn feather and a circular motif that would look more at home on a Psycho copycat.

Start over. Go with misty and nebulous. Let us see the space, literal and symbolic, between the protagonist and the “real” world. Go with a font that is whimsical and doesn’t follow straight lines.

Other comments?

The designer says:

This is a book of contemporary Chinese poetry, translated into English. Zhou Li is a doctor as well as a poet, and the poems are reminiscent of Ren Hang: short and simple, about the city, nature, sometimes very explicit and sexual, sometimes everyday – about life, love, and death. The writer isn’t well known, and has never published a full book in China. The target audience is in the US, for those who like modern or translated poetry, but it isn’t intended to be a mainstream book.

The design featured here originally had rain in the background. I liked the concept but I couldn’t make it work, as it was too busy. The translator wanted a simple design, but it needs to stand out enough, and look professional enough, to attract buyers.

Nathan says:

Well, attracting buyers for a book of poetry might be too tall any order for any cover… 🙂

The problem is that this book tells me nothing. Nothing. I don’t even know that it’s poetry rather than a novel or a memoir, and I certainly don’t know the mood or theme — nothing about “the city, nature, sometimes very explicit and sexual, sometimes everyday – about life, love, and death.”

The best I can suggest is to look at the covers of other poetry volumes that you’d expect to find on the same poetry lover’s bookshelf.  Look at how those covers signaled to the reader that this book was for them.  Then incorporate some of those visual cues.

Other comments?