The publisher says:

A collection of poems written between the two World Wars, now being reprinted. The poems are traditional in style, utilizing meter and rhyme. The poems will appeal to those who like this sort of poetry, particularly to nature lovers (about half the poems deal with nature in some way). The other poems cover a variety of topics: love, historical events, literature, patriotism, religious feelings, and others.

I’ve looked around and found some good advice about covers for fiction and non-fiction, but hardly anything about poetry. So I decided to put this draft of the cover up here. Don’t worry about the horizontal placement of the photo; it will bleed off the right and stop at the spine fold on the left (which may not be exactly where I have it at the moment). This cover is not as artistic as many I see here. However, the book itself is simple (just the text, no illustrations or anything) so I thought a straightforward cover was the way to go.

Nathan says:

There’s a difference between “straightforward” and “generic,” and I think you crossed the divide here.

Even with poetry — which has a very limited buying audience, and which (along with lit fic) doesn’t want to appear too lowbrow by using cover that pander to crowd appeal — the cover should convey something beyond “contains poems.”

You mention specifically that these poems are “traditional in style, utilizing meter and rhyme,” which is definitely not the norm these days, most poetry being dominated by free verse.  You should therefore play up the traditional/classic vibe of the cover.  Use a period photograph or painting. Use typefaces such as you would find at the time. Heck, look at poetry book covers (or, lacking those lit magazine covers) from the period and design it as if this book were from that period.  You’ll have better luck finding those readers who want traditional poetic instead of free verse.

Other ideas?

The author says:

Title: Enchanted of Angels. It is a recently published work on KDP and so far, I am doing an awful job with the cover. I’m using my own drawings. I wish that I could pin down an audience but really not sure but had fun writing it. Perhaps not a totally serious attempt at issues of the day but leaves room for discussion.

Description: This story (originally written and in the 1980s), is a somewhat sci-fi leaning more fantasy about an appointed “mediator” — a mortal turned immortal after receiving his gift of guiding earth through its cycles as he prepares to be granted his own world at the end of the five-year term. The duty requires him to stay hidden from the earth’s people as the job of keeping everything in sync is a task of immense proportions. As it turns out, he does become involved with the earth’s people, especially globally known model and entrepreneur who has just witnessed the suicide of her best friend.

Nathan says:

If you don’t know who your audience is, then there’s not much we can do to help you to appeal to that audience with your cover.  You need to put on your marketer hat, figure out who would want the book, and then figure out how to flag those people.  You already mentioned that it’s “somewhat sci-fi leaning more fantasy,” but there’s nothing about the cover that conveys that, or tells readers that like that kind of book that THIS IS FOR YOU.

You might want to get an opinion from someone you trust (i.e., someone who will tell you the truth, not just kind falsehoods) who’s read it, or is willing to read it; after he read it, ask him, “What do you imagine for the cover of what you just read?” or, at very least, “What authors’ audiences to you expect this to appeal to” — that can give you a beginning point in discovering how your potential readers are used to being marketed to.

The author says:

This is a sequel to the book “Legend of the Dark Star: Year One”. It follows the characters on their journey to track down the enchantments on the powerful weapon in order to be able to disenchant them. The journey continues through a High-Fantasy world with a dark main plot and a lot of different sub-plots. The main plot kicks off with an unknown terror that grips a village known as “The Virgin’s Vale”, every once a year. The protagonist heads over to that city with his followers going in after him to help him in his battle. Being a sequel, it should appeal to the readers of the previous book, mainly, Teenagers and Young Adults. This is a preliminary design concept and I’m open to all sorts of suggestion, even a complete redo if need be.

Nathan says:

I hope you trust us enough now that you’ll listen when I say, “Absolutely not.”

Even if the technical deficiencies in the artwork were corrected, it’s such a different style from the first cover in the series that it works against any possible series branding.

Your first cover features a strong central figure against pretty much no background, and deep colors in a limited range.  You should replicate those features in every successive cover in the series.  You can obviously shake up the specifics — for instance, this one could be an armored rider on an armored horse, with a maroon background — but there definitely needs to be visual continuity between the first and second covers.

Other comments?

The author says:

This is a fantasy adventure romance set in the volcanic badlands of Idaho. The hero is from an alternate world who travels by magic to our world in pursuit of his king’s missing heart. As he crosses over, he stumbles across the heroine, who helps him and becomes vital to his quest.

This is an adaptation of the original cover which has been deemed too small. I like the couple picture, but I’m wondering if I should just start over.

Nathan says:

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer:

I’ve come to believe that fantasy novels benefit more from custom cover art than any other genre, because the novel setting or background is such a large part of the appeal.  (Compare that to a crime thriller or a romance, where no reader is upset because they can’t immediately tell from the front cover whether the setting is Boston or Newark.)  I know that hearing you need to shell out some extra shekels for custom artwork isn’t what anyone wants, but compare that to what you have here: A male and a female, so romance is probably part of the story. And a calligraphic font, so there may be a fantastic or mythic angle.  But the guy looks completely 21st-century American (so does the girl), and there’s no action or adventure implied.

I think you definitely want a cover with

(a) action (running, fighting, something)

(b) him in fantasy garb, her in definitely modern American clothes

(c) the background doesn’t need to specifically say “Idaho,” but something that’s both contemporary and rural would be a plus (a gas station, perhaps?)

Other comments?

The publisher says:

Faun Song is a book in the Winterbourne collection by our author, S.A. Baker. It is an urban fantasy centering around an adult through the looking glass type of adventure. It involves the twisted writing style of the author and his take on the way fantasy characters, like fauns, actually would be like. From start to finish, it twists the reader through discovery and conclusion.

We are looking at feedback on the cover for sales have been somewhat flat since it was released several months ago.

Nathan says:

I can see why this would work at conventions and other live sales, but not online; the image is just too intricate at thumbnail size — it’s a puzzle, with nothing to keep the browser’s attention until the “aha” moment when the image makes sense.

Exploring other cover concepts might make sense. However, if you are devoted to using this cover idea (whether you keep this actual artwork or not), here is a five-minute redo showing four refinements:

1. Crop the extraneous visual data from the border — it makes it harder to comprehend.
2. A larger title font, more easily read in thumbnail, with more contrast. (I’m NOT suggesting you use Impact or lose the Celtic character completely; this was just the closest font at hand that was as tall as I wanted, because hey, five minutes.)
3. Make the eyes bigger.  Eyes make the face.
4. Up the contrast enough that it doesn’t seem murky.

Any other comments?