Rate my cover

[yoda47]

I came up with this cover to use for my first book if I decide to self-publish.

What do you think?



Bigger version: www.jedisaber.com/meskka/images/MeskkaCover.jpg

[Kessie]

I don't like the way the A in Meskka kisses the edge of the image. Also, are there supposed to be lines in the Meskka letters? There's some kind of beveling or something that defies my eyeballs. I'd bring that out a little more.

Maybe even change the font to something snazzy from blambot.com. I adore their fonts.

I'd also make the Guardian Chronicles tagline smaller, in a different font. I'm sitting here looking at a similar book layout of a published novel, and it goes:

AUTHOR
NAME (in one font)

[picture]

BOOK NAME (in another font)
[tagline in another font, quite small]

[birdnerd]

Yup. I agree that the title is too crammed edge-to-edge.

If you do go for a weird font, don't go too weird. It needs to be readable at a glance.

Along those lines... Non-words aren't as interesting to me. I'm less likely to pick it up unless someone recommended it.

[Bainespal]

The overall design of the cover is effective because the arc of the planet connects your name on the bottom with the title on the top, making the cover feel unified. I think you could exploit the shape of the planet a little more. Maybe you could align your name inside the lower curve of the planet. I think it looks just a little inconsistent that the "A" in "AARON" hangs over both the planet and the space background, when the title does not cover any of the planet. Perhaps moving the planet over just enough so that the "A" is completely on top of it would give a sense of balance between the title superimposed over the background and the author name over the foreground. I don't know for sure that that would look good; it's just a hypothesis.

My other thought about your cover is more subjective. I don't like the big, blocky, yellow letters. They look garish to me. I think a lot of other colors would look better, and I think the font could be less bold.

I like the plain san-serif of "The Guardian Chronicles, Book 1:", but again, I don't like the color. My final thought, looking at the cover again, is that "The Guardian Chronicles" might more naturally come beneath the main title instead of above it. I think I more often see subtitles come beneath the more important title on book covers. I don't think it makes much of a difference visually which title comes first (I could be wrong though), but either way, I think there's too much "white space" (uh... space space!) between the two titles. There's definitely not enough space between "The Guardian Chronicles" and the top of the cover.

You definitely have a solid design. I like the simplicity. I hope my comments help.

[Kessie]

I asked my brother about it, who is a graphic design major, and he said this:

The book cover should tell the audience what kind of genre the book is, and seeing a planet from space definitely says "science fiction" to me. The word "MESKKA" suggests it might also be Russian or something. Personally I would lose the white (or neon yellow) stroke around the word MESKKA, as the contrast between the star field behind the letters is enough to make sure the word is clearly readable. The black stroke around the author's name seems appropriate.

I was also consider bringing MESKKA and The Guardian Chronicles - Book 1: closer together. As in, scoot the line with the Guardian on it down to be much closer to MESKKA. Also, align the edges of every line to the edges of every other line. That is, make the T from The and the colon from the number 1 align with the M and A, respectively. The same goes for the author's name.

I might also consider using a different shade of yellow. I think there is a shade of yellow that would be more ideal for this application than the current shade. Something darker would be nice.

[yoda47]

Okay, two new concepts here, (along with the original for comparison) taking some of the advice from above (Thanks!) and bearing in mind Lincoln's advice about not pleasing all the people all the time...







As for the title itself, I'm not overly fond of nonsense words either, but I'm bad at naming things.
Some background for the name: "Meskka" is the name of the cat-like species that lives on the planet Alkask (pictured on the cover )
The series is about the Guardians, genetically engineered humans. (We'll get to slowly learn more about them over the course of several books.) While each book focuses on another character/event in the universe. (This one is about Bast, a young meskka.)
My "back of book" copy reads thusly:

"When an alien ship lands unexpectedly in the middle of her clan's territory, Bast is sent to investigate as part of her scout trial. After accidentally injuring her paw, she meets these new visitors. She and her senior scout Rrrark are invited to return with the aliens to their home planet to open diplomatic relations. What started out as a simple diplomatic mission is soon complicated when they discover a pirate scheme that might be more than it seems. Only herself, Rrrark, and two of the aliens called Guardians that have strange powers different from the others are capable of stopping the pirates. "

So, I want to keep the series name "The Guardian Chronicles" since the series is about them, and I picked "Meskka" since this book is about the meskka.

Have I mentioned I suck at naming things?

I'm not terribly attached to the title, but I can't think of anything better. I kinda want a one-word title, but I'm not stuck on that either. Some other thoughts:
"The Cats of Alkask"
"Strange New World" (I think that one's taken )
"CATS IN SPACE!" (too much muppets....)
"Bast: Scout of the Meskka"
"Cats vs. Pirates" (why did I even type this one...)
"New Allies"

So, yeah, I liked "Alkask" the best of those ideas....

[Kessie]

I like the middle example best of the three. :-)

Also, I kind of like the sound of "The Cats of Alkask" because it gives some hint as to what the book's about. Meskka sounds like a military thriller involving the Cold War. :-)

[Bainespal]

Even though the changes are subtle, either of those two covers are a big improvement. Assuming the only difference between them is the color of the text, I'm having a hard time choosing between them. The brighter one "pops out" at you more and is easier to read, which is a good thing, but it still looks just a little garish to me, especially on the name, where the word "DEMOTT" especially seems to leap out of the screen. The darker version is more subdued, but the part of the name that appears on the bright side of the planet is a little harder to read. Trivial differences, at any rate -- I really think either of those covers is fairly professional looking.

As for the title, I think you may not have considered any more abstract options. For instance, if the story were (hypothetically) about a race that is seeking eternal life in a ancient system far away from their world, maybe the title could be something like Endless or Infinite Dreams. Trying seeing if words such as "light," "darkness," "chaos," "infinity," "eternity," "destiny," "transcendence," fit your theme or your style at all.

The most abstract of the titles on your list is probably New Allies, which I think I like. The Cats of Alkask also has some potential, but I don't like the word "Cats". How about something like Allies of Alkask? That would have the advantage of repeating the "AL" sound, which might make the phrase catchier and easier to remember. I could also take a title like The Children of Alkask or The Children of the Meskka seriously.

[birdnerd]

I like the coloring of the middle one and the spacing of the last one (unless that's just one huge optical delusion, the "Meskka" is too close to the edge in the middle one). Much better without the white sparkly bit.

_Cats of Alkask_ is a more interesting title.

[yoda47]

Thanks for all the input. It's really helpful!

I pondered the title for a bit, and came up with something new.
I really couldn't think of anything I liked, and that fit the series vs book plot and title themes that I've talked about.

I was thinking some more about the series. I'm going to call the second book "Threat from the past" because it's about an old enemy of the Guardians that comes back, etc. That got me to thinking about titles that both describe the first book, and would fit with the titles from the rest of the series. (I don't need a title theme, but it's cool if it works out...)

Anyway, I came up with this:



So, what do you think of this one?
Better, worse?
Do you think it fits the theme?
Does it sound too corny or B-movieish?
How's the spacing? I like it, but I'm not sure if I should expand "A New" to be the same width as "Threat"?

[birdnerd]

I like it better.
I don't think "A New" needs to necessarily take the same real estate as "Threat." In fact, I think it'd look weird if you tried.

[yoda47]

That's what I thought too, thanks.

[Bainespal]

The only thing I think to suggest for the layout is to point out that there's more space beneath the name at the bottom of the cover than above the title at the top. Maybe it couldn't hurt to balance it.

I think this could be a fairly strong title, as well. It sort of alludes to A New Hope.

[metalikhan]

I like the more subdued yellow -- it reminds me of the color of a cat's eye. Tweaking it a bit more toward that kind of golden color might make it a little more intense without becoming garish.

Since your character is named Bast, have you considered a font that echoes a hieroglyphic style? Perhaps even a Papyrus font could work -- give it a more sinuous, feline feel.

Just thinking.

[Kessie]

Okay, because I have no life, I made some mockups of your cover and messed around with it.

The planet is a stock planet from deviantArt, and so is the starfield. I'm not sure if a published book falls under creative commons, so if you wanted to use these graphics, you'd need to talk to the artist about payment.

netraptor.org/temp/book-mockup1.jpg
netraptor.org/temp/book-mockup2.jpg
netraptor.org/temp/book-mockup3.jpg

The fonts used were Bavand, Allegro BT, and Armor Piercing 2.0 (from blambot.com).

Link to planet artist on DA:

rich35211.deviantart.com/art/Stock-Ice-Planet-3-with-Clouds-194792452

I tried it with yellow text, but I liked blue better because it coordinates with the blue of the planet. I also did some text effects, like some beveling and textures. And I made the first letter of each word bigger. Makes it pop a bit.

I tried a more Egyptian looking font (Bavand) and eh, I don't think it goes very well with the planet. I got this weird Avatar vibe from it.