I would love to get your thoughts and feedback on my #BookCover from my latest book, The Challenges of Being Me. Do you like it? Does it capture your attention? Without knowing anything about the book, what genre would you say this cover best fits? #writingcommunity#bookstodon#authors@bookstodon
@dickrubin716
It's not really eye-catching. I'd assume it's a memoir, but then there's a disconnect between the woman in the picture and the author name, so that would confuse me on that score.
Have you tried using Canva for making covers? They've got plenty of free pre-made ones, that you can tweak and customise in many ways. @bookstodon
@dickrubin716@bookstodon Major font problems. All upper case, expanded too much, stock windows font. The image needs more contrast. Don't be afraid to have the title overlay the image rather than floating away all by itself. Zoom in on the image. It's OK if her hand goes out of frame.
If I had to guess from the title alone it would be young adult, but the image makes me think of self-help or philosophy.
@negative12dollarbill@dickrubin716@bookstodon Interesting, I kind of had the opposite guesses: the title makes me think of self-help, but the image suggests something else (possibly YA)
@negative12dollarbill@diazona@bookstodon Ouch, but likely well deserved feedback. Yes, this long pretentious phrase is the title to a YA book. I’ll definitely keep in mind to use contrast and non-stick fonts in future books. Thank you both
@dickrubin716@bookstodon I’ve found that with book cover design, you can’t stray too far from genre expectations. Sure, do it with your twist, but a book cover is the very first discoverability tool we have. Book cover must telegraph genre, which means it has to look similar enough to other genre books that people get a clue.
@dickrubin716@thorncoyle@bookstodon It's rare to see a black and white YA cover, and the ones that do tend to have brightly coloured accents. For example Jennifer E. Smith's books have some doodles and a playful font to indicate YA.
@dickrubin716@bookstodon Honestly, I'm not sure what genre to guess. Like it could go memoir, non-fiction to romance or humor. I do like the photo, the title/author font is a little bland, but otherwise it did capture my attention. I'd turn it over and read the synopsis. Hope that helps
@willelm@bookstodon That’s good to know you’d give this book a couple seconds to learn more about it. This is a YA coming of age/kind of romance story. I felt this cover would help stand out against the millions of graphic designed titles in this genre.
@dickrubin716@bookstodon Yeah, that makes sense. It's rare you come across a book cover without any context so it might stand out when in the appropriate context. I imagine it would look different on a page of 20 YA covers. Still, I liked the photo and was intrigued
@dickrubin716@bookstodon It doesn't really do anything for me. I can only assume it's nonfiction, like a memoir. I've been reading those more frequently lately, thanks to recommendations from Depresh Mode and similar podcasts, so covers have been largely irrelevant.
Second best guess would be women's fiction, maybe?
@benetnasch@bookstodon Your second guess is closer. It’s a coming of age/kind of romance YA book. I’ve been feeling stuck because my “team” have all enjoyed the book and the cover. They’ve also spoken up when they didn’t like something. But now that the book is live I feel I’m hitting a roadblock and not getting the book into readers hands like my previous ones.
@dickrubin716@bookstodon Ah...all I know about YA and romance books at the moment is that they tend to favor a more illustrated style. The ones I've seen with real people on the cover are fairly colorful, too.
@benetnasch@bookstodon In my mind I was thinking this non-illustrated cover might help it stand out when sharing a screen of covers from reviewers. I might use Mastodon to gather feedback on ideas for my next cover, whenever that might end up being
@dickrubin716@benetnasch@bookstodon One function of book covers is to help people find books in the genre they are looking for. That makes things tricky: characteristics that will make a book stand out in a group of books in the same genre will tend to hide it in a group of books in mixed genres. You can also annoy readers if your cover makes promises your text does not keep.
I have the impression that the rules for romance iconography are fussier than some other genres.
@elysegrasso@benetnasch@bookstodon I’m beginning to believe my original goal of being different with this cover hasn’t quite been a hit with the intended audience. I’m still proud of the book. Now I’ll try to keep these struggles in mind for future books. Thank you for the thoughtful response!
@willaful@dickrubin716@benetnasch@bookstodon yes looks like 'self published' in this font - would have something a bit italicised, a little squirly but not overly so, almost like handwriting but not as sloppy. A neat handwriting font
@noodlemaz@willaful@benetnasch@bookstodon Yup, that’s me who self published this book using stock fonts. I do like the suggestion of using a handwriting type of font. Will keep this suggestion in mind for future books. Thanks for the feedback
@noodlemaz@willaful@benetnasch@bookstodon No offense taken. If we take my current book out of the equation, there are tons of self published books that can go toe-to-toe with trad published books. The reader wouldn’t be able to tell in most cases. Mine just fell a bit short. Which is ok since I write as a hobby to get the stories out of my head
@dickrubin716@noodlemaz@willaful@benetnasch@bookstodon I wouldn't go with a hand-writing font as they can be difficult to read. The font is a little plain, but not bad. It does come too close to the edges of cover, though - try to give it more space.
You could also use some blending options on the text layer to give it a little distance from the image, such as an outer glow or a drop shadow.
The image could also use a little more contrast to reduce the washed-out effect.
@dickrubin716@noodlemaz@willaful@benetnasch@bookstodon I think people are getting memoir because of the naturalistic photo and the person standing alone. This says that it's very much about one person's journey, rather than a YA romance. If you want to suggest romance, having more than one person on the cover would help. I can see coming of age, but the person looks a little old for that (hard to tell from the back of course, but the B&W also gives this a more mature feel).
@dickrubin716@noodlemaz@willaful@benetnasch@bookstodon your name also looks a little squashed over to the side. I get that you don't want it to interfere with the image, but there's just not enough space for it to sit comfortably beside the figure. I would have it on one line centred (with an outer glow or stroke effect to make it legible).
@Rhube@noodlemaz@willaful@benetnasch@bookstodon I am very grateful for you multiple message response! This is yet another reason why I love Mastodon over my time at that other site. You’ve given me some things to think about when I get to my next book, thanks
@noodlemaz@benetnasch@dickrubin716@bookstodon
It used to be just called 'fiction' since men were considered the norm.
There also used to be many series of 'adventure' fiction with over-all titles like 'The Executioner' and 'The Destroyer': kind of like Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys but aimed at adult men. Not sure what fills that niche now. (I liked the Destroyer series, back in the day: it was a little snarky around the formula, and a hair less misogynist. Not sure it would stand up now.)