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Post by ronmiller on Jul 5, 2020 21:09:18 GMT
Yeah. The gradient is fine but the author's name is getting to be a little too fancy. "Less is more" applies to typography, too!
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Post by ronmiller on Jul 6, 2020 16:51:10 GMT
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Post by Lazy on Jul 6, 2020 17:04:17 GMT
He could replace the heart tattoo in image 3 with a dollar sign. But what would I know? I have enough trouble with my own images!
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Post by ronmiller on Jul 6, 2020 17:47:48 GMT
He could replace the heart tattoo in image 3 with a dollar sign. But what would I know? I have enough trouble with my own images! That's a pretty good suggestion! I will pass it along...
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Post by Lazier on Jul 6, 2020 18:50:09 GMT
He could replace the heart tattoo in image 3 with a dollar sign. But what would I know? I have enough trouble with my own images! That's a pretty good suggestion! I will pass it along... I concur. Image three is the best one, and the dollar sign on the pregnant belly would give it that extra edge.
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Post by ronmiller on Jul 6, 2020 22:12:54 GMT
The dollar sign idea has already been seconded by one of the CoverCritics contributors!
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Post by Deadshot on Jul 7, 2020 8:20:57 GMT
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Post by ronmiller on Jul 7, 2020 11:52:11 GMT
I love book designs and simple typography. I do spend time reviewing book covers. I do judge the book by its cover. It shows thoughtfulness. And you provided some first-class examples, too. As I have said many, many times, Mies van der Rohe's dictum that "less is more" certainly applies to book covers.
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Post by ronmiller on Jul 13, 2020 22:47:05 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2020 23:00:16 GMT
Both covers are terrible. But Confessions of a House Painter has an amazing picture. Lovely.
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Post by ronmiller on Jul 14, 2020 11:38:08 GMT
No problem with the cover image for Confessions! It's just on the wrong book!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2020 11:51:24 GMT
No problem with the cover image for Confessions! It's just on the wrong book! What would you recommend? And why don't you like it for this book? I got the impression that it was a story about all the women that hit on him while he was painting, so that, for me, made it a suitable cover image. I didn't read the book description, though. Perhaps it's about something else.
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Post by ronmiller on Jul 14, 2020 15:01:55 GMT
Well, I don't like it for all the reasons I told the author...and your impression of the book---"that it was a story about all the women that hit on him while he was painting"---underscores that since the book is, according to the author, apparently very different.
Here is the author's description:
Confessions of a House Painter is a fictional autobiographical account of a man that begins with an unexpected, and oddly erotic, experience on a school bus ride during third grade, to present day. Each chapter are specific memories of relationships, sometimes romantic encounters, and humorous escapades that are a mixture of humor, romance and his philosophical approach to life. In seemingly normal situations from everyday life, He draws metaphysical conclusions from unexpected interactions with unforgettable characters resulting in often humorous, and sometimes woeful outcomes. Jonny’s philosophical convictions come from a surprising source, his Labrador retriever. Fresh from a self-aware consciousness awakening, Emmy guides her human into a new way of understanding the human experience with intriguing outcomes.
Here are the two comments I posted:
I’m kind of at a loss... The cover image, taken by itself pretty much cries out “romance”…and romance of the more lurid sort at that. An image obviously at complete odds with the book’s description.
Apply this test to your cover: Imagine the title and tagline in a language you don’t understand. Would you get any sense of the nature, ideas or themes of the book from the art and design alone? Would you have any clue that the book was anything other than an erotic romance? That it was really a “fictionalized autobiography” filled with humor and philosophy…even metaphysical musings? Or, for that matter, that a dog is a major character? I would suggest not.
There are massive problems with the typography but these are moot since the cover image needs to be rethought entirely from scratch. --------------- Your book needs to identify what kind of book it is—what it’s about, what it’s themes might be—but it also needs to stand out among hundreds of other books it might be sharing a shelf or page with.
I have often compared book covers to packaging. They are really no different than the label on a can of peas. It first has to attract your attention from among dozens of similar products and then it has to convey some idea about the contents. So far as the first part is concerned, your cover needs to tell the reader what it is that sets your book apart from all the others…just as the label on the can of peas has to tell the grocery shopper what’s in the can while at the same time suggesting that there is something that makes those particular peas more desirable.
So…first of all, what category would your book best fit into? What shelf in the bookstore would it belong on? Second, what is it about your book that makes it different? Makes it special?
I would not depend on a tagline to get this across—like your “humor romance philosophy” line. Someone has to stop and look at the book first before they get that far.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Jul 14, 2020 16:37:46 GMT
Some one put a couple of my early covers on there. Some of the comments were not particularly constructive, but more along the lines of comments just for the sake of comments, a bit trollish in fact, as one often gets when people are asked for comments. Although some of the covers on there are not brilliant, I did get the impression that it's the lead in portal to a design service. Some of the covers are not that bad, I have seen far worse from major publishing houses, but some one will find fault with them, no matter how tiny. But, and I know Ron will argue about this, some covers for books that have often sold 10,000s over the years are not all that wonderful, and no, I will not bother with examples, because it is all a matter of opinion, and some opinions will say that if it sold well then it must be because of that cover ...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2020 16:50:07 GMT
Well, I don't like it for all the reasons I told the author...and your impression of the book---"that it was a story about all the women that hit on him while he was painting"---underscores that since the book is, according to the author, apparently very different. Here is the author's description: Confessions of a House Painter is a fictional autobiographical account of a man that begins with an unexpected, and oddly erotic, experience on a school bus ride during third grade, to present day. Each chapter are specific memories of relationships, sometimes romantic encounters, and humorous escapades that are a mixture of humor, romance and his philosophical approach to life. In seemingly normal situations from everyday life, He draws metaphysical conclusions from unexpected interactions with unforgettable characters resulting in often humorous, and sometimes woeful outcomes. Jonny’s philosophical convictions come from a surprising source, his Labrador retriever. Fresh from a self-aware consciousness awakening, Emmy guides her human into a new way of understanding the human experience with intriguing outcomes.Here are the two comments I posted: I’m kind of at a loss... The cover image, taken by itself pretty much cries out “romance”…and romance of the more lurid sort at that. An image obviously at complete odds with the book’s description.
Apply this test to your cover: Imagine the title and tagline in a language you don’t understand. Would you get any sense of the nature, ideas or themes of the book from the art and design alone? Would you have any clue that the book was anything other than an erotic romance? That it was really a “fictionalized autobiography” filled with humor and philosophy…even metaphysical musings? Or, for that matter, that a dog is a major character? I would suggest not.
There are massive problems with the typography but these are moot since the cover image needs to be rethought entirely from scratch. --------------- Your book needs to identify what kind of book it is—what it’s about, what it’s themes might be—but it also needs to stand out among hundreds of other books it might be sharing a shelf or page with.
I have often compared book covers to packaging. They are really no different than the label on a can of peas. It first has to attract your attention from among dozens of similar products and then it has to convey some idea about the contents. So far as the first part is concerned, your cover needs to tell the reader what it is that sets your book apart from all the others…just as the label on the can of peas has to tell the grocery shopper what’s in the can while at the same time suggesting that there is something that makes those particular peas more desirable.
So…first of all, what category would your book best fit into? What shelf in the bookstore would it belong on? Second, what is it about your book that makes it different? Makes it special?
I would not depend on a tagline to get this across—like your “humor romance philosophy” line. Someone has to stop and look at the book first before they get that far.
Ron, he's using trickery to sell the book! It sounds like a Disney story based on the description, and it has a soft porn cover! I laughed when I read your first comment to him. 😂 Tell him if he asks, the soft porn with the hot painter and all the lonely women due to covid isolation will sell better. Now that is a hot picture and a hot premise.😉 Forget the dog.
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