Opinion of Book cover studies

I would like to ask for comments/critiques on a set of covers I've been experimenting with to see which works better. The pen names are just placeholders. Muselodeon is a collection of short stories, this particular collection is mainstream with a wee hint of magical realism in a couple.

The others are for a fantasy work, a series about a class of magical folk in the Old South. No Earthly Power opens circa 1850 but the series continues to mid 22ned century and shifts into SF-Fantasy.

I tried posting pictures but couldn't figure out how to do it, so these are links to my google drive.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxDlHRAYVrxMbG9SLWJCSk9EMHM/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxDlHRAYVrxMMjduWVV1ay1VcTQ
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxDlHRAYVrxMU0tkQlhPZUhmZzg/view?usp=sharing

So, my take away is that for literary genre folks the 2nd works with a little editing to make certain elements pop more.

For the more SFF orient readers, the 2nd is less interesting and of 1 and 3, 3 evokes the most interest though it has a somewhat cartoonish vibe. General impression is Okay or passable.

Thanks, that's helpful.

Thanks. The second one was for a more literary use. I like the third best myself. Any suggestions for improvement of general design and typography?

gallowayprof said:

The title font has sacrificed force for nuance. At first, I thought it worked, but the more I look at it the less I like it. The title is striking in terms of its words, I could see it being presented more like a thriller, with full cap dimensions taking up the whole top 1/3 of the cover. You could try that for kicks, reducing the image's height. Also, this could let you improve the author name visibility by making it larger and more striking.

This is less design and more overall presentation, but why "Season One?" Strikes me as possibly too precious/self-conscious. I'd pass on a book just based on that. Flout too many conventions and readers will be turned off.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I'm glad it was visible at thumbnail sizes. I don't know that I buy all the conventional wisdom about that size, but for myself, I like a gripping image and a visible title. If that gets me, I can zoom in to see an author name.

These is ample real estate that could be put to use. I would be loath though to crowd the cover and make it look too busy or cluttered...maybe a really nice pull quote from a review could fit there.

The font displayed may not be the best choice. I will have to experiment with others. Since the story is a fantasy I was trying to find a font that communicated something of that readership's expectations.

We are also dealing here with my limitations using graphics programs. Personally I like flat design..a woodblockish, sillhouetish feel...somewhere between the quilt like work of Grant Wood and the visual harmony of Ray Morimura...if I could get that I would be a happy boy, but sadly my skills aren't there yet, and my budget doesn't permit a professional cover artist. So I have to make best use of what skills I do have:

Ray Morimura examples: Out of something like this, I could see one of the fields rendered as a rectangular hole, with something monstrous just starting to crawl out.image 1
image 2
sorry about the size of this one, I don't know how to make it smaller. It's not like I want to do this precisely, but I like the flatness and the graphicness of it as well as it's mood.

Grant Wood examples: This is a little more full color realistic than I would want for myself, but it's ordering of the world...it's finding of pattern is appealing though I would likely simplify greatly for a flatter effect.

image 3

Something in this artistic universe:

Or this: image 4

The season one thing was from when I was considering releasing the story as serials of 5 to 7 in about 5 season collections. Basically I wanted to treat it a bit like a TV show, with a set of episode for each season of the run. Of late I've backed off that idea because I suspect it could feel like a cheat from a reader's perspective. At 99cents for each episode one could spend 7 dollars for the season, but then see the finished season on sale for 3.99 or 4.99. If that was me, I would not like it. If the story was good enough I would read season 2 but only after the omnibus season package came out and the price went down.

So why irritate readers with price problems. Better I think to write it as a series of 5 to 7 books and forget serialization.

Here is a revision of the yellow cover based upon forum feedback

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxDlHRAYVrxMaUd2M1ZqY2o4Qnc/view?usp=sharing

Not quite a book cover, but if I could achieve this, I could ask nothing more of a book cover. This is my favorite of all time:

I've a revision of the yellow one above. Bigger title in relation to image, bigger name.

The first one was experimenting with the idea of an emblem/glyph as a cover graphic (like the mockingjay pin). Not successful it seems.

The second one is for a collection of literary short stories.

Third one (yellow) is fantasy, first of a series...imagine the world of Hogwarts meets Gone with the Wind by way of Brigadoon. The Galenborn are manor living "magic" users who made lives for themselves in the antebellum south. They tend to keep to their own, but they've discovered an unrestrainable monster child in their midst just about the time the world goes crazy down south. No Earthly Power is the story of that monster child as he grows up in the old south and through the war. It runs from about 1850 to the end of the Civil War. The next in the series, The Hound and the Dragon picks up a few years later in the reconstruction. The third, Yonderland is set in the late 1800s to the early 1900s when old folk narratives are breaking down before new ones like Darwinism and Eugenics. Their enemies have triumphed militarily and philosophically, and the few Galenborn who remain must find a new home or lose themselves forever. The final book, no set title, maybe something like The Powers That Be, takes up the story of the Galenborn 200 years later from the perspective of what is left of those who used to be their enemies. It is set mostly on Mars and the story merges into Space/Science fantasy. The last bastion is at risk of discovery, and the only one who can save the Galenborn before it's too late is the monster they once drove from their midst.

Oops. Should be fixed.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxDlHRAYVrxMaUd2M1ZqY2o4Qnc/view?usp=sharing

Thank you all. Looking at the images side by side the second font does have a scifi vibe. Maybe I need to invest in a few new fonts. The first version does have a cleaner less in your face feel, but I think although the present font is serviceable, it could be better.