Old cover wasn't funny enough. Three new covers (hopefully funnier).

Gregg Bell

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#1
Navy_Seal_Rescue2200_X302.png


#2
Oops_ANavy200_X300.png


#3
Navy_Seal_Rescue_Mockup200_X300.png
 

Maggie Maxwell

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I prefer #2 above the others.

1) The title clearly expresses humor and matches the font while the Rescue ones don't.
2) The art matches. 1 and 3 look like you found some cliparts your liked and put them together. (1 especially. 3 is better.) Whether they are or not, a clip-art look is a turn-off for me.

Only issues I have with #2 are the fonts for the series title and the tagline. The tagline is too big/too close to the image. I prefer the Navy Seals Misadventures font from #3.
 

Twick

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Hmm. I have a sort of liking for #1, just because the comic setup is there - the idiots are parachuting onto an alligator.

Otherwise, I like the simplicity of #2. The "What could go wrong?" line catches the eye.
 

Toothpaste

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#1 and #3 look very self published and quite unprofessional with the cut and pasted clip art. #2 far and away outshines them on a professional level. As to "funny enough". Funny books rarely have these hilarious covers that just make you want to roll on the floor in hysterics, usually they simply hint that the inside is the funny part. Yes sometimes you have a truly funny cover but those are rare. #2 works because you know that the story is irreverent, you know it's fiction, and you expect it to be a good time. You don't need anything more than that.
 

frimble3

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I like #2 for the simplicity of the cover. Not crazy about the grinning dolts diving into danger on the other two. The two orange silhouettes, going in opposite directions suggests humor, without the 'wacky' overtones of the others. Also, if this is going to be a series, it's a distinctive format. (For other volumes, 'orange silhouettes' swimming, sneaking, climbing, etc.)
The #1 cover is bad clip art -it's a toy-like alligator, floating (not in a watery way) over the background, and an out-of-scale palm tree, also floating. #3 has all the same faults, with different bits'n'pieces.
And I do like 'Oops-a-Navy' as a title. Even that title, in the same font as all the other entries in a list of books, shouts 'humour'. 'Rescue' or 'Navy Seal Rescue' belongs on some action-adventure list. I wouldn't pick them up looking for something funny to read.
 

s_nov

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I like #2 best, and I think frimble3 has a great point about series potential.
 

frimble3

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I like #2 best, and I think frimble3 has a great point about series potential.
Well, you can't have 'Misadventure 1' without 'Misadventure 2'. That's not funny, that's jus cruel, to set up our expectations like that.:)
 

Gregg Bell

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I prefer #2 above the others.

1) The title clearly expresses humor and matches the font while the Rescue ones don't.
2) The art matches. 1 and 3 look like you found some cliparts your liked and put them together. (1 especially. 3 is better.) Whether they are or not, a clip-art look is a turn-off for me.

Only issues I have with #2 are the fonts for the series title and the tagline. The tagline is too big/too close to the image. I prefer the Navy Seals Misadventures font from #3.

Thanks Maggie. I'll tweak #2 according to your suggestions and post again later. I don't like the clip art look either but I was thinking I had to go that way for the humor aspect.
 

Gregg Bell

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Hmm. I have a sort of liking for #1, just because the comic setup is there - the idiots are parachuting onto an alligator.

Otherwise, I like the simplicity of #2. The "What could go wrong?" line catches the eye.

Thanks Twick. A lot of people have liked that gator one. I asked my newsletter list and that was the clear favorite.
 

Gregg Bell

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#1 and #3 look very self published and quite unprofessional with the cut and pasted clip art. #2 far and away outshines them on a professional level. As to "funny enough". Funny books rarely have these hilarious covers that just make you want to roll on the floor in hysterics, usually they simply hint that the inside is the funny part. Yes sometimes you have a truly funny cover but those are rare. #2 works because you know that the story is irreverent, you know it's fiction, and you expect it to be a good time. You don't need anything more than that.

Thanks Toothpaste. I much prefer #2 as well but I got swayed by people telling me I needed more humor. I like your analysis. I do have a concern if people will get the pun of the title, though. And the NAVY SEAL RESCUE title is closer to the storyline (two SEALs are tasked with finding/rescuing a US Senator who disappeared playing golf in Cuba), but I'm thinking OOPS-A-NAVY will be close enough. And certainly (even if they don't get the pun) the "Oops" in the title will say it's a comedy.
 

Gregg Bell

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I like #2 for the simplicity of the cover. Not crazy about the grinning dolts diving into danger on the other two. The two orange silhouettes, going in opposite directions suggests humor, without the 'wacky' overtones of the others. Also, if this is going to be a series, it's a distinctive format. (For other volumes, 'orange silhouettes' swimming, sneaking, climbing, etc.)
The #1 cover is bad clip art -it's a toy-like alligator, floating (not in a watery way) over the background, and an out-of-scale palm tree, also floating. #3 has all the same faults, with different bits'n'pieces.
And I do like 'Oops-a-Navy' as a title. Even that title, in the same font as all the other entries in a list of books, shouts 'humour'. 'Rescue' or 'Navy Seal Rescue' belongs on some action-adventure list. I wouldn't pick them up looking for something funny to read.
Thanks frimble. I already thought of the series implications of #2 being distinctive. I could envision the sequel covers. But I got a little panicky because people were saying I needed more humor in the cover. It's good to hear OOPS-A-NAVY shouts humor. I wonder if most people will get the pun, but I don't suppose that really matters, as long as the "oops" is there, they will know it's something silly.

- - - Updated - - -
 

frimble3

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Well, I like it. Also, in the intervening time, I looked up your other books on Amazon. Suspense/thriller novels? They have a decidedly different, 'realistic' look to them, and this cover, even if shelved/listed with your other books, is distinctive enough to clearly indicate that something different is coming.
 

Gregg Bell

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Well, I like it. Also, in the intervening time, I looked up your other books on Amazon. Suspense/thriller novels? They have a decidedly different, 'realistic' look to them, and this cover, even if shelved/listed with your other books, is distinctive enough to clearly indicate that something different is coming.

Thanks frimble. Yeah, no doubt this shouldn't be taken as serious. There is one book of mine on Amazon (that Rise of the Animal Rescue Feminists) that is comedy now, but you're right, the others are all thrillers.

I'm still a little unsure about the title. Most people I've asked didn't get the pun. But I think it's close enough with 'Navy' and 'oops' in the title. No one is going to enter "oops" into the Amazon search engine but I can live with that. I also, in my haste, added 'series' to the series line. That shouldn't be there. Here it is without it.

Oops_ANavy200_X302.png


Thanks again for the help. Have a good weekend.
 

Twick

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Number two would certainly pique my interest. It promises (1) skydiving! (2) nuclear mishaps! (3) military action! in a "hijinks" rather than "nail-biting crisis" sort of way. It's simple, but doesn't scream clip art.

Could you try moving the first parachutist down a bit, so that his parachute fits more into the gap left by "-A-"? I wonder if that would look more balanced.
 

frimble3

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I don't know if 'balanced' is the way to go: the parachutist sliding off the front of the cover is part of the comedy. And, it looks purposeful, not sloppy.
The primary figure is fitted in so carefully, and every thing else is centered neatly that it looks like the guy is meant to be going off-course, rather than just randomly pasted in.