Yet another new mock-up of lit-fic cover for ONE SLIP

Gregg Bell

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Hey. I hate to be tying up bandwith but I have a new mockup that is substantially different than the others (#3). Would love your feedback on it. Thanks!

And yeah, I've settled on lit-fic for the genre.


Here's the blurb again.

Life’s not easy, but Connie Silverstein is making it work. She’s a fourth year medical student in Chicago. She’s has an apartment on the lakefront, a brand-new Volkswagen Beetle and a hunky Iraqi war veteran boyfriend. She’s lined up a coveted residency at a prestigious hospital after she graduates. All her effort is finally paying off.

But then one day she gets a call from her good friend, Miranda. Miranda’s daughter has been in a terrible accident and is in the emergency room. Can Connie take her four-year-old son, Todd, so she can deal with the doctors? Despite it being not the best of circumstances, Connie feels like she can hardly let her friend down. She races to the hospital.

Todd’s a sweet kid, a charmer, who calls her “Aunt Connie.” He asks if they can go to the beach. Connie hesitates—it’s windy and the waves are rough—but then takes him there.

She wished she hadn’t.

Todd’s drawn out in one of Lake Michigan’s notorious rip currents and is rescued but only after he’s suffered considerable brain injury that may be permanent.

Connie tries to help Todd—she has contacts with world-class brain injury doctors—but Miranda is bitter and shuts her out. Traumatized by her thoughts that Todd’s injury happened while he was in her care, Connie quits going to classes and takes to drink. Soon her life is spiraling out of control, and so her father forces her into therapy, but it’s no use. Connie can’t forgive herself. Over and over, friends and family assure her that accidents happen to everyone and she shouldn’t be so hard on herself, but only Connie knows the terrible secret that what happened to Todd wasn’t an accident.



Here's the old cover:

One-Slip300-X453-NEWtestdarkerest.jpg


And here are the new ones:

1)
One-Slip-First-Mockup-No1300-X465.jpg



2)
One-Slip-First-Mockup-Grayscale300-X465.jpg


3) (the latest)
Latest-Mockup.png
 

starrystorm

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I really like the colors on the latest one. My only concern is that the bucket looks like a Red Solo Cup with that shade of red.
 

dpaterso

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I'd at least increase the size of the author name... and there's always that option to blend your graphics a little, e.g.

gcaj5Af.jpg


-Derek
 

indianroads

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I wish I could help - but this isn't a genre I'd normally read, so I'm out of my comfort zone. I've got kids and grand kids, so children in danger is kind of a trigger for me.

Anyway, with that said, I'm not getting the sense of the accident in your covers.

Maybe a child floundering while trying to swim would work?
You might also consider a pic of a stressed woman in a hospital waiting room.
 

Chris P

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Previous reply got eaten; hopefully id doesn't post twice.

I like 3 the best, and much better than the previous version. The lettering and having a bucket versus the child looks more industry standard to me. Thinking of the shelves at a bookstore, how many books, particulalry novels, feature an actual photo of an actual person so prominently? Not many.
 

kevinwaynewilliams

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Prefer 2 to 3. Colour against B/W works, colour against washed-out-kind-of-blue doesn't.
 

Gregg Bell

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I love the color toning on that last version. That works well for me.

Thanks Cath. I like it too but I'm wondering if the blue is a little too friendly for a story loaded with angst. I think, too, that for a lit-fic novel that cover works better (the last version, that is).
 

Gregg Bell

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I'd at least increase the size of the author name... and there's always that option to blend your graphics a little, e.g.

gcaj5Af.jpg


-Derek

Thanks Derek. You've got it all in there. I've been debating the footprints. I think for a thriller they would be good but for a lit-fic novel I'm hesitant to over represent the story. Decisions decisions.
 

Gregg Bell

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I wish I could help - but this isn't a genre I'd normally read, so I'm out of my comfort zone. I've got kids and grand kids, so children in danger is kind of a trigger for me.

Anyway, with that said, I'm not getting the sense of the accident in your covers.

Maybe a child floundering while trying to swim would work?
You might also consider a pic of a stressed woman in a hospital waiting room.

Thanks indianroads. (I saw you in the other forum--I don't know how I posted over there.) Thanks for the feedback. It's been tough getting the right level of an accident happening.
 

Gregg Bell

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Previous reply got eaten; hopefully id doesn't post twice.

I like 3 the best, and much better than the previous version. The lettering and having a bucket versus the child looks more industry standard to me. Thinking of the shelves at a bookstore, how many books, particulalry novels, feature an actual photo of an actual person so prominently? Not many.

Thanks Chris. I think you're right about #3 looking more like industry standard. I think (I've vacillated endlessly on this) I'm headed in that direction (using #3).
 

Gregg Bell

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Prefer 2 to 3. Colour against B/W works, colour against washed-out-kind-of-blue doesn't.

Thanks Kevin. When I first saw how #2 turned out I thought that was it. I still like it a lot. But the more I look at lit-fic covers, #3 fits in better with them. I'm still not sure though. Appreciate your feedback.
 

Cath

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Thanks Cath. I like it too but I'm wondering if the blue is a little too friendly for a story loaded with angst. I think, too, that for a lit-fic novel that cover works better (the last version, that is).
I don't find it friendly I find it quite disturbing. I picked it because I think, of all the options, it has the most atmosphere. #2 is a straight up photograph - there's nothing abnormal or jarring about it.#3 is, well, a little weird.