5 (relatively) new versions of lit-fic cover

Gregg Bell

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Yes, I'm still working on the same cover. It's for a lit-fic novel. Here's the blurb:


Connie Silverstein just made the biggest mistake of her life.

She’s taken a good friend’s four-year-old son to the beach, and he’s been sucked out in a rip current and suffered brain damage.

Connie’s desperate to help the boy recover, but his mother is bitter and shuts her out. Traumatized that his injury happened while he was in her care, Connie can’t forgive herself and is consumed by guilt. 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 wasn’t an accident.



Thanks!

#1)
One-Slip-Hat-Tint200-X302.jpg


2)
One-Slip-Hat-Tint-A200-X302.jpg


3)
One-Slip-Hat-Tint-B200-X302.jpg


4)
One-Slip-Hat-Tint-C200-X302.jpg


5)
One-Slip-Hat-Tint-D200-X302.jpg
 

Toothpaste

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The font isn't working for me. It looks too self-published. The rest works well, placement of title and author name, image chosen. But the font isn't there yet. There's also something very "text over image" about this. They don't feel integrated. I'm sorry, I can't really give advice how to do that except trial and error. Here's an image search for lit fic, and you can see how there's kind of a matte feel to it all, how the font and image seem one and the same, and how all the fonts seem much more purposeful if that makes sense? https://www.google.com/search?q=lit...wI7hAhXQtlkKHQ6-CTYQ_AUIDigB&biw=1280&bih=667
 

Gregg Bell

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The font isn't working for me. It looks too self-published. The rest works well, placement of title and author name, image chosen. But the font isn't there yet. There's also something very "text over image" about this. They don't feel integrated. I'm sorry, I can't really give advice how to do that except trial and error. Here's an image search for lit fic, and you can see how there's kind of a matte feel to it all, how the font and image seem one and the same, and how all the fonts seem much more purposeful if that makes sense? https://www.google.com/search?q=lit...wI7hAhXQtlkKHQ6-CTYQ_AUIDigB&biw=1280&bih=667

Thanks a lot, Toothpaste. I think you're on to something with the font being "text over image." I experimented with a little of the waves hiding part of the font but that didn't work. I will see what I can do to get the matte feel. I was going for something simple with the title font. I liked the font for the title in this.
Deepin-Screenshot-select-area-20190308172255.png


I'll see what I can do and post back. Appreciate your feedback.
 

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In most of them the "one" stands out pretty legibly, but on the other word the color of the wave is darker, and because the top of it curves with the line of l-i-p on "slip," slip doesn't stand out as much as one.
I'd fleck some white on slip so it looks like it's getting splashed, maybe. I'd also pull the title color from the darkest part of the ocean near the horizon. I'd go with the one where the sand is not blue, and I'd pull a color in the sand for the author name to tie it all up. I wouldn't pull any colors off the bucket, it's good the way it stands alone.
 

Gregg Bell

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In most of them the "one" stands out pretty legibly, but on the other word the color of the wave is darker, and because the top of it curves with the line of l-i-p on "slip," slip doesn't stand out as much as one.
I'd fleck some white on slip so it looks like it's getting splashed, maybe. I'd also pull the title color from the darkest part of the ocean near the horizon. I'd go with the one where the sand is not blue, and I'd pull a color in the sand for the author name to tie it all up. I wouldn't pull any colors off the bucket, it's good the way it stands alone.

Thanks Stytch. Appreciate the feedback and suggestions. I already tried the waves splashing a bit on the title and it didn't really work for me, but I'll take another look.
 

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The font that you like is sans-serif whereas the one you chose is serif. Maybe that's the change to make? I don't actually know if it's the solution. I think also playing with the image as well, getting rid of the qualities that make it such a straightforward photograph might help. Maybe up the warmth to remove the blue hues that are in photographs? Maybe desaturate the photo a bit? Or maybe go the other way and up the saturation? Maybe up the contrast as well? There are things like that to play with. :)
 

Gregg Bell

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The font that you like is sans-serif whereas the one you chose is serif. Maybe that's the change to make? I don't actually know if it's the solution. I think also playing with the image as well, getting rid of the qualities that make it such a straightforward photograph might help. Maybe up the warmth to remove the blue hues that are in photographs? Maybe desaturate the photo a bit? Or maybe go the other way and up the saturation? Maybe up the contrast as well? There are things like that to play with. :)

Thanks Toothpaste. I think you're right about liking the sans, so I re-did it and made my title and name sans too. I also have the waves splashing on the title.

One-Slip-Hat-Tint-CFont-Work-Matte200-X302.jpg
 

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I think you're getting pretty close now! I like the title in the waves like that. I think you now need to adjust your name. I think the blue on blue isn't quite working for me. I almost wonder if an off white would work better. Have you tried your name in the same lowercase font as the title? And a little lower.

In general I feel like the words are too close to the edge of the image. I feel like the size of the title is off, like it's too big. Can you try to make it slightly smaller? And then proportionally change the size of your name?

Last thing: there is something about the pail that is making the image look too much like a photograph and not a cover. Can you play with its colour? It might be the red thing. Or maybe it needs to be desaturated a bit. Or something. I can't say what it is, but I'd play around with it a bit.
 
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Gregg Bell

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I think you're getting pretty close now! I like the title in the waves like that. I think you now need to adjust your name. I think the blue on blue isn't quite working for me. I almost wonder if an off white would work better. Have you tried your name in the same lowercase font as the title? And a little lower.

In general I feel like the words are too close to the edge of the image. I feel like the size of the title is off, like it's too big. Can you try to make it slightly smaller? And then proportionally change the size of your name?

Last thing: there is something about the pail that is making the image look too much like a photograph and not a cover. Can you play with its colour? It might be the red thing. Or maybe it needs to be desaturated a bit. Or something. I can't say what it is, but I'd play around with it a bit.

Thanks a lot, Toothpaste. I'm going to experiment with all your suggestions and post back with a new version (or two).
 

kevinwaynewilliams

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Think you could up the font size of one slip just a bit: you can push the horizontal margins a bit more aggressively and still have it look right because the white band of surf is providing a compressed vertical margin.
 

Gregg Bell

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Think you could up the font size of one slip just a bit: you can push the horizontal margins a bit more aggressively and still have it look right because the white band of surf is providing a compressed vertical margin.


Thanks Kevin. I was thinking I'm okay with the title size the way it is since it's in the lit-fic genre, and not a few of those titles are smallish. (Although most are really big.) And I am making my name smaller, so hopefully the size proportion between it and the title works.
 

Gregg Bell

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Thanks to Toothpaste's suggestions I have new ones.

#1) (light blue name)

One-Slip-Hat-Tint-CFont-Work-Matte03-24-19-Asmall.jpg


#2) (ivory name)

One-Slip-Hat-Tint-CFont-Work-Matte03-24-19bsmall.jpg


#3) bucket darkened/de-saturated

One-Slip-Hat-Tint-CFont-Work-Matte03-24-19csmall.jpg


4) (kept darkened bucket. Name lower right)

One-Slip-Hat-Tint-CFont-Work-Matte03-24-19dsmall.jpg


#5) (kept darkened bucket. Name lower right (condensed font))

One-Slip-Hat-Tint-CFont-Work-Matte03-24-19esmall.jpg
 

Toothpaste

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It's getting there, but not quite. What program are you using to do all this? If it's photoshop or in layers, and you don't think I'm putting my nose where it doesn't belong, I just submitted my edits and have a lot of residual energy and would love to give this a go myself if you don't mind sending it to me :)
 

Gregg Bell

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It's getting there, but not quite. What program are you using to do all this? If it's photoshop or in layers, and you don't think I'm putting my nose where it doesn't belong, I just submitted my edits and have a lot of residual energy and would love to give this a go myself if you don't mind sending it to me :)

Residual energy! Can you spare some? Ha ha. I made the cover in Photoshop Elements 2019 and it's a .psd file. I'll PM you it. Thanks.
 

TheListener

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Yes, I'm still working on the same cover. It's for a lit-fic novel. Here's the blurb:


Connie Silverstein just made the biggest mistake of her life.

She’s taken a good friend’s four-year-old son to the beach, and he’s been sucked out in a rip current and suffered brain damage.

Connie’s desperate to help the boy recover, but his mother is bitter and shuts her out. Traumatized that his injury happened while he was in her care, Connie can’t forgive herself and is consumed by guilt. 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 wasn’t an accident.



Thanks!

#1)
One-Slip-Hat-Tint200-X302.jpg


2)
One-Slip-Hat-Tint-A200-X302.jpg


3)
One-Slip-Hat-Tint-B200-X302.jpg


4)
One-Slip-Hat-Tint-C200-X302.jpg

)")
5)
One-Slip-Hat-Tint-D200-X302.jpg

For me, I would make the text darker and capitalise the first letter of each word but that's just me when it comes to titles. Have you tried putting the title on the bottom on the sand? Maybe move the pic up some? Then put your name under the title? I would go with the darker one of the four in any case. Just my two cents.