What do you think of this working cover?

[Dr. Drib]

Forget about the typography. At the moment I'm just playing around with some words.

Let's talk color:

I tried yellow and it was basically unreadable.

I switched to blue, and it pops out better.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Forget about the typography. At the moment I'm just playing around with some words.

Let's talk color:

I tried yellow and it was basically unreadable.

I switched to blue, and it pops out better.

It does look a lot better in B&W. I can get a screen grab on my Libra 2.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It does look a lot better in B&W. I can get a screen grab on my Libra 2.

Now the problem is to somehow work in the complete title AND somehow arrange the words in some way that looks attractive.

(I also have a very limited command of Pixelmator Pro, which I purchased a few years ago.)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Forget about the typography. At the moment I'm just playing around with some words.

Let's talk color:

I tried yellow and it was basically unreadable.

I switched to blue, and it pops out better.

Try a creamy-milk-white with a tint of yellow for the titling.

Hitch

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Forget about the typography. At the moment I'm just playing around with some words.

Let's talk color:

I tried yellow and it was basically unreadable.

I switched to blue, and it pops out better.

Sorry, this is still low-contrast, messy, and obviously amateurish. The background interferes substantially with text readability. I stand by my previous assessment

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by meeera

Sorry, this is still low-contrast, messy, and obviously amateurish. The background interferes substantially with text readability. I stand by my previous assessment

Noted. -- Thank you.

[Dr. Drib]

Here's a different image. (The image of an owl is actually mentioned in the text.)

I'm not certain how important Kobo's Cover View is in the overall scheme of things when it comes to reading a title. (And List view is so small that [for me], I find it practically useless when trying to make out information on a cover. I also don't think it matters at all - in List View - due to the fact that author/title is listed right next to the image!)

In Cover View, my name is quite visible. Where this is not easily discernible is when attempting to view the title of the book. I notice, however, that in quite a number of instances when scrolling around in calibre that either the title or the author is sometimes not easily read in Cover view.

But: I'm always willing to look at counter arguments from all the very helpful comments given to me. (I was convinced to change the title, dropping the surname.)

Thanks!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Here's a different image. (The image of an owl is actually mentioned in the text.)

I'm not certain how important Kobo's Cover View is in the overall scheme of things when it comes to reading a title. (And List view is so small that [for me], I find it practically useless when trying to make out information on a cover. I also don't think it matters at all - in List View - due to the fact that author/title is listed right next to the image!)

In Cover View, my name is quite visible. Where this is not easily discernible is when attempting to view the title of the book. I notice, however, that in quite a number of instances when scrolling around in calibre that either the title or the author is sometimes not easily read in Cover view.

But: I'm always willing to look at counter arguments from all the very helpful comments given to me. (I was convinced to change the title, dropping the surname.)

Thanks!

I don't wish to be harsh, but dude, are you seriously trying to kill this book?

Hitch

[issybird]

The book is obviously written with the Steven Millhauser novel in mind, if not an explicit homage. So I think you could do worse than to evoke the original cover:



The original cover doesn’t translate perfectly to ethumbnails, but I think a similar variation in font and color and eschewing a picture altogether would be very good ideas.

[Dr. Drib]

Yes, as mentioned in my thread here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=349960

Your image is too large !!!

I'm not certain if I want to evoke a similar cover, but I'll think about it. -- Thanks!

ADDED: Yeah, I need to think about not having an image at all. I don't know; I'm conflicted on all this right now.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I don't wish to be harsh, but dude, are you seriously trying to kill this book?

Hitch

WAIT! --- Give me your thoughts on why you don't like an owl.

(I haven't heard 'Dude' in a long time.)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

WAIT! --- Give me your thoughts on why you don't like an owl.

(I haven't heard 'Dude' in a long time.)

It's got nothing, really, to do with the owl. It's simply...I just don't know what you're doing here. Why would anyone, anyone at all, stop and look at that cover, much less click on it? For what, a book about an Owl? Well, the book's not about an owl, is it? What is it about? Oh, wait, we have no idea, because it's appaerntly really meant to be Litfic, so we're going to be deliberately obscure.

Here's the same thing that I tell my clients, and you are, as are they, just as welcome to ignore it as some of them do--your cover is clickbait. That is its entire job. It has no other job, no other existence. Serves no other purpose and anyone that tells you differently is blowing smoke. Other ideas around cover purposes are mostly wishful thinking and inexperience.

Once the cover has been clicked, and the prospective buyer is on your sales page, the cover may as well vaporize. It's rarely looked at again (even Amazon will confess that if asked; people don't look at covers after they buy and don't read front-matter, by and large, either, which is why all Kindle eBooks open to the first chapter, despite the flailing by their authors to force the reader to read the front-matter) and it's done its thing.

Then it's the job of the description and the LookInside, to get the buyer to BUY. That is the job that those elements are meant to do--to get someone to buy. Period.

I just don't understand whom you believe would click on that cover. To read what? Who is your perfect reader? What is s/he seeking, and why does that cover invoke that sense in him/her, that this is the "right" place to look? Can you elucidate that, in some way that connects to the snookered Owl and the incredibly boring sans font face?

Hitch

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I don't wish to be harsh, but dude, are you seriously trying to kill this book?

Hitch

Ha! Yes.
I'd only have big image of an owl on a book on owls, or maybe as part of an image with blood for a definite horror novel.

Originally Posted by issybird

The book is obviously written with the Steven Millhauser novel in mind, if not an explicit homage. So I think you could do worse than to evoke the original cover:



The original cover doesn’t translate perfectly to ethumbnails, but I think a similar variation in font and color and eschewing a picture altogether would be very good ideas.

I think a good suggestion.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Try a creamy-milk-white with a tint of yellow for the titling.

Hitch

How will that look on an eInk screen in grayscale?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How will that look on an eInk screen in grayscale?

You'd be surprised. I don't claim to being a cover designer, altho after nearly 7500 books, it's amazing what you pick up. BUT, white, cream, light (very) banana yellow, all show up pretty amazingly on eInk screens.

FWIW: I test all kinds of software, to keep up on what my customers are using. "Writing" programs, plotting programs, screenwriting, blabbety-blab.

I've learned to make a book cover, from scratch, using various methods so that I could tell a customer, "yes, you can do this" or "no, that learning curve [or whatever] is too hard unless you want to turn pro." I started using something uber-easy--the in-Word templates, from DIYBookCovers.com and managed. Even made a few that are, holy crap, in the wild today. Then I moved to making covers in a more-traditional way, Photoshop, AI and InDesign and all that. Learning what colors work for titling, against what backgrounds....that's part of it and also, what does and doesn't work on eInks. It's part of being able to intelligently discuss these things with customers and contractors.

BUT, Jon--don't forget--the average bear ain't lookin' at the cover once it's ON the eink, as I mentioned above.

Hitch