Creative Reviews discussion

Hi everyone,

Back again to look at covers and hoping to get some feedback. My Dicky's Story cartoon is "on hold" until I can think and breathe and deal with it but I'm plugging right along on that one.

Now I'm focused on revamping (no pun) the cover for a SciFi Thriller set on an alien planet (red/orange/yellow everywhere due to high iron content). I took some Mojave desert photos and fauxtoshopped them a bit, then also messed with the font I was using for the title (I really like using 2 fonts better than my original design idea of just "crazy font" for it all. The idea now is to get CONDITIONED into blocky, regimented "trained into you" font and "response" into crazy font ;-))

The point is to have a book cover that immediately implies "I am a SciFi Thriller You Must read!" I think I've got the SciFi part but not sure the "thriller you must read" comes through. Meh.

Here's what I've got (already edited it to add the border for that pulp fiction feel of the 1960s magazines like Analog and other John Carter of Mars stories and to change the fonts. Again!)

[image error]
(this is the NEW design)

What do you think, just gut/knee jerk reaction?

I'm not sure I like it for a series "meme" potential but I like it a lot for this book in particular and building an alien landscape is a heck of a lot easier than using people, even just their eyes (see my original design idea below)

[image error]
(this is the OLD design)

The eyes are totally great for branding the web site and absolutely majorly key to the storyline but....I'm just not sure it's the way to go for a series of books.

I'm thinking more along the lines of my potential audience and their being scifi aficionados who might "get" the whole John Carter of Mars feel of this new image. What do you think of it?

My gut reaction is that I like the pic, I see the scifi, but I have no clue that it is thrilling. The micro blurb on the second example is needed on the new cover.

I wish o could make covers lol. Good on ya for having that additional skill.

Splitter

Good call, Splitter!

Sarah, original pic doesn't say sci-fi to me but love the new one just as you say - proper old-school sci-fi! But Splitter is right that it needs the tagline.

Also, in a very vague manner, the "Response" font somehow needs to be a bit more sharp and spiky to me, so it looks a bit more unlike that one called Comedy or whatever...I might be nit-picking there though. Love the pic though!
JAC

Hi Sarah,

The new one def fits the sci-fi theme but I agree with JAC that the font for Response looks too cute and fun. It doesn't hint at thriller, the font on the original is probably closer to that. I'm not very au fait with fonts so couldn't suggest one, sorry!

Does poor Dicky have hands now? Can't remember your last installment!

the second cover is the best one out of the two :) I like the text font. what about reversing it. white text on black background??

Patti wrote: "the second cover is the best one out of the two :) I like the text font. what about reversing it. white text on black background??"

Patti I think you mean the original, as it was the "second" one in the post, but I honestly can't tell what you mean other than to guess from the b/w reference. That's the OLD design.

@TC - no, poor Dicky, no hands, well, he has David Kawena's Milo's left hand but I got as far as photographing MY left hand AND tracing it in Photoshop. I haven't had time to deal with it again though. I need to get Conditioned Response out and making money before I worry too much about Dicky (gave away nearly 1000 copies, did you hear?) and he's sold himself 50 times with the crappiest cover in the world so I'm not worried. I hate that I don't have time to just deal with it though.

Everyone - Splitter, JAC, TC - it's really hilarious to me that you guys think the font for "Response" is cute and fun and needs to be more "thriller like" - why? Because the NAME of that font is actually "CHILLER" Can you believe it? Hahahaha. I have a few others (Grunge, Toxic Waste, Recycled, Metallico, maybe one or two more) that have more "shaking" to them but I wanted it to be legible. Oddly enough, I feel like I need to make a change to the font on "Conditioned" more than to "Response." I don't feel the contrast between the two is sharp enough to be "felt."

I have FINALLY setup and started using my webbiegrrl deviantart profile. I don't have money to buy the premium account but the freebie one lets me upload images and take comments anyway. Really kinda gives away the secret pen name if "webbiegrrl" does covers for "Marjorie F. Baldwin" huh? haha ((Tracy, you can see "my left hand" in process at Deviantart))

J.A. wrote: "Good call, Splitter!

Sarah, original pic doesn't say sci-fi to me but love the new one just as you say - proper old-school sci-fi! But Splitter is right that it needs the tagline."

Also wanted to say a WHOPPING BIG THANK YOU for this. Just having comments instead of someone pitching me to hire them to "fix" it implying I"m such a crap designer they'll take pity on me and take my money (that I don't have) to do a favor if I ask nicely. I swear if one more designer pitches me to hire them WHILE telling me how crappy my own efforts are, I'm going to use bad words. Lots of bad, bad words--and I know more than a few!

Splitter, again, thanks for concurring I got that old school feeling. I thought I had it but a second opinion is always good to hear.

Okay, now I'm getting webbie-techie. I've updated the source file on DeviantArt with a different font for "Response" (using Mishka from the first design) and changed the size/placement of "Conditioned"; still haven't added the tag line (am thinking of using the font of the author name (called Cambria of all things!) and making it italicized.

[image error]
(click img to see larger size)

Is this better, other than missing the tag line? To me, now it feels like the title is "at the end of the path" even though that's a dead river bed, not a path. My eye follows the image to the text which is good use of "the image and text working together" (a comment one designer made was my design didn't even come close to making the text and image work together, like they were just random elements thrown on to the screen. LeSigh)

And compulsive that I am, I've added in a tagline but I don't like it. In fact, I don't like having ANY tagline on there. You can't read it in thumbnail anyway and it just comes out like random marks that break up the image. I think.

[image error]
(click img to see larger size)

I have some reader review quotes I could use instead of a tag line. I think review quotes would be so much better (like down on the bottom right, on top of the stream bed). I'm not sure if I should even have those though. I don't want to break up the visual flow of the image as it stands. Or not too much (more). I'll have a spot on the back cover (of the paperback) for quotes and stuff.

Here's my back cover initial design...might instead use it for Book 1 though:

[image error]

And now that I've posted updates to all the images I did today, I'm beat and going to sign off for the night. Thank you again to all those who gave replies. I would LOVE more feedback, ideas, reactions, likes, dislikes, whatever - just NO OFFERS TO SELL Cover Design servies (LOL)

-sry

Oh the irony of that font name! The change is better, although that sort of font always makes me think of ransom notes cut out from newspapers and magazines, not sure if that's the sort of thing you would want associated, definitely closer to thriller than cutesy.

Personally I hate review quotes on book covers, while I value some reviews I always look at ones picked to go an a cover as automatically being a selection of the best and therefore I'll ignore them as I don't see any balance (hope I'm making sense)I think the back cover, or inside flap is definitely the place for quotes. I think adding Book 2... and the tagline is making it look a bit cluttered, maybe that's because of the placement, but have no useful suggestion of somewhere better without rejigging the whole thing. What sprung to mind was shifting the title to the left then putting the other text to the right, but I can see you'd probably struggle to get a big enough font to make it all readable and you'd lose the impact of the sky (see, I'm definitely not in the market to sell cover services!)

I love the back cover, but then that's much closer to my taste so no big news there, and I'm not your target market. I saw your comment on FB about the sky looking too much like a nice sunset, could you adjust the colour levels and add a bit of green or more red to make it look a bit more alien?

Tracy, thank you. Not only for the addition comments/feedback but for NOT suggesting I do what you like because it's what you like as opposed to what the book actually needs. Forex, I just had a FOURTH blowout with another author in a writer's group on Facebook where they keep suggesting the sky needs to be more blue, maybe glowing blue like the orange sunset one but blueblueblue.

Argh.

I actually got "invited" to leave the group when I objected a fourth time to their calling my apple an orange and calling ME wrong for objecting to it. I dunno. I don't get it. Anyway......

I find the placement of the fonts to be a balance. I want the font readable and large enough to discern in thumbnail (which it currently is, just barely). I agree the "Response" font now (Mishka) is definitely giving a sense of ransom note (though oddly the one called "ransom" doesn't look as much like it even though it's magazine letter cutouts) I'm actually thinking of killing the whole tagline or making it more bold, one or the other. I think the problem is it's only "halfway committed" as it stands now. Either commit or kill it.

I've got it on DeviantArt now and already have had a couple of visitors favorite a few of my images. DeviantArt is a busy busy place. I liked it in the late 90s when I joined and it's just as great now. I want to work on the cover a little over the long weekend and I'll have Wed to Sat off later this week. Gotta do the 18-20 hrs today and tomorrow to get that though so...L8R, more definitely coming L8R

Okay, let's see.

Response - new font much improved. liking that.

Tagline. Agree it's not right as is. Thoughts: leave off "book 2 of the phoenician" as you don't need it on the front and it adds to the clutter (OMG you should have seen the original typo I just made, "clutter" is so nearly gynaecological!!)

I think with the tagline, for myself I'd try it in black, all lowercase with no caps (or all caps but not a mix, for my tastes), and make the font so it fits neatly across the whole width of the page. I can't decide if it would be better in a white box like the title or needs to be edged in pale to show up or something - maybe even white text, but that messes with the clarity of separation betweeb the old-school pic and the B&W author name and I like the clarity....

Review quotes; not a fan.
I have a hierarchy of things that guide the choice to buy and reviews come *after* cover and blurb so when they're on there they just mess up the picture I want to look at.But I may be a weirdo freak on that score!!

Hmm. So no real answers but like new font, definitely.
JAC

OMG. The first part of that made me snort coffee.

Splitter

Splitter, me too ;-) and I'm embarrassed to have to admit, I read "clutter" and STILL took a few seconds to figure it out *haha* Hey, I'm pretty tired from today's physical labor so my brain must be fried (or that's my story and I'm stickin' to it)

JA, what great feedback!! Thank you!

I wanted the "Book 2 of ..." on there just because it's a series of books and that's usually a good thing to put onto a new series that people are not yet following--so they know *TO* follow it becuase there are other books to buy ;-) ;-) I think I'd rather have that than the tag line at all actually but regardless of which one line of text I use, I take your note that one line of text is ok but more is getting *ahem* cluttered :) You know, I think you had a Freudian slip and just won't admit it *hee hee*

I've had a lot of lookers saying they really dislike the cactus (for a variety of reasons) most often because it makes it too Earthly (regardless of how they phrase the "don't like") so I think one of the things I'll work on over the next couple of days is cloning that out. I also have plans to insert some flying "traffic" and I probably should alter the light a bit more. I don't want to do put anything into the sky but I might just to create a SciFi feel (got a lot of notes on the lack of a planet/moon in the sky)

Be sure to stay tuned, everyone, for another update over Thanksgiving! I cannot believe I get 4 whole days OFF the day job! Then again, next week I only get one day off as I work a combo of the current and the new schedule :-( At least I get paid by the hour (haha)

Is the planet Tera-formed? That would make a difference on the cactus.

Splitter

PS....I have no artistic talent, feel free to disregard lol.

Hey Sarah (with an H - I value my life). I really like the back cover pic! Ok, that's a total aside comment. The front cover - I kind of agree with the cactus thing. It's a great photo and I really like the colouring of it. But with the cactus there, it looks like it's a book on either desert flora or a murder mystery. No Sci Fi screaming out at me. Without the cactus and with a 'something else' (no idea what), it could definitely be another planet.

Vered, thanks for the additional vote "against the cactus" (who knew so many people didn't like cactii?) I'm thinking of putting either a "nothing" there or expanding the puddle of muddy water at the end of the stream bed. Problem with water is making a reflection. (it's hard for me to do--erm, to do WELL)

Splitter, no, not Terra formed. It was already inhabited when the humans arrived, even though they didn't realize that at first, they sure did when they expanded into the native people (haha) A classic European expansion and conquer attitude but it will NOT serve them well in this case. The Phoenician people aren't a violent people--unless they have to be *hee hee* Sort of the way we ignore ants 90% of the time and just let them go about their business unless or until the ants encroach on human territory--then we obliterate them in one fell swoop. Lucky for the humans, the Seven Chiefs, although in control of the Phoenicians, are not actually Phoenician either. That's one of the mysteries of the series (who are the Seven Chiefs?)

I have NO intention of communicating all that in a single cover image but it sure does give you a setting that probably doesn't inclue any Earth-like anything. I think once I remove the cactus and add in some flying cars / spaceships, it'll look scifi enough. Might even make the photo less "nice" and more "pulpy" as it still needs to be less Mojave desert and more Altair ;)

Sarah/Splitter, I have a friend who routinely refers to making a "Freudian Slit" which amuses me no end, being (I forget the technical term) both the thing in question and the name for it both at the same time!

Thought; how often will the book cover be where there are no details? On book-buying sites etc, presumably it already says it's part of a series in the bumf? Alternatively, make "Bk 2..." in smaller print just under the title, same width as "Response". Only thing is, Response font is good as it.

No strong feelings about the cactus though suppose you could add some really weird flowers on the top in blue or somthing to make it a bit more alien. Do like the idea of a moon or planet in the sky, though, esp if stripy. Don't ask me why stripy.

Anyway I need to stop procrastinating and go do the dull important stuff that I've wasted one of my precious days off for.
Catch you later, peeps!
JAC

Hey, I LOVE cacti! I have a section of my garden devoted to cacti (which one of my tortoises loves to eat...).

I ate some in a mexican restaurant once and it was expensive but delicious. Is your tortoise a fan of tortillas then?
JAC

J.A. wrote: "I ate some in a mexican restaurant once and it was expensive but delicious. Is your tortoise a fan of tortillas then?
JAC"

hahahaha, JAC you're a riot.

Vered, I love cacti, too, but the point you and others made was well-taken - it's kind of an Earthly looking thing.

Okay, I did a quick little rehash in Photoshop (easy enough) and since I'm just addressing the landscape, for now, I turned the text off (made that layer invisible) First I got the sky redder, added a bit of orange tint to the background mountain to give perspective and then worked on the foreground.

Basically I just cloned the desert around over the cactus and copied then cloned around the "stream bed" and tried to add some randomized holes so the desert plains part wouldn't look so obviously cloned. How's it look now?

[image error]

It's kind of kewel to open both images (in adjoining tabs of my browser) and then click back and forth between them:

original image
landscape only image udpate

If (and that's a big IF) I add a planet or moon or something in the sky, I'm thinking left side with the title text still lying over the orange on the right side. I liked the title directly at the "end" of the "line" drawn by the stream bed. Visually, that ties the text and image together and psychologically, it works for how the eye shot scans (graphics design analysis)

I'd like to draw a Krixan (a make believe creature I've fabricated for this planet for this book of the series) but I haven't actualy defined the darned thing yet. I say it is winged and "weeps honey from its wings to insulate its nest" and I make a joke about how "everything tastes like Krixan" (with one of the human characters noting that on Earth, they used to say "everything tastes like chicken") It's funny in the context of the book, not here ;-)

If I figure out how to visualize a Krixan and draw it, I'm thinking I'll go for the comic appearance and slap one of these little buggers into the foreground on the left side, diametrically oppposite the title text so as to not draw the eye out of the natural eye shot scanning alignment pattern (which is either top-left, to bottom-right then up) and that's a pretty standard eye shot scanning pattern so I'd like to keep it. If you have no clue what I'm talking about with eye shot scaning patterns, never mind :) graphics design crap (or C-R-A-P)

Good news is Photoshop's lighting filters are full of awesome sauce and I already took OUR moon and made it alienized then stuck it rising on the skyline so I have another update already.



I like it - I think. It might be too obvious to anyone who can recognize our moon's crater patterns at a glance that it's just our moon colorized and relighted (oops) Maybe I should clone out some of the more noteable hills and valleys of the moon? Maybe I should admit I'm really just delaying having to try to insert flying cars or drawing fuzzy chickens--I mean Krixons :)

-sry

Hi again! I think a moon/planet could work, to me that would be a real sci-fi hint, but I'm not very good at imagining the rest.

Going off on a bit of a tangent, for authors who are less graphically inclined, Mark Chisnell ran a contest on a website (can't remember the name off the top of my head) where he provided a bit about the book and it's themes and a bit about what he wanted. He then got loads of entries from designers, he made a shortlist and got people to vote on the top 8 or 10. There were some great covers produced and I believe he ended up choosing 1 for that book and liked another so much he had that for the sequel. There was a monetary prize but it didn't seem a large sum for cover art. I thought it was a very interesting way of scouting a big pool of people to get a good cover.

oops, Tracy, did we just cross in the ether? Goodreads has been having intermittent outtages all day today :-(

And yes, that's a very interesting way to go about getting a cover. There are a lot of sites advertised here in the US where a bunchaton of designers will "bid" on a job by posting proposed designs. I think it's pretty nasty of people to leech off designers that way because the graphics take hours and hours and hours and people pay a pittance for it and then want endless changes. I've been on both sides of the equation for years and years. I've never seen it go well when someone who has no graphics ability solicits a large number of "options" and then plucks one. Even doing a real call for bids (where the designers actually get PAID to do their proposals) still rips off the designers.

I think the kinds of sites you meant though were the crowdsourcing (awful) places like 99designs.com I should note Fortune 500 companies Loooooooooove crowdsourcing because they REALLY get lots for nothing and that's called profit (for them). It's the epitomy of the assinine corporate giant abusing the small business designer trying to break in or make a buck.

I think that was the site, and I was impressed with the quality of the entries. Hadn't thought about it that way, I saw it more as a way of someone starting out to get some exposure. 2 sides to every story I guess.

TC wrote: "I think that was the site, and I was impressed with the quality of the entries. Hadn't thought about it that way, I saw it more as a way of someone starting out to get some exposure. 2 sides to eve..."

Tracy, when the whole crowdsourcing concept started (way back in the late 90s) it's one of the things that contributed to the bursting of the IT bubble, NOT the Y2K "bugs" that were allegedly issues (and which were not). It was the the concept of big business collecting work from small business owners FOR FREE and conglomerates outsourcing code to "foreign nationals" (no matter what country did it--and the UK hired Americans as often as American companies outsourced to India and even Israel!)

It was the attitude that was the problem, not the actual process. Small business owners or designers just starting out ended up being devalued and abused, used for free, never getting paid, even getting sued by large clients who refused to pay until they got source files (and designers who held source files as their only means of getting paid for the extra work the company asked for "gratis")

It was definitely one of the changes in the industry that nailed the final nail in *MY* coffin as a sole proprietorship (web designer/internet consultant 1994-1999 when I went bankrupt and moved to Israel and actually started making 5x the money over there that I ever made here!) Maybe that's why I'm so sensitive; I was one of the little guys (smirk)

-sry

Got one more revision and then I'm calling it quits for today. I definitely don't (personally) like the red-outlined slanted text but that is *SO* spot on the old school scifi I had to give it a shot. I think covering the foreground of the image with my hand, it feels RIGHT out of the 1940s to me. It's eerie how I managed to get this (finally). And I was thinking of putting a flying ship (and it's visible vapor trail) coming round the mount and flying along the same angle as the text (lower left to upper right) All I need is an exploding spaceship (not)

[image error]

Like that last cover! Really feels more alien, ya know?

Is that your pen name? I have a feeling I know where you got that name from! Teehee!

Hola! Love the moon! Agree the new text is old-school BUT it's a bit B-Movie and if you want it to be a thriller is the tone set to "melodramatic fluff"? I say this as a massive fan of melodramatic sci-fi fluff!! If the tone is more serious, I'd say go with the original font as otherwise it all gets a bit "Mars Attacks" maybe? But also I might be talking out of my hat so ignore as necessary.

While I'm pontificating as if I knew what I was on about, imho spaceship might make it a bit busy at the top and you do need something at the bottom left still (which I think you already said) but if B-Movie is suitable to the tone of your book, might be worth outlining in green, perhaps, for that fully lurid
..."dan dan DAAAAAAANNNN!" effect.

Not eloquent this morning. Also set to comedy typo but think I caught the two rudest ones...
JAC

J.A. wrote: "I ate some in a mexican restaurant once and it was expensive but delicious. Is your tortoise a fan of tortillas then?
JAC"

Ha ha! Hmmm... good point. Maybe I should try giving her tortillas, and then she'd leave my plants alone!

Wow - I love the moon and the lack of cacti (sorry, cacti!). This is definitely a huge improvement over the original cover.

Here are my 2 suggestions:

- don't put an alien on the cover. Instead, try a second, much smaller moon so that it is clear that it's another planet ('cause the last time I checked, we only got one moon).
- I get that the title the way it is is incredibly old-school sci-fi. For me, it also is a bit distracting. Like it just hits the eye hard. I'd go for something a little more toned down, but that's just personal preferences.

Sara wrote: "Like that last cover! Really feels more alien, ya know?

Is that your pen name? I have a feeling I know where you got that name from! Teehee!"

Hi Sara, yes, that's my pen name (came out to the CR group over the summer hahahahaha) and yes, I go by "Friday." That's only the pen name I use for Science Fiction genre. For obvious reasons *smile* For anyone who hasn't read the book titled Friday, it's well-worth a read!

JAC and Vered - I think the text came off so tacky because in my heart, I hate, hate HATEHATE those old-school scifi screaming headlines (yes, JAC, just like a B movie) but someone over in the SciFi Afficionados group suggested just reversing the black and red and I think that might help.

In the "old school," they "zoomed" the text to make it exciting and thrilling. JAC, I know, it seems melodramatic stupid to me in the 21st century, too, but you know, the 21st century (back in the 50s) was a time when we allegedly would already be colonizing the moon--or Mars!

I was going to try to open and use Illustrator to do actual 3D extruded text but I haven't used Illustrator since 1998 or 1999 (though I've upgraded my whole Adobe suite of tools to keep my Photoshop current) I honestly don't remember if or how to "extrude" a cone-shaped 3D piece of text. I'm pretty sure I can though. To see what I mean, forex, check out all of the titles of David Weber's books over at Baen Books. Weber (in case you have no clue who he is) is rather well-known in SF circles as writing what are regarded as "thrilling" space wars with "tense and gritty" battles. Personally, I don't find him at all tense or gripping and I enjoy Lois McMaster Bujold's battle scenes better because they're less shoot-em-up and more psychological warfare, but it's a personal taste thing. And a gender thing. Men like blasting the enemy to hell; women like battles where the enemy is outsmarted. We get into reading the strategies, men prefer to just "cut to the chase."

The point is FANS find Weber's work iconic and I'm trying to follow the same icons in the visual aids. There are a couple of other male authors at Baen who also allegedly write fantastic, gripping, thrillers which I also find not to be at all thrilling, gripping or fantastic but the covers are all done by the same art department.

Luckily for me :-)

The Baen "look" is pretty much unified across authors--on purpose--to have a "modernized old school" if you'll forgive that term. Some of the book titles (forex, check out Michael "MadMike" Williamson's) have the first/last letters of the top word(s) drop-capped but if you ignore that, you'll see the majority of Weber's use a 3D extruded effect behind it (MadMike's are 3D beveled instead and I find the visual on Weber's more "thrilling old school.")

That's what I'm going to try to do next anyway, if I can figure out a filter with which to do the cone-shaped extruding. I don't want to have to try to do it by hand. I could but OMG I don't have that kind of time! We'll stick with flat and slanted if that's the case or a 3D beveled edge like Mike's. Even just a shadow might work to give it sufficient depth. It's still a work in process ^_^

Got a little more time today but I need to get some actual editing done (you know the book's content? hahah) and of course there's Thanksgiving Day dinner to contend with--I'm getting to have a special meal after all. For all their crap, Food Lion gifted me a portion of my food since I cannot afford to buy it on what they pay me. Ironic, huh? A grocery store worker who cannot afford to buy groceries for Thanksgiving of all days! I got a 6-lb duck. Can't wait!

Oh and I want to try to put one of the flying spaceships in before I set this aside. I won't have time again for another 2-3 weeks when I'll have probably only one day to "finish" this cover prior to release. I can always update the cover later but I prefer not to do that to readers who buy the book when it's released.

Good point - swapping red and black might well help on that one.
Re "Melodramatic" if came across as a criticism / insult, it absolutely wasn't meant to be. I love all the old Hammer stuff as well as the sci-fi B Movies - grew up on them, pretty much, so have much nostalgia for the wobbly sets and all the rest.
And I kinda miss the grandiose expectations; it was so much cooler when you just *knew* we'd be colonizing the sky in 200 years and humanity was popping with potential; whereas these days you expect it to be just about the same in 200 years but more dreary. Dystopian has a lot to answer for....!

The which said, I'm a bit out of date in my sci-fi reading so might well be out of touch with the cover conventions. If the fans are suggesting you go that way, you're absolutely right to listen as they're your main customers and the die-hards are the ones you want to hook anyhow.

Thought - I know it's not the obvious, but isn't there something like that you can do with WordArt in MS Word? Could make it full screen and then print-screen, trim and resize if you need better resolution?
Might not be applicable, but thought I'd suggest anyhow....

Have an excellent Thanksgiving, anyhow - and enjoy that duck!!
JAC

Thanks, JAC. My duck is nearly done and my apartment wreaks of it. I'm famished!!! Just in time, too. I've got one last rev and then I'm giving up. Not sure why I didn't think to just extend the sky part higher so I could put the text onto "blank sky" instead of over the moon but.... see? I needed the fat in the air to get my juices going (haha) I like this one. I had a cone-shaped, gradient filled "zoom" under the text but I think it's fine the way it is.

[image error]

ETA: already updated the text on this img

Copy/pasting from the DeviantArt page, ..."adding in a spaceship looked awful but still might try putting a Krixan into the foreground -- if I can figure out what to make it look like (winged marsupial maybe? needs to be a little less cute and more vicious)"

If I do that (put it in the lower left and looking at the camera with a gremlin sort of smirk, evil yet intriguing) it'll probably be after the release date. I just don't think I have time. I won't have another graphics day until around Christmastime and I wanted to release by New Year's. Might deliberately delay a month just to finalize these kinds of things (better to release a book that's ready but a month late, than to release one that's on time and shows it.) *OR* I might release a "stamped" ARC (free) and keeping finalizing the details. We'll have to see how I feel about it in late December. Also gotta work with half a dozen other people's schedules so ... :)

Hope everyone here has had a Happy Thanksgiving (by the time you read this)

-sry

Oh I like that!! The placing and the font looks really professional and - well, looks just right to me! You are talented, Sarah!

Anyhow...
Enjoy the day!
JAC

Yep, I like the last one, FWIW.

Splitter

Oooh yes, it gets better and better. You must be pleased with how much it's developed even if you're not convinced it's the final version.

Thanks JAC (my duck was yummmmmm-mee!) and Tracy (TC) I definitely feel pleased with the progress, but intensely frustrated that this was a mere two (2) days' work--and yet took me MONTHS to get it done! Actually I only started the whole "old school look" attempt last weekend but still, I could've finished it in a weekend if I'd had a whole weekend :-( I need to NOT work at anything but my writing career. Soon!

Splitter, thanks :) I like it, too, but I'm going to keep tweaking (I already think that text needs to be slightly taller so it won't looks so "stretched wide") but yeah, *whew* finally!

I still want to do a Krixan but for right now I'm (supposed to be) focused on editing WORDS, not pictures *grin* I'm nearly done with the book and have two days off so I want to get as much of the remainder done as I can. I have the balance all in the last file now--that is the 25,000 words worth of paragraphs, pieces, scenes and bits I want to edit together to make the end of the book. I have two scenes I need to write new, from scratch and all of the "connecting" stuff and I'll be done. I'm at 135k words I think so 160k with these last 25k which means I'm OVER and need to trim at least 20k if I want to make it profitable to print as a paperback (and I do!!)

Wish me luck with the edits!

I'm still procrastinating ;-)

Did a little googling of marmosets (because they have that unsual face) and found the orange marmoset (aka golden lion tamarin) to really kewel looking...might just have to use this!

[image error] or

and this one with offspring is neeto:


It's not just that they "match" the landscape (and I'll make their eyes glow blue to "match" the story ;-)) but also that they have a timid mixed with scary look about them so you're not too sure if they're skittish of you or about to pounce/attack.

I might even like to put the face from the 2d one onto the 3d one (with offspring). I definitely need to leave this alone, it's become addictive!

-sry

It's like I'm looking in the mirror...

Splitter

I think I like it better withOUT the creature. Even with the blue eyes, it still looks Earthly -- and it's NOT a Krixan because Krixans "taste like chicken" and no way no how I'm eating something that looks at me like that, esp. not with glowy blue eyes like that!

[image error]

C.S. Splitter wrote: "It's like I'm looking in the mirror...

Splitter"

LOL!!! thanx Splitter, I needed that

Ok, I love the cover now! And the font is WAY WAY better! And I don't think you need an alien on the bottom, because a) it's distracting and b) you'll never get it 100% right compared to how the reader imagines it. I'd leave it just 'as is' and let the reader fill in the details. well done! And glad you enjoyed your duck...

Wow, that baby one properly looks alien! If only the
Mother did - alas think you're right that it's too earthly, but the colour's great. I suppose you couldn't put a face on from something different? There's some very odd sea-creatures about...

But you may be right to just leave it be - it's a great cover anyhow.
JAC

thanks, Vered and JAC, for weighing in and yeah, I'm just gonna leave it alone--the version before the orange monkeys. We have such amazing wildlife here on Earth, I don't think people even realize it half the time but that's another story and I'm still editing this one ;-)

Yup - stay focused! But if you ever want inspiration for alien life forms, look at deep sea creatures. Now that is really another planet!

Vered wrote: "Yup - stay focused! But if you ever want inspiration for alien life forms, look at deep sea creatures. Now that is really another planet!"

I love the ocean--and the life in it--and yes, it's one of the few places we humans have not completely destroyed life. Yet. It's sad how destructive we are of such glorious things this planet has (or had) to offer before we stuck our fingers into it. Makes me kind of wonder if we are not this planet's greatest threat (or failure).

I actually really want to do a little bit of ocean conservationist "preaching" in my Romantic Suspense Banbha Series books which is why I have Rainey (the hero of that series's Book 2) purchase his "tropical paradise" out in the middle of the Azores--and then guard it and its surrounding pellagic ecosystem with guns!

I'm not sure if anyone will agree with me but I felt something was still "off" and that the last version needed yet one more tweak so I changed the foreground to a more yellow-y, cracked desert look that feels more in tune with the overall color scheme I'd gotten going. How's this look now?

[image error]

I think it's "better" because now I have an unquestionable sense of "hot, arid place" when I see this cover. I don't really get the "other worldly" ness I wanted but if I could manage to add a flying car that would do it ;-)

I might have to wait 3-6 months for a new cover art release to do the flying car addition. I'm struggling to work the day job and conduct the edits. Tweaking the image was just my procrastination from the wordsmithing activity (hee hee) I like this enough now that I can feel good about releasing the book with it.

-sry

Sarah - you are awesome. I love it! And I don't think you have to be too concerned about lack of alien being / craft. As this is Book 2, customers already must know it's SF.