Opinion on some other cover art

[Telcontar]

I have an artist working up something impressive for the main story I'll be publishing. For the short story, though, I decided to just do it myself - the story will be free, and it's pretty short.

However, that doesn't mean I want a cover so laughable it'll scare away readers even with the pricetag of donut. So I want your opinion - mostly on the image and whether it is serviceable enough, but if you have suggestions on a better typeface I'd love to hear that too. I'm not crazy about the lettering.

Here is my cover:

[sashamerideth]

It really does nothing for me. I don't know what the image in the middle is supposed to be, the same goes for the background.

The font can stay or go, but I think the title should be more prevalent.

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[hppavmx704]

I agree with Sash. The image in the middle is confusing, I'm going to say it is a space ship entering hyperspace? The typeface is fine, but I think that the title could use something to make it stand out a little more. Maybe a different shade of red, something brighter perhaps. The background could use a little work also. If it is a ship going into hyperspace maybe some more stars.

The whole thing might be fixed with just the image having more detail. Something so the readers can tell what it is.

[The Blue Lotus]

Hmmm,
I'm confused it this suposed to recall human anatomy class (skull) Or is it supposed to be a space ship?

[Telcontar]

Hmmm,
I'm confused it this suposed to recall human anatomy class (skull) Or is it supposed to be a space ship?

Shew, at least that part is somewhat visible - it's both. The story is about a haunted space ship, and the concept was to have a spooky-looking ship where the engines look like a skull. Basically, I never wanted to do anything but provide concept art to a real artist. Paying for a cover for a free short story just isn't in the cards, sadly. Hopefully down the road I can afford to have it redone by someone with some actual talent.

More prominent title, that's probably a good idea Sasha. Take the eye a little off my crappy image. I can do some simple styling on the title to make it look less amateurish, I'm pretty sure.

[Johnny Cosmo]

It's not particularly scary to me; it needs way more detail. The text placement could be better too, and I'd spend some time choosing better colours for it.

You'd probably be better off with a plain background, a sci-fi style font, and perhaps a simple silhouette or symbol that's relevant to the story. If you really want to express the identity of the piece with more descriptive artwork, you really need to go the whole hog, and I'm afraid that this isn't nearly there.

[Telcontar]

Yeah, I was afraid of that. I thought I could execute the concept well enough to at least pass muster, but maybe I would be better off going for just the title and a neutral graphic. Thanks for the reality check, guys.

Johnny, any suggestions for a Sci-Fi font? I was looking through a bunch and saw nothing that caught my eye.

[Johnny Cosmo]

If you want to convey a sense of spookiness, something quite minimal. As far as I know, these are available for both commercial and non-commercial use:

Venus Rising Font | dafont.com
Neuropol X Font | dafont.com

(I especially like the Venus Rising one. It makes me think of Alien, but without the stylised 'I'). Can I ask what software you are using? I was going to make some more suggestions, but it really depends on the capabilities of the graphics editor.

[Telcontar]

I'm using GIMP. I also like the Venus Rising - it is exactly the sort of thing I was trying to find at first, but couldn't. Simple and monolithic.

[Johnny Cosmo]

You should mess around with layer styles (not sure what they're called in GIMP) to try and get elements to blend in well. Do you mind me asking what your story is about, other than a haunted spaceship? It might help us make suggestions.