# DreamReaper



## LadyofKaos (Jan 29, 2015)

I'm steadily getting the second book in shape for what I hope is a 2015 release. I commissioned this cover a while ago. I think it works good for an e-book, but do you think it will transfer well into an actual printed cover? Please share your likes, dislikes, and/or suggestions!


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## CupofJoe (Jan 30, 2015)

Personally... and while I write very Gothically, I'm a fan of minimalism [architecture, art, music etc.]
The cover is arresting, but I'd like something a little clearer and plainer... 
The Title seems a little lost and I'm not sure if the *II* refers to *dreamreaper* or *Blood of Kaos*.
[Actually I read _*dreamreaper*_ as _*dreamcaper*_, the first time I looked at the cover as the gothic *m* and *r* sort of run together and the *e* kind of looks like a *c*... to me at least.]
And the Author's name is fairly lost... Maybe that is your aim and I'm not saying it needs to fill/dominate the cover, but it is a little too modest perhaps...
I don't use ebooks so have nothing really to measure it against...
Hope this is helpful...


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## LadyofKaos (Jan 30, 2015)

Very helpful feedback! While it is eye-catching (and I admit that I loved it the first time I saw it) it is a busy cover. You're right, the important bits are lost in a menagerie of artistic confusion. Thank you, CupofJoe


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## GregTaylor (Jan 30, 2015)

Hey LadyofKaos,

I like it, if anything it has many dominant features which makes it a little hard to read the text.. but all a matter of preference.

Good luck with the print


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## Mythopoet (Jan 31, 2015)

I have to say that there is nothing about it that I like. I would pass over this in a millisecond without even taking the time to try to decipher the title. 

That font work is some of the worst I've seen and I have a bad habit of browsing Lousy Book Covers. It is barely legible and horribly overwrought. 

The images are chaotic and meaningless. The swords are just hanging out there in midair... the guy's hair doesn't even look like it's really his... 

Looking at this cover completely out of context (which it doesn't provide for me at all) I would expect it to be a melodramatic twilight ripoff or something along those lines. 

If I paid someone for this cover I would ask for a refund and tell them to go back to graphic design school. I'm not saying any of this to be insulting. That's my honest assessment. It's really bad.


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## LadyofKaos (Feb 2, 2015)

I came here for honesty, so please let it roll. Obviously if I were comfortable with it I would not have posted it here. I value everyone's opinion. If I were a graphics design person, I'd find a way to fix it. There _are_ aspects of it that I like. But it's obviously not sending the right message. Thank you Mythopoet & Greg. Back to the drawing board (so to speak)!


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## Svrtnsse (Feb 2, 2015)

LadyofKaos said:


> Back to the drawing board (so to speak)!



I think that is probably for the best. 
If nothing else, the title of the book as well as the name of the author is really hard to read. (and by really hard I mean I actually have to think to decipher it).

Best of luck though.


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## Tom (Feb 2, 2015)

Mythopoet said:


> I have a bad habit of browsing Lousy Book Covers.



Thank you! You've given me a new way to procrastinate chase off boredom!


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## Ky2015 (Feb 2, 2015)

While a lot of people have problems with the fonts and stuff, I really dislike the figure on the cover. If you removed that, moved the title up, and made some modifications... I dunno.

There are some things that could work. I like the cover, but it's a little dark? The swords are nice! Maybe run it by somebody who does graphics and get some constructive advice. What are some of the features you absolutely want to keep?


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## Tom (Feb 2, 2015)

If I were you, I'd probably look for a new cover artist. 

I think the human figure is mostly okay (except for the hair, which does not cast a shadow and is clearly copy-and-paste), but it does give off a sort of Harlequin Romance feel. It's also a passive element. It really does nothing to show what kind of story you're telling. I'd suggest, instead of the swords being part of the text, the man should be holding them. Maybe then he would have the air of menace I think he's supposed to have.

It was the text that really made me wince. The Gothic font of the main title is almost illegible--if I didn't already know the title, I would think it was either _Dreamcaper_ or _Dreamscaper_. And it's not just the font's fault. Transposing red text onto a red-dominated background makes it hard to read. Also, having the subtitles layered beneath it heightens the chance that I won't be able to read it. I also didn't like the subtitles' font. Its sleek, modern look jarred with the Gothic title font.

The swords seem tacked on almost as an afterthought as well. Their edges are too hard, so they look like a crummy copy-and-paste. I don't like their addition; they're distracting from the main image. 

Overall, I think the theme of red, black, and white is the strongest element, and the best thing this cover has going for it. If all that distracting text could be streamlined, the swords omitted or worked into the main image, and the figure made more dynamic, it would come together as a nice, appealing, eye-catching cover.

Urgh. Sorry about this long critique.


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## writeshiek33 (Feb 4, 2015)

for me as a person who reads 3-5 books a week that cover dos not work for me as others mentoined it too over done and very poor at that what you need a cover that appeals to readers at the same time complaints your writing as reader that what i found  out. overerall too messy


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## LadyofKaos (Feb 11, 2015)

Originally what I had in mind was a hooded figure with the hilts of the swords showing just behind the shoulders, giving the effect of being sheathed on the back. Unfortunately, the person I was working with wasn't able to do this so came up with this version. Also, the swords are supposed to be black-bladed _scimitars_. I've never liked the hair - it doesn't even look real. However, I do like the red/black/white theme. With this being a part of the Blood of Kaos series, I think it's appropriate. 

Thank you so very much for your advices & suggestions! I've worked too hard on the inside for the outside to let it down. Once I find a new artist, I hope to share the new cover with you and see what you think.


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## Tom (Feb 11, 2015)

LadyofKaos said:


> Originally what I had in mind was a hooded figure with the hilts of the swords showing just behind the shoulders, giving the effect of being sheathed on the back. Unfortunately, the person I was working with wasn't able to do this so came up with this version. Also, the swords are supposed to be black-bladed _scimitars_. I've never liked the hair - it doesn't even look real. However, I do like the red/black/white theme. With this being a part of the Blood of Kaos series, I think it's appropriate.
> 
> Thank you so very much for your advices & suggestions! I've worked too hard on the inside for the outside to let it down. Once I find a new artist, I hope to share the new cover with you and see what you think.



Your idea sounds far superior to the end product. I wish you luck in finding a graphic designer who's more talented and willing to listen to your ideas (this one obviously ignored you on the part with the swords).


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## Fyle (Feb 12, 2015)

The swords being exactly the same kinda bother me. Just looks like they are cut and pasted.

The text is too dark as in contrast to the and the backround.

_However, for me, the layout is good._


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## K.S. Crooks (Feb 15, 2015)

For me there is too much red and black and the words tend to jumble together. The letters need to have an outline of white or gold or another colour to make them stand out from the background. Consider separating "Dreamreaper" from "Blood of Chaos II" and more space between your name and the title. I like the image of the figure and overall I get a 'romance warrior' type of feel.


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## Redgrave (Feb 18, 2015)

Color looks good the text is a little hard to read


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## LadyofKaos (Mar 9, 2015)

I've been playing around with the cover this afternoon. What do you think of this one? Am I on the right track? Is it too simple or amateurish? Just as a reminder - it's an urban fantasy


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## Svrtnsse (Mar 9, 2015)

I feel this is a vast improvement over the previous one. However, it doesn't look like it's the cover of an urban fantasy novel. I'm picturing more of a renaissance era story, possibly with vampires, and for that I think it would have been really good.

I'm not too good on the design aspect, but I think that maybe a more modern looking font for the title might make it look more contemporary.


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## LadyofKaos (Mar 9, 2015)

Good point, Svrtnsse, on the font. Back to photoshop!


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## Svrtnsse (Mar 9, 2015)

The advice I got when tinkering with my cover was to try and keep it as simple as possible and to avoid outlines and shadow effects and such. It's fun to tinker with all the settings, but it's not always needed. 

The swords already hint there's some kind of historical/old elements to the story, so adding to that with a font that hints at olden times as well may be what's making it look as if it's set in the past.


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## LadyofKaos (Mar 9, 2015)

So I took it in another direction.


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## Mythopoet (Mar 9, 2015)

The main problem at this point, imo, is that the cover tells me nothing about the book. Your cover is your frontline marketing. It should indicate genre and subgenre if possible and the general mood/atmosphere of the book. Basically give the reader some idea of what kind of reading experience it contains inside. That is the most important function of the cover. It seems like too many indies ignore that aspect.


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## LadyofKaos (Mar 11, 2015)

What I've seen of Indie covers is that they're way too busy. They try too hard to put it all out there. I want it simple, clean, & interesting. 

For me, if a cover catches my eye, then I read the blurb to see what it's all about.


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## Mythopoet (Mar 11, 2015)

There are are too many indies for their covers to be generalized. There are a ton of bad ones and a huge amount of good ones. 

I don't want to offend you, but this cover just comes across to me as boring and amateur. It doesn't make good use of typography. There's nothing there that catches my eye and interests me. There's just a sword and swords are a dime a dozen in fantasy. At this point, the original cover was better. At least it had something to look at.


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## Laurence (Mar 14, 2015)

I hate to say it, but I think your time would be better spent saving money to pay a professional or at least acquire premium materials and design guides. There are several basic design rules that must be adhered to when designing print work.

Firstly, your sword image. I imagine you've pulled that sword image from google images or another free source; if it's as pixelated as it is at that size then it simply will not translate to print. Print work is usually designed at 300 pixels per inch rather than 72, meaning that it prints much smaller than it appears on the screen. You can also usually be pretty certain that if you haven't paid for this sword image then you're breaking the law. Obviously it's unlikely that anyone would notice unless your book becomes extremely popular, but isn't that what you're aiming for?

I would also bet that you've designed this in digital RGB colour mode as is the default in Photoshop, when you should be working in CMYK to ensure your colours actually print the way you view them on screen (print work is limited to fewer colours than you have on screen.) 

A general design rule is to keep a fixed padding around the edge of your design in which text cannot go; Dreamreaper should be the smaller so that the distance from the edges are the same as the distance that your name is from the edge.

I would advise you ask a print professional's opinion on how this would turn out. I imagine he/she would tell you that it would be extremely pixellated and your name would be impossible to read because of the fuzzy black stroke around it. This image would pass for a thumbnail on amazon after the tweaks I suggested, but not much else. Remember, there's a reason that most popular books use illustrations rather than images from the internet.


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## LadyofKaos (Mar 14, 2015)

Laurence said:


> I hate to say it, but I think your time would be better spent saving money to pay a professional or at least acquire premium materials and design guides. There are several basic design rules that must be adhered to when designing print work.
> 
> Firstly, your sword image. I imagine you've pulled that sword image from google images or another free source; if it's as pixelated as it is at that size then it simply will not translate to print. Print work is usually designed at 300 pixels per inch rather than 72, meaning that it prints much smaller than it appears on the screen. You can also usually be pretty certain that if you haven't paid for this sword image then you're breaking the law. Obviously it's unlikely that anyone would notice unless your book becomes extremely popular, but isn't that what you're aiming for?
> 
> ...



Thank you, Laurence. The sword image is actually from the original book cover, which was designed by a budding graphic designer. I appreciate your advices and will heed them well. God knows if it will ever get published.


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## Fyle (Mar 17, 2015)

I like it. 

It is simple and moody.

I don't like those art masterpiece covers. I bet most covers are better than the novels. 

A cover is partly there to give expectations of what to expect inside (I'll probably get a lotta disagreement here, but I read an Immerse or Die reposrt stating this in so many words, and it made a lot of sense). Probably there are a ton of indie books with covers better than Game of Thrones, cause it's not that good. But, I bet there aren't many better than the book.


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## LadyofKaos (Mar 29, 2015)

Thank you, Fyle. I share your dislike of art masterpiece covers and, in some cases, you're right about the cover being better than the novel. I'm working hard to make sure mine doesn't fall into that category!


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