Tropes are simply another form of archetypes, which we all use in stories. They're a great tool as long as you're being original in their use. We're never going to invent something outright, storytelling is too ancient an art form. So by all means use and tweak those tropes. Not all of them are...
Thanks for the feedback, Zero. I've been revising the back cover and the werewolves are real has been removed. Sam, thanks for the praise! I like the red one as well. It was a tough call, but in the end the red just made the werewolves look too evil and put the book firmly in horror instead of...
I really wrestled with the choice between blue and red. Blue won because the werewolves aren't actually evil and the red sort of painted that way. Thank you all so much for the feedback! So happy to have found a community of like minded writers.
Here's the red one. As you can see it was a much earlier draft, but after seeing it compared to the blue I decided that was the better direction.
Thanks for the feedback, Lawfire! Makes me grin to hear people are pleased with it.
Nihal, the resolution of the upload is off. The InDesign version is much crisper. That said I think your advice on font is great and I'll play with that to see if I can find a better one. Also love the mockup idea. I'll give that a shot.
It's not geared at YA, but I wanted broad appeal so I...
I just joined the forums a few days ago and am loving the community. Last night I joined chat with people like Glutton, GeekDavid, FatCat and Svrtnsse. It was an absolute blast and showed me that I was in the write (pun intended) place.
A bit about me. I've had a number of short stories...
The artwork has to be top notch, the font professional and the title something that makes me wonder. Other than that it's really all about picking something that's relevant to the story.
Quite the opposite. If the protagonist is undead I want to know that the second I see the cover. Sounds like this one does that. I'd suggest farming it out to his beta readers and seeing their reactions. I'd also post the actual cover here as soon as you have it.
I've heard over and over again that the quality of your cover and back cover copy are vital to winning readers. Does this cover grab you? Would you consider reading this book?
Does anyone have suggestions on improving it?
Here's the cover.