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The Crystal Spear

Does the cover grab your attention?

  • Yes

    Votes: 6 37.5%
  • No

    Votes: 6 37.5%
  • Is that a wand?

    Votes: 4 25.0%

  • Total voters
    16

Snikt5

Scribe
Good morning all,

Please would you be so kind as to provide your honest opinions on the following fantasy cover please? The Crystal Spear is an ancient mythical weapon with unique powers.
 

Attachments

  • Draft - The Crystal Spear.jpg
    Draft - The Crystal Spear.jpg
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I like the design generally. I agree, "Book One" is in a font with lines that are too thin, letters too narrow.

I did select "Yes" in the poll above, simply because I like the design.

I'm not sure the dead body below is needed, although I do think having some character present might be good. Perhaps someone just discovering it, or reaching for it, with a look of awe on his/her face? I'm not sure.
 

Chessie2

Staff
Article Team
Ideally you might consider working with a cover artist to help you visually reach your target audience.

Off hand though, your titles/fonts can be improved. For font get it similar to other books in your (sub)genre. I would consider moving the title to middle position and enlarge it so it is more visible to your reader. Enlarge the font for author. You really want your name out there.
 

Ned Marcus

Maester
It didn't really grab me, to be honest. But there are things I like about this. The colours work well for me. I think it needs a little more, but I'm not sure of what.
 

Snikt5

Scribe
Ok, I'm back with a proposed new cover.

Thoughts please if you would be so kind?
 

Attachments

  • the spear crystal 2.pdf
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  • the spear crystal.pdf
    4.8 MB · Views: 38

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Which spelling of your last name is the correct one? I'm going to call the covers Orange and Purple.
I shrunk both images to thumbnail size, then A/B tested.
Orange stands out better, but the spear breaks the title like this: "Sp ear". Which is a bit distracting. Purple wins there. Plus I think it looks a bit better to have the character be off center. But see below.
The back cover text on both are difficult to read. I think it's the wrong font choice and the outlining doesn't help. There's nothing about the background image here that says anything, so feel free to suppress it, or put a text box over it, or whatever works.
I would look at making different font choices on the front, too. The title is great. Very often I see author name in a font different from the title, but beyond that I'm no help, except to say that the sameness is even more striking on the spine. And there's no reason why the back cover text needs to be in the same color as the front.
The main character is fine. The spear doesn't look like crystal, but the purple version looks better than the orange.
The background is the weakest part of an otherwise pretty good cover. I can't tell what's there or why it's there, and it looks blurry, even pixelated. You don't want that. The sky is great. The trees are too sparse and indistinct to be threatening. I can't tell what the character is kneeling on. It might be snow. It might be sheets.

So, opinions, but no real help. If you can pay an artist to do the work, you could offer this work as a guide or inspiration. It's a pretty decent cover, way better than a good many self-pubbed books, but I wouldn't call it professional.
 
Hi,

I liked the first cover except for the spear and the glowing blue light. It looked like a Victorian street lamp. I haven't been able to open the others because they're pdfs not simple jpegs.

Cheers, Greg.
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
I would call it functional, and echo Skip. Pros are useful. The main figure isn’t bad, the background needs to be crisp, the sky is good.

The description on the back leaves much to be desired. Think of that text as a sales pitch; look into query letters, those can help give you a sense of what might work. Space between paragraphs, typography counts. Tis text might be space holder, so I reserve final judgment ;)

Yellow/orange text version is better visually, but I’d do some playing around. Much depends on what program is being used to produce the cover.
 

Jordan

Dreamer
There were parts of this design I thought were interesting, and other parts that did not "grab me" at all. I was drawn more to the corpse or zombie that's on the bottom right hand corner of the frame, and I would've liked for that to be a little bit brighter, the spear is so bright that everything else is hard to see. I think that, even the things that you might want to be more obscure should still be visible at first glance. Also, the spear does look like a wand to me.
I thought that this cover looked very similar to a lot of other fantasy for adult reader book covers and if I was scrolling through books in an e-reading app I would probably go past it.
 

ShadeZ

Maester
Ok, I'm back with a proposed new cover.

Thoughts please if you would be so kind?

For the second one I'd make the spear a little smaller and then character because it looks like Spfar not spear to me. Also unless it is plot relevant you might ads the glow to only the blade of the spear like a flickering fire or a ghostly mist that trails behind the knight a bit. This way it would pull more attention to the spear but it would be more subtle.
 
I like the first attempt better than the second ones. The dead being at the bottom with blood is a bit distracting, so I would simplify that a bit. I like the title and then "Here is the spear" makes it easier to picture in the head and still lends to the imagination of the reader. the spaer itself looks sorta amateurish when it comes to the computer rendering (work on the light and opacity, "layers" tend to help lighting issues which is what it seems to be the issue. Give that mystical powerful weapon some depth). The overall concept is beautiful and simple, it would draw me in to read the rear cover and a peek inside at your writing style at the least. The second cover seems a bit common, (I see covers of that style quite a bit).
 
The one with the knight holding the glowing spear is the best, in my opinion. It catches the eye, it's interesting to look at, and if you're trying to make a dark fantasy book, the cover really would work well.
 
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