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Cover for "A Child of Great Promise"

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
It looks cool, and I like the idea, but there's something that feels a little bit off about it. I think what sticks out to me is that the woman looks too much like an adult while the word child is written directly on her. It could also be that the image is a little bit crowded, but I'm not confident enough in my visual arts to say for sure.

I'm liking the Altearth logo. :)
 

Ban

Troglodytic Trouvère
Article Team
Looks very good, but I agree that it's a bit crowded. I feel like my vision should be drawn to the woman/child, but it instead goes back and forth between the (very beautiful) altearth logo, and the title of the book.

If this can be changed quickly I would do it, but if it can't I think it's still more than fine.
 

TWErvin2

Auror
I like the colors. The title stands out well. If it is a child, I guess the hair color makes her 'appear' older.

When shrunk down to thumbnail size, the Series title pretty much disappears/cannot be read. I am not sure how important that is. The author name sort of fades out of ability to easily read, but that's okay. The title and the main object(s)/items in the picture are what's important. You want someone scrolling or looking (like at the also boughts on Amazon, or other screens on other vendors) to stop and look more closely and click to explore.

That's my two cents.
 

Nimue

Auror
I love it, Skip, the art is really beautiful and the colors are lovely. The artist did a great job. I think the main figure looks teenaged--not sure why that is, possibly because I know it's meant to be Talysse... But the primary thing is that it looks professional and genre-specific, as Chessie says, and it'll still convey those qualities at thumbnail size.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Looks very good, but I agree that it's a bit crowded. I feel like my vision should be drawn to the woman/child, but it instead goes back and forth between the (very beautiful) altearth logo, and the title of the book.

If this can be changed quickly I would do it, but if it can't I think it's still more than fine.

Thanks. That's just about where I'm at as well. I've written to the artist. I know I get a couple of reworkings. But I also know that if it's a toss-up, I'm going with the artist's assessment. They do a few hundred covers a year, many in the SF&F genres. They also regularly get praise in Joel Friedlander's monthly column, so I only argue if I feel it's just flat wrong. This is a room that is not in need of redecoration but I'm wondering if they could scoot the couch over a bit. :)
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Thanks, Nimue (and Chessie!). I'll take teenaged. I'm nearly done with the book and I still haven't decided quite what age she is. I console myself with the thought that medieval people were often fuzzy about their precise age.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
... You want someone scrolling or looking (like at the also boughts on Amazon, or other screens on other vendors) to stop and look more closely and click to explore.

That's my two cents.

My two cents as well. If the cover catches second looks, then it's done its job. After that, it's all up to my deathless prose. :)
 
Got this from my artist yesterday. Comments are welcome.

View attachment 1804

If the front of the figure were visible, it would be easier to gauge the figure's age, but even from the back, she looks too full-figured to be very young. I'd guess she's not younger than sixteen, and not older than her early twenties. From this cover, I'd guess that the story is either YA or NA high fantasy. And that's really what you want from a cover: to identify the target age group, the genre, and the sub-genre for the reader at a glance.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Thanks, Michael. I'm happy with that ambiguity, since I'm a little ambiguous about her age anyway. But that age range feels about right.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I did not write to those markets, but then again I don't really believe in those markets. For about twenty years I had all my history teaching material online--essentially they were web-based essays. I wrote them for my college students. But from early on, I got email from both students and teachers not just from high school but even from middle school telling me the essays were easy to read. I did not hesitate to use longer sentences, did not blanch at using foreign words as needed, did not mollycoddle the concepts. I began to suspect this business about reading levels was more than a little contrived.

I also recalled that when I was in my early teens I was reading Wells, Verne, Poe, Bradbury--people who wrote grownup books for grownups. And while I did manage to get all the way through The Island of Dr Moreau without knowing what the word vivisection meant <g>, I still appreciated the story. They didn't even need to put a YA-appropriate cover on it.

In short, I don't believe in changing one's writing to suit a particular age group. Write the story. Some kids may love it, some may be bored, some may be baffled. Teenagers love, bore and baffle with ease, sometimes all at the same time. Even though Talysse is young and even though she has an identity problem that is the focus of the book, I wrote it because I found the problem interesting. If YA or NA also find it interesting, that's great. If *anyone* finds it interesting, I'll be delighted. But I'm hoping that an adult that reads it will not be thinking "what an interesting YA novel." I can do without the modifier.

Sorry for the rant. It's a bit of a peeve of mine.
 
I did not write to those markets, but then again I don't really believe in those markets. For about twenty years I had all my history teaching material online--essentially they were web-based essays. I wrote them for my college students. But from early on, I got email from both students and teachers not just from high school but even from middle school telling me the essays were easy to read. I did not hesitate to use longer sentences, did not blanch at using foreign words as needed, did not mollycoddle the concepts. I began to suspect this business about reading levels was more than a little contrived.

I also recalled that when I was in my early teens I was reading Wells, Verne, Poe, Bradbury--people who wrote grownup books for grownups. And while I did manage to get all the way through The Island of Dr Moreau without knowing what the word vivisection meant <g>, I still appreciated the story. They didn't even need to put a YA-appropriate cover on it.

In short, I don't believe in changing one's writing to suit a particular age group. Write the story. Some kids may love it, some may be bored, some may be baffled. Teenagers love, bore and baffle with ease, sometimes all at the same time. Even though Talysse is young and even though she has an identity problem that is the focus of the book, I wrote it because I found the problem interesting. If YA or NA also find it interesting, that's great. If *anyone* finds it interesting, I'll be delighted. But I'm hoping that an adult that reads it will not be thinking "what an interesting YA novel." I can do without the modifier.

Sorry for the rant. It's a bit of a peeve of mine.

When I look at the cover, I'm thinking the book is targeting a YA or NA audience, but that I still might find it interesting. I suspect that many other potential readers will think the content is targeting YA or NA when looking at that cover, and their interpretation of the cover might influence their decision to investigate the book further. Any readers (adult or teen) who have a thing against YA / NA might be inclined to take a pass just from looking at the cover. So that's where I'm coming from with my posts above.

I'm not saying that the cover is always the sole aspect of a book that sells it.

I do like the changes to the text on the new cover, though I'm not sure the fade out on the title will work for thumbnails.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Thanks. The creek, btw, did rise, as creeks will. The book is now set for a June 1 release.
 
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