Yeah, I like all of these much MUCH better. (Not Pink is especially good!) You can pick a more decorative font for the others, if you like, because presenting them in a horizontal, natural-reading position like this makes them more readable. They all look much more professional now, and certainly get the nature of the product across very quickly. Well done. Just had fun myself, picturing what you could do. You COULD have just one set of worms (at the bottom) in the brown ground, and have the other set of worms at the top in the white-ish ground. That way both kinds of worms could be on the cover, and the idea of some of them still being underground while others are above ground might also be communicated. Lots of stuff you could do, actually. And you don't have to divide the graphic into three equal-sized chunks either—although this could end up being your 'signature' book cover design format. But play around with it as much as you like. I remember now why I really enjoyed my graphics design classes! I only used them to fill out my art minor at university, but I really enjoyed them. We did a lot of poster design, and I remember also designing record album covers. (Yeah, I'm that old...!) Lots of fun. Never did book cover design, but the same principles apply, I reckon.
By the way, I think you should actually market "Not Pink" on Amazon, as a short story. Using that cover. It'll be a way in, and that story is fantastic ...and finished. I think you'll get noticed.
As far as the not pink cover is concerned, I think you need to make the robot's eyes pop more. They might make it look more robotic. To be honest I at first thought it was a glowering chimpanzee. I understand what you're trying to do, but I think it would actually work better for the robot to be right side up. Remember people who haven't read the book are not going to be looking for a robot-like design, so they're not going to see it when it's upside down.
Lol. I did try him right side up - just not sure if I like it, though it does bring to mind the bus stop scene. What do you guys think? I brightened Not Pinks eyes - it does look better - thanks!
I like upside down. It adds a bit. Right side up is too normal or mundane. But the robot flies around. I'm not sure R2D2 is exactly the image I have of it.
hmmm, with the brighter eyes the upside down doesn't look so bad. Right side up we begin to see the difference in space between the top third and the bottom third. That's much less noticeable when the robot is upside down. But I still feel there's some ambiguity about the robot identity. You could fix that either with an antenna (which you never mention in the story, doesn't mean it's not there). Or by adding some lights to his chest. Bonus points if the lights give away that he is upside down. You could to that with words or a couple of triangle lights (upside down triangles to our view, right side up if the robot is right side up).
I went back to the drawing board - working on more covers and more covers. I think it was easier to write than to think of 'packaging' - Here's one I really like for the Worms of Wicher-Woo. I was trying to ditch the brown and dirty look and attempted a Victorian Fairy Tale look. Plus I've been working on a few for Not Pink. I adjusted my old cover with blue instead of pink and instead of blocks I used techy gears printed faintly in the background - it looks pretty good but I do like the retro look below - Any thoughts? Am I getting too artsy? Part of me thinks I should just find a robot vector or something.
The first cover just needs some work on scale of a few things. The different Victorian corner pieces have pretty significant differences in "heaviness" that makes them look wonky and uneven even if they are the same size, especially the bottom two. The title overlapping the top corners, that wants fixed. The second book, Not Pink, I really like the second cover idea. I think the font in the people's bodies is very intriguing, but it wants to be a weightier font for me. Maybe fewer, larger people to allow for a more obvious eye-grab of the letters.
I absolutely love the worms cover, as is, nothing looks wonky to me. I liked your original Not Pink cover, but of these two, the first one. The title goes unnoticed in the second.
The new worms cover looks fantastic and very professional. You have several different directions you could go with "Not Pink" because right now the spacing between the letters is making it unreadable. I would start by moving all the people closer together, but if there are still problems I would consider turning the text white.
Thanks everyone! I'll try what you suggested Jack, hopefully it will get more readable - cause I do like the second version without the author name. If I do change the corners on Wicher-Woo to just one kind - anyone got any favorites or what they think will look best?
For whatever reason, I feel like the first one looks unprofessional; could be the white area holding the title. I like the second one. I know you're going for a retro look but it looks modern. Maybe throw a few 50s stars in there and change the font. The font will go a long with for something vintage. Because you have a very unique name, I can't make out where the first name ends and the last begins (although I just scrolled up and see that it's supposed to be one word). Is there anyway you could put the title of the book on a few of the worms at the top and "by your name" in one of the worms at the bottom? I'm not even sure that would look good but it may worth a try. Your cover for self publishing definitely beats most trash I'm seeing out there. You have no half nekkid cowboy, no woman's neck covered in jewelry, ankle, shoe, or backside, no ruffled bed sheets with legs, or no poorly drawn zombie. I was starting to think that's all they offered anymore. Congratulations! LOL
Scratch my idea about the titles within the worms...I see you've toyed around some more since your original post and I like it. It's fitting for the them too (worms)
Hi Samantha! Welcome to the site! Thanks for the vote of confidence - but I've moved on from these two designs. If you scroll up you can see the new ones if you want.
I'm trying to sort out the elements of your more recent Worms cover because I find that cover screams, "read me". It's so intriguing. There's the emotional/nostalgic reaction to the era of Victorian art. The coloring and font fits the style well. So the background itself has a particular style which then sets up the mystery. It's the juxtaposition of the cute innocent little pink cheeked kid, nose to nose with an especially large ugly worm that results in the intrigue. Intrigue like that is what we should be striving for in a title and a cover.
