I have to agree with Chicken. The font feels off, and the description lacks any detail. It looks decent, but decent doesn't cut it. You've got to think about it. Whenever I pick up a book I'll flip straight to back for a description, and if you have a bland looking cover with a boring description then I would probably just give the book a glance and walk away. With the cover it's less about the book and more about advertising. You want to sell this thing! Make the description sound as if this book is the best thing ever! Obviously don't go lying about what happens in the book though. Another useful thing is having some reviews in there. If you have 2 different people saying they really liked the book, then you've got a better chance of getting more people to read your book.
I put some weight on a testimonial from Author X about Author Y, if I've read and liked Author X's work. I don't think I've ever had that happen with a self-published book, though.
Actually, you're right. I remember reading a book because one of my favourite authors had commended it. If I see "blah blah blah" - Newspaper or "blah blah blah" - Website, I don't bother reading the blahs. I would care even less if it was from a random Amazon reviewer.
I love the basic design and layout of it but to me there is something off. Like the single word on the bottom on the second paragraph, In layout and design class that was considered a big no no. Also what do consider giving the most hierarchy too, the quote or the rest oft he writing?
The main time I might care about a random reviewer is if they indicated a nonstandard taste that matches mine. I can't even think of an example that relates to books, though. To force an example, I switch to restaurants: In the Pacific Northwest, steaks tend to be over-trimmed so that they lack fat. (Why?! If you don't want fat, order a skinless chicken breast.) If a reviewer celebrated that a restaurant had steaks with a nice layer of crispy fat, I'd pay attention to that. For some reason, I'm more likely to pay attention to reviewers who like things that put me off. That is, if a reviewer enthused about how uplifting and soulful a book is, I'd know that that book wasn't for me.
First, thank you @Lyrical for the compliment. I agree with the folks above that I did neglect to provide info as to who Lio is. And yes, you understood it perfectly! Btw, in case you're still wondering it's a YA Fantasy novel
Actually I'm not sure. The quote is important, as the reader won't see much of the religious text except for in the appendix in the back of my book...
I would consider moving the quote to inside the book like before the first chapter then fix the second paragraph (the single word thing) and centering the remaining text.
By centering do you mean center aligned (which I would disagree with) or centering the block of text in the space?
important: If you are trying to work out text problems, like alignment, font and margins do not use actual text. Go here. Generate some lipsum. Use that instead of any actual text. The fact that your eyes are immediately trying to read the text is making everything more difficult for you. You can't get an objective perspective unless you can look beyond the text. Here is some for free:
