Help Designing a Cover?

Since nothing has come of sending out query letters, I've decided to just go ahead and self-publish Henry Rider: Clown Hunter and put it on my website. Maybe I can write something more...easily marketable...and try again in the future, but I just don't think a legit publisher is going to be interested in this anymore. It's just too different, you know? Too far away from what's hot on the market to attract readers like they're going to want.

Anyway, I'm getting ready to email my usual artist to draw me up a cover. What do you think of this description?

There are three characters: a teenage girl, a teenage boy, and a grown man. The girl is front and center. Her skin is pure white (like grease paint on a clown) and has bright blue hair that reaches down past her shoulders. Her eyes are also blue, and she has two thin blue stripes on her face that run vertically across her eyes and about halfway down her cheeks. She is grinning mischievously. She is wearing an unzipped red jacket with a sky blue t-shirt underneath, and a denim skirt with black leggings underneath. She is holding a comically sized wooden mallet (more on this below).

The boy is behind the girl and a little to the right, like he's using her as a shield. He is a couple inches taller than than her and has a scared look on his face. He has short brown hair that is combed to the side and is wearing jeans and a gray t-shirt.

The man is behind both of them, as if he's sneaking up on them. He is wearing a blue worker's jumpsuit, but he is very thin so it hangs loosely on his body. In one hand, he is raising a butcher knife like he's going to stab either the boy or the girl. He is wearing a rubber clown Halloween mask, the kind that you can buy cheap at a costume store. It isn't scary outright, but should have a vaguely eerie or menacing aura to it. (does that make sense?) The mask's eyes are pitch black because you can't see the man's eyes inside them.

Something along the lines of these two is what I'm going for with the bad guy's mask.



Okay, so that's the basic description. Now fore the in depth details. Which of these three poses do you think would work best for Henry (the girl)? And yes, before you ask, Harley Quinn was a big inspiration for Henry's character, haha.

 

That would scare the heck out of me, but more importantly, I don't know if it would be clear that Henry Rider (the girl?) is the protagonist, or at least a benevolent one.

I'm wondering if this would be a good cover for a target audience of young adults in the middle school age range.

 

How come? When I say that she's front and center I mean that she's the one most easy to see. Wouldn't that indicate that the book is about her?

 

Yes, but I don't know if she would strike viewers as a good guy.

Have you ever thought about titling it Henry Rider: Evil Clown Hunter or Henry Rider: Rogue Clown Hunter or does that not fit the plot? Maybe a bit wordy too.

 

I think Henry Rider: Clown Hunter is exactly the right length. It's snappy, dramatic, and easy to say, and hopefully will catch people's interest so that they wonder what exactly a "clown hunter" is and give it a read.

 

Hmm....speaking as somebody who has read the book ...I'd say I prefer the third 'girl,' but I'm not crazy about any of them, tbh. Why? Because one of the most salient aspects of Henry, as a character, is that she's a teenager who isn't very sure of herself in a social sense (one who is still at school) and that she isn't a comic book sex bomb. I mean she's more ordinary (which is good) that these characters in the pictures. The first two are way too 'adult' looking for the character, in my opinion. The third one does pick up the humour in the story ...and the story is very funny in places. But I think I'd like to see a little less sexy and boob-focused and a little more, well, younger? Henry. And maybe slightly less cartoony.

Also the lettering on Splatsy in the third picture is a bit distracting, and I found myself standing on my head trying to read the words ...which, ultimately, don't make a lot of sense.

I like your idea of the three figures on the cover, though. Maybe with the evil clown figure in the background, but faded out a bit. I'd made Henry and the boy front and centre. I'd also be a bit careful about the 'threat' the evil clown poses. If he looks too scary, while Henry looks too cartoony, it's going to be a strange fit. Is this supposed to be funny or scary? It may be both, but try not to send a confused message. The more cartoony silly comic-booky Henry looks, the less serious the story is going to appear to be.

I like the overall costuming of Henry, but I'd go for a look that's less confident Xena Warrior Princess, and maybe a little more 15-year-old teenaged girl who is skilled, but doesn't quite believe it.

 

I'm just using those pics as a reference for the poses, not how the character herself is designed.

 

I've reworked the idea in my head a little. How does this sound?

Same girl and same boy as before, but this time the boy is being pinned to the ground by a monster. The monster has gray skin and black hair and eyes, very long and sharp teeth, and gruesomely elongated features while still looking clown-ish (this is one of the evil clowns Henry hunts). Its arms are as long as its entire body, and its holding the boy down with one and reaching for his head with the other, grinning maniacally down at him. Henry (the girl) is standing behind them and is in the pose in the third Harley Quinn picture I posted, as if she's about to bash the monster's head in.

What do you think?

 

This is the rough draft my artist sent me for Henry Rider's cover. What do you guys think?

 

I'm not familiar with what rough drafts for covers look like, but I think it looks good, but it's hard to say without the full color. The hammer looks very large but that may be intentional but I'd like to see what it looks like in color.

Another thing, and this may not be an issue to others, but depending on where your name or pen name appears, some may confuse Henry Rider with the author's name. Should there be a colon there?

 

Looks super fun! What's the genre? Dark comedy action fantasy/dystopian type of thing? That's the vibes I'm getting. Make sure there's some dead space at the top or bottom for the author name.

 

Young adult urban fantasy with maybe a heavier emphasis on comedy than usual. Imagine if Buffy the Vampire Slayer was an anime.

 

It looks an awful lot like Harley Quinn and the Joker. From your descriptions of the Maiam I didn't picture them looking like that, more like mutant monsters with clown face paint, sort of like the creatures in Killer Klowns From Outer Space. Aren't they supposed to be big and strong, not skinny? Running into that guy definitely couldn't be described as smashing up against a boulder (squishy or otherwise ). In fact, I remember your description of the kid confronting a Maiam (exactly the moment depicted here) as a chipmunk and a bear or something. The artwork doesn't have anything like the powerful and exaggerated tone of the story.

And I don't remember a description of Splatsy as necessarily a big mallet that looks just like Harley Quinn's. From what i read the story felt very original, I definitely didn't get a copycat vibe from it, but that cover sketch is moving in that direction.

Edit—sorry to keep picking on it, but I just thought of something else. She uses Splatsy inside houses, but there's no way she could swing that hammer in a corridor or a room. Does it change shape and size depending on current need? I know it converts down to something much smaller for carrying. Maybe what we're seeing here is strictly outdoors mode?

 

Here's an updated version. She says she's ready to start coloring!

 

First color test! I asked my artist to make the girl's blud a few shades darker, change her boots to tan to make them stand out better against her black pants, and to put more emphasis on her smirk so it's more visible. What do you guys think?

 

Wow, looks pretty cool!

 

Now that I realize this is for Vella, are you taking the Vella cover dimensions in mind? It's wants a square image (about 1600 x 1600) with a centered design because it gets cut off into a circle (like Facebook profiles).

 

Well...poop.

 

Here is what my artist is calling the finished product. I'm thinking about asking her to change the title text so it looks like it's been carved or engraved into the hammer. What do you think?

 

I like the art for the cover. I also agree with you. The carving of the title would make the drawing feel more realistic.