Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Book Cover Week Continues!

I'm sure no one is entirely thrilled with this post, but since Grumpy Bulldog, Secret Agent, has publicly been soliciting advice about his book covers for his upcoming novel releases. I thought I would answer my own question that I asked during one of my comments at his site a few days ago... found here

I mentioned that he might want to consider doing minimalist covers instead of the characters in environments covers he has mocked up. This way, the bottom half of each book stays the same with each installment, except for the title changing. And the upper portion has a variation of the helmet each time. Brilliant!


Just a mock-up, I don't have rights to the helmet I lifted from the internet. And I'm sure Grumpy would point out that purple isn't the same as scarlet... I'm just throwing my idea out there.


22 comments:

Gail said...

I like it...hints at mystery while shows strength.

PT Dilloway said...

Isn't the helmet a little small?

Ian Anderson said...

Leaves a lot to the imagination - I don't think the helmet is too small, if it was bigger, it might look out of proportion. And when it's in the corner, it suggests struggle to me...

M.J. Fifield said...

I like it. I agree with that Gail and Man O'Clay had to say. And I like your idea of the bottom half of the book staying the same throughout the series. But I'm very OCD that way.

PT Dilloway said...

But as the author mine is the only vote that counts. Bwahahahahahahaha!!!

Huntress said...

OH! I like, I like! This I would pick up.

IMO, much better than the before and after covers.

Huntress said...

(ha. beat Alex to your site. BHAHaHa)

Briane said...

I like it: Mysterious and compelling: almost like the knight is lost or in some sort of mystical environment. Good message.

Rusty, you have a real knack for art.

Here's the thing, though: with bookstores dying no matter what Michael Offutt, Noonien Singh, tries to do, book covers are more often going to be viewed as thumbnails on an iPad or Nook or Kindle or laptop, and maybe not seen at all. Sweetie and I were discussing that the other day -- we rarely pay attention to book covers at all anymore, except for when I happened to (on a nostalgia trip) wander through the Barnes & Noble BookeStore near us.

So in a thumbnail, your knight might be a purple smudge, whereas in a thumbnail the current "Dead God" cover is dramatic and eye catching.

PT Dilloway said...

Pagel hit the nail on the head! In full size you can see it fine but in a thumbnail (like in my Blogger feed) it's just a purple smudge.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

It's okay to take liberty in offering advice to Grumpy. He has no taste at all when it comes to what looks great and what doesn't.

Rusty Carl said...

@briane @ Grumpy - too long to get into now, but aside from making sure the title is viewable as a thumbnail there is some evidence that people still like nice covers once they are seen larger. After the book is opened you sometimes have a larger version of the cover as a splash page. That said. The helmet could be bigger. I was just making an example for Grumpy to look at.

Everyone else - thank you

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

It gives room for the title and author's name, which is important.

Jay Noel said...

Grumpy, it's not the size of the helmet that matters, it's the strength of the tale.

But seriously, I like this approach better. Covers with full blown main characters on the front remind me of YA Paranormal Romance Books. Just go to a Barnes & Noble. Unless your book just happens to be YA Paranormal Romance, of course.

Mysterious is good.

Cindy said...

I like all the text, but the rest is just not speaking to me. I need more.

PT Dilloway said...

I remembered something from my old blog where I said "First since my character wears magical armor and carries a sword I looked for armor and swords. Then I figured that if I went with a helmet or a sword people would think it was a fantasy book."

http://roguemutt.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/cover-me/

Rusty Carl said...

I remember that post. I'm not saying this is perfect. I was just saying you might be able to go in a different direction than you were considering. You could also do a giant helmet.

Rusty Carl said...

You totally did! He stopped by late today. He might be getting bored with my book cover posts.

PT Dilloway said...

I wonder why yours has the Reply thing. I went to my blog and didn't see it. Maybe I need to use the new interface or something.

PT Dilloway said...

Ah ha, I figured it out. I had to change the comments thing to below the post.

Rusty Carl said...

Beats me. I bounced around to several blogs this evening and it seemed about 50/50 on whether or not the reply thing was up.

M Pax said...

I like it a lot. Great job. The reply thingy doesn't appear to be on my blog yet. What terrible things will happen when it crops up? What will blogger eat as its fee for this newfangledness?

Anonymous said...

Brave man...putting your work up for us to scrutinize! Just getting started making my own covers... I'm always impressed by your work.