March/April 2017 Lite Challenge: Finding the Fleet

[Straf]

OK, this is just me but I thought the darker bit was the sea at first, and the lighter part the land. Personally I think the land would be better in a lighter colour and the sea with a bit of shading on it. The text isn't playing the game for me either - it doesn't sit well with the other colours, it is too white. Can you try something more 'buff' maybe like the current sea colour in the Merelan bay area? Also the feather isn't 'feathery' enough, and it, too, could be darker to fit in with the rest of the background.

Like I say this could just be me and my eyes may be a bit dodgy as I may have had a little more ţuica than I should have but the text and the feather appear to be floating above.

[Mouse]

A tonal reversal then? Hmmmn...

I'm actually thinking of returning to the original design, but just doing it better. The feather logo (a logo for the series) doesn't really fit with this design I've been working on all that well - and I really did try to make it feathery! LOL! The text and the feather are meant to look like they are floating in space. I'm worried about impact - whether the cover will stand out in rows and rows of fantasy novel covers on Amazon. I know you shouldn't judge a book by the cover, but the sad facts are nowadays in the ebook market that if you aren't already a 'name', then you have to grab the attention with the cover to get people to click on it in the first place.

I'll have a nice long think about this now...

[Straf]

Grabbing the attention eh?

How about "Refugee immigrants on benefits ruin seaside town with shanty village"?

Did you see some book store owner using tabloid style lines to get people to look at books? For example "British guy dies after selfie gone wrong" is his description of 'A Picture of Dorian Grey'

Oh the other thing I forgot to mention - are your proportions in line with the normal size of books for the genre? I think it's usually somewhere around 2:3 or thereabouts for fiction, but I might be wrong there.

[Mouse]

Hmmn (again)....

I once got 16 calls and offers of rooms available in the space of 10 minutes flat when I was a student back in the 80's by advertising in the local rag for digs by saying: 'Desperately seeking accommodation - Susan' (for those who are too young to remember, Desperately Seeking Susan was a new hit film back then, with the very young and newly made popstar Madonna in it).

I will check again, but the dimensions are what the Amazon rep told me when I questioned the sizes they gave on the information page. They were given in mm to start with, but I got hold of someone who spoke in pixels and resolutions in the end. Mind you - it was about a year ago now, so things might have changed in the meantime.

[Mouse]

This is what Kindle actually said to me:

Thanks for taking the time to contact Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). It is always better to clarify things before proceeding. I appreciate that you wrote to us with your doubt.

Please make sure you hold all appropriate rights to use the image, and make sure it meets the following requirements:

- TIFF (.tif/.tiff) or JPEG (.jpeg/.jpg) format
- minimum dimensions of 1000 pixels on the longest side and 625 pixels on the shortest side
- 72 dpi (dots per inch)
- RGB color profile
- For best quality, the ideal ratio of width to height is 1.6 (we suggest 2500 pixels on the longest side and 1563 pixels on the shortest side)

We cannot accept images larger than 10,000 pixels on the longest side.

After you upload your image and click “Save and Publish,” the changes will show up on the website within 72 hours.

[Straf]

OK, that relates to 5:8 which is roughly a comfortable paperback size. I think.

[Mouse]

Those are the exact dimensions I've done this cover, even though it looks too tall for my personal taste

[Falconius]

Some things. Judging by modern book covers it is first of all very bizarre to see the title left justified instead of centered or graphically played about with. The second thing is that I've noticed modern book covers are very mono-tonal (black and white, only with blue and black, or red and black etc.) Doubtless this will change, but it kind of sounds like you are mostly ready to publish around NOW (very commendable, and actually amazing, such a task requires such discipline as to be monumental). That said I am kind of plastered right now and some idiot (me) has allowed me access to the internet, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt. I have to agree sir Staff until I noticed the water line rivers and streams I assumed the darker part to be the ocean. All that idiotic rambling said, I actually like the colours you have there (apart from the forever jarring white.) I have to say with composition and colour you are well on you way, but haven't brought it quite together (please shoot me).

[Bogie]

Nice work. I don't mind the left justified text, just maybe if it were moved slightly to the right.

[Mouse]

Some things. Judging by modern book covers it is first of all very bizarre to see the title left justified instead of centered or graphically played about with. The second thing is that I've noticed modern book covers are very mono-tonal (black and white, only with blue and black, or red and black etc.) Doubtless this will change, but it kind of sounds like you are mostly ready to publish around NOW (very commendable, and actually amazing, such a task requires such discipline as to be monumental). That said I am kind of plastered right now and some idiot (me) has allowed me access to the internet, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt. I have to agree sir Staff until I noticed the water line rivers and streams I assumed the darker part to be the ocean. All that idiotic rambling said, I actually like the colours you have there (apart from the forever jarring white.) I have to say with composition and colour you are well on you way, but haven't brought it quite together (please shoot me).

LOL! Mine's a very large glass of decent plonk, thanks

Oddly enough, you may be right about quite a bit of that. I was hoping to put a twist on the black and white theme by having heavy contrast between light and dark - hence one side dark and one side light (also, the land being dark at least partly disguises the way I'm not terribly good with Wilbur just yet).

Already written? About 9/10 of the way there with book 1, but currently stalled by sleep deprivation caused by noisy neighbours (one owl, one lark). I get 2-4 hours a night if I'm lucky between 1-3 am and 5.30 am, and frequently fall asleep during the day when I should be writing. Doing the cover artwork and the maps to go with them is less taxing on a half dead brain than doing any actual writing, so I'm doing the artwork while I figure out how to get enough money together to be able to get out of this hell hole. Ironically, to get that extra deposit and estate agent fee sum together I really need to be already published and making just a small amount extra to be able to save.

Now I'm rambling, but I'm totally shattered after several months of the same - sorry.

The white title is to ensure it stands out. This is aimed at the 'Young Adult' readership, and will hopefully appear on this page one day:

Sample page.JPG

To me, the titles that are white stand out a lot better at the size the image is first viewed, so I'm not too keen on toning it down all that much. Even the very pale blue title 'Fractured' fades into the background against the rest.

The other problem I haven't thought about yet is that I may be suffering from an unhealthy obsession with maps, since I haven't seen even one Fantasy novel with a map on the cover... but at the end of the day if Amazon decides to give it away free (which they can at will, regardless of my wishes) its not really going to make all that much difference to the moving house fund what the cover looks like, as from a financial angle it won't matter if anyone reads it or not - and that's before I get taxed by the US and the UK - about 45% of the price in all (I think)!

Now I could really do with that glass of wine! LOL!

Nice work. I don't mind the left justified text, just maybe if it were moved slightly to the right.

You're so kind to me, Bogie. Thank you

The truth is that I did have it moved a bit to the right in an earlier version, but for some reason it crept back over to the left margin when I wasn't looking (or fell asleep at the desk). I'll try shifting it back again and see if it looks a bit better