Uncovered

[rowyn]

One of the other things* I need before I can publish is a cover. I started work on this a couple of months ago, found it depressing and overwhelming, and gave up for a while. Friday I decided to take another stab at it. Today I figured I would post about it and see what people think

Comments

...I wrote so long, I have to make 2 posts. Augh.

[archangelbeth]

Advance apologies if I sound cranky or ripping-apart. I'm more on the "this is a good start, and it's definitely something that can work with the book, but I think you have some fatal flaws NOOOO NO FATAL FLAWS DON'T HURT THE BOOOOOK! *throws self on cover in slow motion*" mode. >_

...I wrote so long, I have to make 2 posts. Part 2.

[archangelbeth]

E: The "A"s on the title have opposite weights to what you should do, I think -- you have the first one large, but the one that's part of "Arrangement" is small. This is crippling your ability to make "Arrangement" the focus of the title. Reverse that -- make the first "A" smaller, so it won't get in the way of when you make Arrangement big and un-squished. Go back to "All That Glitters" and notice that "Glitters" is bigger than the other two words -- I think you might want to try cradling "A Rational" in the shape of the "Arrangement," if you see what I mean. Let Arrangement take up the current width, round and unsquished, and tuck a smaller capital A beside the first one, and stagger down Rational just a tad. Heck, make "Arrangement"'s A go big, up near-parallel the top of the R

RE: ...I wrote so long, I have to make 2 posts. Augh.

[tuftears]

Yeah, I concur, shrinking the art a bit could be a help to the composition, about 33%. I'd also agree with making the outer border be black and the middle border be gold and removing the inner border.

I really like the dancers as a book cover motif though.

[marina_bonomi]

I really like the third option. :)

The only suggestion I have is to check how it reads at thumbnail size. The illustration proper shouldn't have any problems in small size, the title and your name might need to be adjusted to be clearer.

[alinsa]

One issue I think all of the covers have is that they don't really say "poly romance", they say "love triangle romance". On the first two I think this could probably be addressed using a different ring layout, like, say, something like this (pardon the crappy 5-second cellphone shot, with a selection of rings based on what was within an arm's reach):

[whitefangedwolf]

I really like this modified version of the second cover. The leather texture makes it work visually. I would lighten up the darker outer edges a bit to even out the cover's brightness.

As far as conveying "poly romance" goes, I suspect that the book blurb will have to convey it since "love triangle romance" is common enough that pretty much anything has the potential to be misinterpreted.

[alinsa]

Totally randomly, here's an unfinished mock I did a month or two back. Rowyn wasn't a fan, but I thought I'd selfishly show it off at least once before it disappeared to the annals of time:

[archangelbeth]

Hm. I wonder what would happen if you put the dancers in the corner instead of the rings...

(...help, I see The Mouse now. Help. *facepalm*)

[rowyn]

it's less that I don't like it, than that:

a) I don't really want to write that much of the contract (or use placeholder text)
b) I like my versions all right. c_c