Goblin Tales Cover

[jimhines]

I’ve been working on cover designs for Goblin Tales, my hopefully-soon-to-be-epublished collection of five goblin-related short stories.  The cover art is by Daniel Ernle.  He created this image for my German short fiction collection Der Goblin-Held, and I contacted him for permission to use it for Goblin Tales.

Some of the things I kept in mind

Comments

[controuble]

The one on the right - larger Jig and title doesn't merge with the background (gold against green is more visible than blue against green unless colorblind). Will make a much better thumbnail.

[jimhines]

Thanks. It was also pointed out that some people will be seeing these in B&W if they're browsing/reading on older devices, which is something I need to consider as well. Grumble...

[celtic_catgirl]

I prefer the one on the right with the gold text, and larger image, the small quote text is more difficult to read.

Not sure how big the artwork you have is but I'd be interested to see the image zoomed halfway between the left and right and have Jig a little to the left of the image area (like his head roughly under the 'T') and see a little more of what's in front of him.

[jimhines]

Thanks! I'll play around with the zoom and with repositioning Jig a bit to see how it looks.

[corinneduyvis]

I prefer the blue -- maybe you could make the shadow the text drops a bit darker or bigger to make it stand out from the background more? It didn't bother me, but apparently it did some others.

I prefer the zoomed-out version. If you go with the zoomed-in version, I agree that Jig should probably be moved to the left a bit.

I think you can keep the PW quote -- I know I'd be more interested after reading that -- but maybe with a different font? Or maybe just Publisher's Weekly smaller/italicized? (As a minor sidenote, the lack of s after Hines' bothered me, but Google tells me it's optional.)

It looks really good, though! It's put together very well, I think :)

[corinneduyvis]

(Er, that was longer than intended. If you weren't looking for feedback of this sort, sorry! I have Very Strong Feelings about design/art things so I got carried away a little.)

[jimhines]

No, I want feedback, thanks! I'm an author, not an artist, and while I think I do okay, I definitely need some second opinions to help me improve this. So thank you!

[beccastareyes]

The zoomed-in one looks a bit blurry to my eyes. I also rather like the blue font, though I agree with others that the 's' in Tales doesn't stand out quite as much. I'm kind of 'meh' on the blurb.

[jimhines]

I'm thinking and hoping that if I nudge up the drop shadow, the title font should (hopefully) get a little easier to read. Thanks!

[beccastareyes]

You're welcome. I know the fun of that from icon making for LJ.

[suzannemcleod]

Great images! I like the blue, the zoomed in and the quote :-)