Does this book cover look OK?

[Leapfrog00]

I've been thinking about publishing the first book in my fantasy/horror series. The series begins with a young man named Triton who is a bit of a pushover, and always had trouble facing his fears. After a local bank gets robbed, the bank robbers crash into his car while getting away and he dies in the crash.

After his death, he meets a spiritual guide named Mackenzie who sends him back to earth to learn how to deal with the struggles in life and face his fears. He meets four other individuals, and together, they travel through time, working as a team, figuring ways out of difficult situations and facing some of their own fears along the way.

I realize this book cover isn't formatted. If I do go to publish the first book and format the cover, I was thinking of using this one. What do you think?

[Rosexøxø]

Honestly, I found myself fascinated by it and wanting to read all of it, but at the same time, I was a bit overwhelmed. I love depth and context, AND I know you’re excited to just tell the readers/audience what your book is about and really drive the hook line and sinker here, but you can’t give the whole plot/context right on the front cover 😆. I love your ENTHUSIASM, but you have to try to find a balance.

I can relate- for some context: I used to make “motivational” quotes with backgrounds on instagram, and at one point it became a similar dilemma to this one: just too many words. (For myself, wayyy too many colors), and I even added music so there was just a lot going on. Some people would admit to that and tell me about it, but I noticed some likes and views went down on my feed/page and all. I eventually stopped because I realized I enjoyed the edits more than the speaking and I would run out of things to say or music selections, and not know what those people needed to hear anyways. It was kind of draining and I realized I just wanted to create without it having to be meaningful all the time.

So that was my little fiasco and it’s enough some would say o spoke too much anyhow. In this case I’m not trying to project or anything, but it seems like a lot of imagery and words per page COVER.

My first thought was: those words could be the names of the chapters or added to the blurb in bulleted context, almost. For some like intense effect, or so. I don’t want to rain on your parade. I’m excited about your book and I remember you speaking on it a while back and in the drafting process, so I’m glad you’ve gotten to this point. I don’t mean to offend you but I got excited and wanted to just make you an offer of a cover image that you can either use as reference or toss or whatever. Just give it a preview and let me know your honest thoughts. I was trying to corporate the symbols you wanted, as well as some of those intense word grabbers/ topics, about what the book covers on.

I’ll honestly say, I took quite some time (I always have when it came to photo edits), but I accidentally DELETED the final product. I luckily had a general screenshot of the gallery and how I came to that product and then tried to start halfway through and use a snippet of an image and go from there. I tried to recreate. It’s not the same. Don’t know if it’s better or not AND I don’t want you to feel pressured to use my reference or anything like that. This is YOUR novel. Every part of it should be what you want to make it and envision for it. I think my suggestion, even if you don’t use my reference to build off of or so, is:

it’s a great start, but I personally think condensing the words in the front to a couple would be more manageable. I noticed you used an image of a web and mentioned in words, spiders, so I felt that part was redundant a slight bit, and it left me wondering if you wanted more images than words or more words than images. You can have both! But the biggest thing is finding a way to balance it and not overdo/overuse all your tools in the front right away. People usually expect to do the majority of the reading within the book, so I feel like having a reasonable amount of them on the front would be a good direction to take/ or at least consider.

I LOVE where you’re going with this the brainstorming and everything. I really think it can take and I love that your creative gears are turning and goin’. I think for future reference you’ll find your niche/edge, but you should also consider like an editor or someone you could consult with. It’s great getting multiple opinions for sure, but my only concern is that it would be too broad/vague and might lead you a bit off course from the idea and final product that you wanted for this.

My main afterthought is that I just hope you continue and persevere until you start to see the results that YOU want. Fingers crossed and I hope you get the deals that you wanted/hoped for.

I meant no offense whatsoever! So I apologize if anything I said came across as harsh, offensive, or like dominating your own thoughts and feelings for this project.

best to you! Truly!!

https://ibb.co/qWvGCnm
https://ibb.co/Qj1S1BM

[Rosexøxø]

Ps I did have a clock (pocket watch) I was thinking also making one where the top part is the person behind the glass (your selected image) and then the clock part on the bottom half of the watch. That was my other random conceptual idea for it, but throughout the edits and trying to recover the original and finish it, I noticed the moon became blurry and so did the watch in the background. I couldn’t shrink the clock image any more so it also kind of covered the silhouette hands. Not sure what colors you wanted or fonts you were thinking. My original attempt had slime I was limited with words fonts on the app I used and so I do apologize if it’s far from what look you were going for.

[Rosexøxø]

Yeah, I saw when you posted the question and it took me like two hours to make and then remake halfway lol. That’s ridiculous really. It’s also partly why I couldn’t go on with the insta because it was definitely time consuming. Especially if you made mistakes or accidentally deleted things. All the effort in and I wasn’t taking off at a rate I wanted. What I’m saying is with someone who can hear your vision and has the right tools you can find one that will really carry the cover and your idea farther than you originally thought. I root for this! 💯💯

[Rosexøxø]

Oh last thought LOL careful with sharing storylines when it’s not yet published and parents or all of that and don’t forget the crucial- you know it! Make space for your name on the cover! That’s a must!

[Rosexøxø]

Patents*

[Leapfrog00]

I think I did overdo it. Yes, the balance! Don't worry about hurting my feelings. I could use all the help I can get! I ha e made a dozen different coves and didn't feel comfortable with any of them.

Maybe I should go more simplistic. when I wrote the first book, I was going toward fear being the main theme, but after I wrote more into the characters, I realized it's more of the struggles in life that's holding them back

I like how detailed your image looks, and you didn't overdo it like I did, lol. You have a creative strength there. I can imagine the inspirational quotes you've done are probably well written and beautiful.

I did one cover a while back with pictures of the characters but yes, I think you're right. I'm giving away way too much instead of giving the reader a chance to ease into the story.

If I didn't live in such a trash town, I would just look into an editor and designer, but my resources are very limited here. I have to use my hotspot for my internet and it's too slow to send large files to editors. I'm as far down on the on the poverty level as JK Rowling was, so I'm basically starting from nothing.

You have given me a great idea. My cover is too flashy. I appreciate the honesty. This has helped me out a great bit! Thanks a bunch!

[Rosexøxø]

Yesss!! No problem! And I love that you mentioned Rowling! Great inspiration and a true testimate of:

Possibilities!

Yes being open to improvement it good so I’m glad you weren’t too offended since I only meant well BUT just filter it and use your good judgement for now until you have people you can truly trust and even those who mean well can hurt our progress so take it with some grains of salt 🧂

I think it’s totally understandable about limited resources. I know a thing or two about those! So definitely have fun with this project and as Disney said:

KEEP MOVING FORWARD 💯

Maybe keep going back to your edits and try touch ups and such

Fine tune some of them until you get that perfect one you want and try to run it by some people maybe not as a cover but image so they don’t steal ideas and such.

Just an option!

But I think you’re on a great path so far and I think this can definitely work out!

Cheers! :]

[LaFemmeFatale_1]

I will be honest, I don’t like it. You can think of a better cover with this storyline.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

I really like the cover concept but I think all the text creates such a busy composition. My eyes want to go all over the place and that detracts from the visual focus of the title and image.

So I think it'd help a lot for a start to subdue all the text besides the title, push it to the background so that people can still notice it and read it after initially being drawn to the title and image, and maybe even pull the title more into the foreground. At the moment, I think you have too many elements competing to be the foreground.

[Leapfrog00]

I wanted to do something simpler to be honest, but these publishers are always saying 'go big,.. bigger helps get the novels promoted'. I have some artwork of my own I was thinking of using.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

I think the concept is excellent and invokes horrific imagery. I like the idea very much.

[Rosexøxø]

@Leapfrog00 yeah check out social media apps lol because their features for editing photos are a bit more opportunistic than our phone galleries and such. I don’t remember the last time I actually used my phone gallery to edit photos. Insta has good ones as does Snapchat. There’s probably even more with actual photo-editing apps. Feel free to explore more on that so you can have fun lining things up until it gets closer and closer to what you want.

[RavVid]

Sounds good. Reacting honesty to your cover less - can be more. The snake and the spider web look a bit tacked on. Some of the words could go why is feet there? The opposite sex... a lot of have affection for the same rather than a fear. I think reduce and narrow down.

The imagery of what seems to be a scared fetus would get me browsing the book. So that is pretty good. I would not get Death just time traveled you but could if 'to deal with your fears' was tacked on.

All the best.

[Rosexøxø]

Helpful read

[AviatorDom]

I think in the afterlife, Triton should meet his Master. Throughout the series, your master, @AviatorDom, takes delight in devising sadistic and pain-inducing scenarios Triton must face a series of absurdly sadistic punishments:

The Whipping Post of Shame: Whenever Triton falters in his quest, he's tied to the whipping post and subjected to a flogging that leaves him howling with pain.

The Nipple Clamp Challenge: As a test of his resolve, Triton must endure the excruciating pain of nipple clamps while attempting to solve historical riddles.

The Belly Flop of Fear: To conquer his fear of heights, Triton is suspended high above the ground and must perform a stomach-churning belly flop onto a small platform, all while wearing a suit of armor.

The Genitalia Torture Trials: As a means to overcome his insecurities, Triton must face a gauntlet of ball torture devices while reciting poems about his love for his Master.

[coachTanthony]

Its a good start. Still needs to be laid out like a real book. Title author etc. My latest book cover is below. And a good tip is LESS IS MORE. Looks a little busy.

[Rosexøxø]

Good luck!

[coachTanthony]

@Rosexøxø Thanks

[Static_In_The_Attic]

If truth be told the title needs to be bigger & changed around a little & Destination Fear is already a book so that might lead you towards some legal troubles along with the copyrighted photos.

[Leapfrog00]

After I finished the first book, I did some research, and the only thing I found was a television show with the same title, and a book about one of the persons from the show, which is a documentary, According to U. S copyright laws, two books can have the same title as long as they're not being confused for the same works.

[PBandJ_Nerd]

I think maybe making your cover a bit simpler might help a bit.

[AviatorTom]

It's too busy, the actual title (and subtitle) get lost, hard to see, and the cover probably gives away part of the story line. Try just getting rid of all the "fears" words.

[sheikalana]

All those keywords are a bit too much in my opinion.

[RebelinSteel]

It looks like a psychology book and I would walk past it, or scroll past it.

[Anonymous]

please hire and pay for an artist to make a cover for you. covers attract readers and i probably would pass that by.

[ab2shifty]

I mean it’s aight, little more details then it could go hard

[strateguy632]

for horror great. for me a turn off.

[Paris13]

Pretty Cool. xxoo

[Paris13]

I Used Canva for My Own Book Cover for My First Published Book and Also I Have the Second One Ready for My Second. xxoo

[exitseven]

It's pemretty creepy. I like it

[NathanDavis]

nope

[KatieNorCal]

Maybe