~Tom

~Tom

If you use #2, I would suggest removing the train at the bottom left corner, and making the author name a little bigger.  You know I love trains, but the pinned image stands out and tends to drag my eye to the bottom left-hand corner, rather than keeping it on the more central images of the mountain and the woman.

They are all beautiful, really. Your daughter is very talented!

~Tom

As far as my editing goes, I've reached midpoint. I need to scan forward to make sure I don't have to slide anything into the earlier chapters before I begin reposting the novel for comments once more.

Now all I have to do is find someone who will publish it, or figure out how to do it myself. Daunting, but not insolvable.

~Tom

With the girl facing away from the reader, I think it give her a sort of wistfulness.

~Tom

Well, obviously I like my version of simplicity in the top half of cover #1 but if you want to keep the buildings in it (which could be excellent), I do think adding some more definition to the buildings would make them more clearly buildings. (I'd) still keep them really subtle and subliminal. Maybe not quite so subtle, ha ha! Now that I realize they are meant to be buildings in #1, I like the contrast between the mountains (nature) and the buildings (industry/civilization). It reminds me of a novel I read once (Volcano by Shusaku Endo.)

I like the idea of making the color on the first more antique. But I also like it as it is -- with the rich yellow.

And like I said -- I like the snowy white ones too, with the woman. They're all good. I think the subway/Shinkansen would be/is too much. I'd remove the train or Shinkansen altogether. I like what you say about the woman's face bridging the image. I feel like having the train in there takes away from that subtle mystery of the woman, the buildings, the snowy mountains. The train doesn't really add much, imho, and threatens to appear cut and pasted. The rest has a symmetry, while the train looks pasted in.

An entirely biased opinion based on personal preference. Also bearing in mind I have no idea what the novel is about...

I am also reminded that the MCs use a normal commuting train every working day, so perhaps that would be better than the Shinkansen. Subway trains are quite blocky but have a distinctive front shape.

~Tom

What if the Shinkansen were removed from #2? Would that enhance the contrast from city to country, making the woman the "bridge" between them?

Yes. Removing the Shinkansen from #2 would simplify & therefore improve it, I think.

If you go with #2, I prefer the lighter coloring. It intensifies the snow effect on the mountains.  I'm not sure it needs the yellow tint. I think the yellow works on the first version because the image is so simple. If you start adding the woman and the mountains and buildings along with the yellow, that would look too busy, imho. I think (and I'm certainly no expert) that if you choose to go with the yellow, it should balance a relatively simple cover.

I don't think, if you go with #1, that you need to add buildings to the background. I really like it simplified. The color is the power in that one, and would become overpowering if you add too much detail.

Only my thoughts.

Everyone's input will be seriously evaluated by me and my daughter. She seems to be leaning toward #1 also, with an eye to lightening the yellow and changing the shade to a bit more "antique". Your last version, NJC, is a good one, too. One of the things that will happen is to make the title font a bit larger and perhaps slightly "wider". My name will change to the same font and also 1 point larger.

Would #1 improve even more if the buildings were more definid, similar to they way they are in #2 and #3?

What if the Shinkansen were removed from #2? Would that enhance the contrast from city to country, making the woman the "bridge" between them?

~Tom

I'm with Jack and Corra -- I prefer the simplicity of #1. I feel like #2 and #3 have too many competing elements, which distract too much.

Good luck.