TheNextBigWriter Premium → You Only Love Twice cover art
My daughter, who creates artwork and scenarios for a gaming company as Lis Winter, has created three possible covers for my novel.
It would be helpful to me to get any opinions as to which one appeals to you the most: 1, 2 or 3. Sorry, I know they are large, but if they were smaller, you might miss details.
Number 1:
Number 2:
Number 3:
Thanks,
~Tom
I suggest you try covercritics.com, but I'd pick #2. You have a geometric connection between the lettering and the human figure. It has a slightly wider color palette than the others.
covercritics.com will tell you to make your byline bigger. I suggest using a font closer to the title font. And for the actual title I'd make the title area a little wider, toward the right and down.
Here's a quick hack (and edited): 
#2
I suggest having the woman's face looking out at the reader in #2 and a small silhouette of a man near the structure (but not in front of the bullet train).
Nice job! Number 2 looks best to me.
I seem to be in the minority, but I prefer #1. For me, the presence of the female and the train aren't necessary, and Fuji in front of the cityscape makes it look like a sand pile.
I prefer option number one. Simple but very effective.
2 appeals to me most. The side view of the woman is mysterious and adds a warmth to the overall image.
I like ke the layering of images.
Number 2, but I agree with NJC that the letters should be larger.
Kiss,
Gacela
#2, but NJC is correct. I like the color of #1 though. Any chance of making a 4th option with #2 and the bright yellow? Having read the story, #2 just fits.
I think the color in #1 is too dark. I would try moving the hue of #2 toward #1 without making it as dark or as saturated. I'm not sure of how to do that with GIMP ... okay, hacked rather badly.
One of the points that covercritics often pounds on is that the cover should be distinctive and (ideally) readable in thumbnail. Distinctive is the most important, though.
#2 - perhaps too "busy" with the train, and the lettering for your name might be bigger. The color (too much Vit. B excretion in urine) for #1 is unattractive.
Hi Tom! I'm one of the minority: I really like the yellow one (#1). I love the depth of color, and the simplicity in the presentation. I also really, really like #2, however, and that one seems to be the majority favorite. I love the mysterious woman on a snowy background in that one. Best wishes with these. 
Hi 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.
I really didn't expect this much response. For some reason, I am NOT receiving any notifications for this thread and that bothers me. I've tried unsubscribing and resubscribing, but that hasn't helped. Time to get Sol involved I'm thinking.
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
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.
#1 does have buildings in the background, Corra, but they are more subliminal and blocky in appearance. As I look at it now, printed on my laser and hung on the wall, maybe a graduated tint, starting light near the bottom and going darker at the top might work to draw out the snow on Fuji-san.
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
Oh, I'm sorry! I can see that now. I hadn't noticed the impression of buildings in the first, even after studying it for a few minutes! I did notice a subtle geometric impression in the background of the first, at the top. I didn't realize they were meant to be buildings. It might be an issue of how large the cover is on my screen. To me the impression of buildings in the first looks like geometric pixels which my brain simply tuned out as background. I assumed they were meant as pattern.
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 like your last sentence, Corra. You, speaking as one who has not red the book, put your finger directly on what was bothering me. The train DOES look cut and pasted. Without it, there is a circular cohesion to the whole cover. Starting at the girl, we see her looking out the window at the buildings. Your eye reads the title and follows down through the pine tree to the tower. Then sweeps left to see the author's name (changed to the same font as the title) while above sits Fuji-san. That completes the circle. In the middle, stands the Kanji character for "Love" centered in a red ball. The train is not necessary. The girl, the font, the stylized tree, the temple, Fuji-san, and the Kanji immediately conjure up Japan.
With the girl facing away from the reader, I think it give her a sort of wistfulness.
~Tom
Yes. To all of that! Best wishes with this, Tom.
Thanks, Corra. My thanks to everyone who responded to my question. I received some good input and it will be taken into account.
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
Tom, for my first book, I was told to try orange rather than red. I got my guy to do a mock of of each, with the back included. I printed them off and took them to my local bookstore where I had the owner wrap them around a book of the size I intended, and she placed them on her shelves without me knowing where. I went through the store to find my book. I walked right past the orange and didn't even notice it. Needless to say, I chose the red. You might try a similar experiment.
Good advice, Janet. I may do something like that myself. The trouble with rabbit stew is that you first have to catch the rabbit. I may use the red idea by putting the same red sun with the Kanji character on the spine. I have several books in my shelves here that have red on the spine (or are red entirely), and my eye does gravitate to them easily.
~Tom
I didn't mean use red, Tom. I meant print your possible covers and go somewhere like I did and see which one you see or have your wife go find them.
I would say either one or two; my personal preference is #1. I like the simplicity; there's something magical about the imagery. #2 feels a little too busy.
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!
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