Fox Paws - Cover Critique Corner - Free - OPEN 2024

[TheTigerWriter]

Omg, that Cristine meme XD

First off, I’m getting post-apocalyptic action, possibly with a military involved. The bold font is what gives the “action” vibe. Usually chucky font have that vibe. There’s probably going to be a lot of fighting and running around. I would also say it takes place in an urban setting.

There’s probably going to be blood. Lots of it.

I don’t get horror from it though.

You might try to play around with the font. Fade the bottom of the text to make it look more mysterious.

If you look at this, horror books often have either something creepy on the cover, something hidden (either an object, a place, or the text), something red (even just the text), or something dark with one spot lit up.

It might be cool to have the title text slightly hidden in smoke, hidden behind trees or buildings, or faded on the bottom (something you can do if you’re able to erase the bottom of the text). You have an interesting effect going on with the author name. Like the author name is coming out of the shadows. It might help if you replicate that on the title.

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Well, that’s all I have. Know that these are my suggestions and if you don’t want to change things this way or that way, you don’t have to. In the end, it’s your cover. You know what fits best to your story. If you have any questions, feel free to ask

[copyedit]

@TheTigerWriter

First off, I’m getting post-apocalyptic action, possibly with a military involved. The bold font is what gives the “action” vibe. Usually chucky font have that vibe. There’s probably going to be a lot of fighting and running around. I would also say it takes place in an urban setting.

There’s probably going to be blood. Lots of it.

I don’t get horror from it though.

pretty spot on. i was aiming more for horror but this minus the military part is a fairly accurate read.

@TheTigerWriter

It might be cool to have the title text slightly hidden in smoke, hidden behind trees or buildings, or faded on the bottom (something you can do if you’re able to erase the bottom of the text).

hmm, i think i can manage that

@TheTigerWriter

You have an interesting effect going on with the author name. Like the author name is coming out of the shadows. It might help if you replicate that on the title.

ngl i did the exact same thing to both the author name and the title text. The author name just looks more shadowy because the effect makes the text slightly transparent and it’s darker at the top of the cover

thanks for the suggestions!

[TheTigerWriter]

You’re welcome! If you want to come back with an update, you can Good luck on your cover!

[TheTigerWriter]

This is open. Guys.

[TheTigerWriter]

Need any thoughts?

[TheTigerWriter]

Hai (Stitch)

[NatilladeCoco]

Hello! Here’s a cover I made for my WIP

I’m no expert on these whatsoever, but some feedback is always appreciated! The story’s genre is paranormal mystery, if it helps.

[TheTigerWriter]

At first glance, this gives me more horror, as in, potentially the bloody, gruesome kind rather than paranormal.

I’ll return with a more detailed critique later

[TheTigerWriter]

Okay, hi. I’m back

I gave your cover a good long thought as to why it comes off as horror rather than paranormal mystery. It’s really the needle with the blood that isn’t giving paranormal vibes. Anyway, I’ll get to that later.

Needs Hazy
When I think paranormal, I think of ghosts, and when I think of ghosts, I think of a hazy, blurred something on the cover. You do have some smoke on the cover, but what do you think about blurring the edges of the cover?

When I looked up paranormal mystery books on Google images, this is one that came out. It’s sort of hazy in the back giving it a mysterious vibe.

Btw, a lot of books are like this one with this color scheme, and I did immediately think you had a good paranormal color scheme.

Here’s another one.

I swear, I’m not choosing ones with similar color schemes XD This one also has that hazy look about it. As if the scene behind the girl is shrouded in fog.

The Needle
It’s the needle with the blood that makes me think about some demonic hunting thing is going to happen (or maybe some insane person is running around sewing people’s mouths shut) and there’s going to be lots of blood and bloody stitching. It’s not going to be pretty.

It also looks as if the needle is just floating there. There’s nothing in the title about it, and it’s not connected to any elements in the rest of the illustration.

Instead of the dripping blood, add a strand of thread which ties into the title text. You might not want to use red thread (because that could signify romance). Maybe white thread?

Or, you could find something different to put on that path. Maybe footprints or you could have a stretched shadow of a person.

Like this.

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Those are my thoughts

[NatilladeCoco]

Thank you so much! I’ll try out your suggestions and see what works

[TheTigerWriter]

You’re welcome! Feel free to come back if you make another version

[TheTigerWriter]

oh hi

this is open

[copyedit]

Hellloooo i’m baaaack with the same cover but make it a little different because I needed licensed images

Mood / Vibe of the Cover: postapocalyptic
Genre: horror
Specific Questions if any: I’m worried the text isn’t legible enough, what do you think? Any suggestions on how to fix it?

[TheTigerWriter]

Initial thoughts: You definitely have the vibe. It looks like a post-apocalyptic horror

The text being nearly the same color as the fire behind it, however, isn’t doing all that well. As a tiny thumbnail it’s bound to fade into the background. Usually, some contrast is good to have. The title text is for you to scream at the reader, “HEY WAIT! Stop scrolling! Check this out!”

Also, the stark red on black on the spine is a bit hard to read too because of the sheer contrast. I’ve heard from cover artists that if you are going to get it printed, red on black doesn’t come out well, so it’s good to not use pure red or pure black. Idk if you are planning to get it printed or not. So instead of pure red, you would do something a tad darker or a tad orange.

MRK is also a bit confusing…it does look like a publisher’s logo, or it could be your name Were you not able to fit your name on the spine as is? It’s also really hard to see. An idea about all that black on the spine: Give a slight brown or orange gradient instead of all the red.

As for the title text, both “Gallows” and “Humor” are hard to see including your author name. You could do light gold, white, or you could do a white with some gray on it. Just an idea: If you make the title text white, I think it would look nice if you put gray or black on just the tips of some of the letters. With that grunge type font, it would look like burn marks.

Here’s some stuff for inspiration:
This cover does a little fading at the tips. Gives the title a little style instead of just having plain white text.

Gradient text:
This one gives the text a tiny bit of gradient inspired by fire colors.

Another that uses white:
You can see a bit of shadow behind the title to give contrast because the fire is so bright.

More inspiration, this time with spine and back cover:
This one, the text has some kind of shadowy overlay on it which makes it look silvery.

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Hope this helps some

[copyedit]

@TheTigerWriter

Hope this helps some

thank you

@TheTigerWriter

Also, the stark red on black on the spine is a bit hard to read too because of the sheer contrast. I’ve heard from cover artists that if you are going to get it printed, red on black doesn’t come out well, so it’s good to not use pure red or pure black. Idk if you are planning to get it printed or not. So instead of pure red, you would do something a tad darker or a tad orange.

oh lol it shows up as orange on my laptop screen. But on my phone screen it does show up a lot more red ;-;

@TheTigerWriter

Just an idea: If you make the title text white, I think it would look nice if you put gray or black on just the tips of some of the letters. With that grunge type font, it would look like burn marks.

white makes the text look flat and tacky but I can lighten it and put some light outline/shadow to make it stand out from the flames more. Maybe something like this? (pretend the flame and the person’s head are where they were before, I can’t put them back unless I rasterize the text and I can’t adjust the text colour if I rasterize it)

[TheTigerWriter]

While it is better, the “Humour” part is quite hard to see because of the dark colors of the letters

I couldn’t find the exact font or the exact flames, but I did a bit of an experiment:

Instead of the dark colors on the entire text, I put just a tiny bit on the bottom of “Humour”.

I also put a slight shadow behind both Gallows and Humour to make them stand out from the background.

Just an idea

[copyedit]

hmm, i’ll try that, thanks

[TheTigerWriter]

If anyone needs another pair of eyes, I’m here

[TheTigerWriter]

boop

If you’re wondering, “Is she still making covers???”

It’s completely a coincidence that all of these are blue, pink, and purple
Magic of Words and Project Shadow were chosen by the authors. The ones in the middle weren’t, but I like them

[NatilladeCoco]

Finally back with some more versions!

Experimented with different font colors, extra fog, and a shadow replacing the needle to see how it fits