There’s a lot of debate in self-publishing circles about whether book covers should have people on them or not, and how this impacts sales.
This is an issue close to my heart as I prepare to self-publish my debut novel.
Most of the discussion focuses on covers for novels, but it does also affect many other types of books, including memoir, self-help, history and so on.
In some genres – romance, for example – it’s almost compulsory to have people on the book cover. For many others, a more evocative or even abstract type of cover has been standard.
How do we find the way forward?
My dilemma
I’m preparing my first novel Poison Bay for publication in December. It’s with my editor now, and we’re counting down. (Yikes! So much work to do!) [UPDATE: It’s out now, and you can check it out here.]
I have two alternative cover designs: one with a person on it, and one without.
And since I’m the Publisher, I have to make The Choice. *trembles in fear*
These are some of the issues I’ve been wrestling with, in case it helps you on your own publishing journey.
Thoughts from indie specialists
Russell Blake – a force of nature who churns out a new bestselling thriller in the time it takes me to remember where I put my phone – wrote a blog post generously revealing the steps he went through to sort out the cover for one of his titles.
Go and read that article to see the evolution of the cover design through three different montage-type covers that are typical of thrillers. And then, he ended up with this one:
It’s a gorgeous cover, simple enough to have impact in Amazon’s tiniest thumbnail size, and yet with plenty of texture and detail once it’s enlarged.
Russell credits this cover change with a leap in his book’s rankings from 18,000 to below 5,000. (The smaller the number the better – it means more sales.)
His experience raises a number of unanswerable questions for me. Did the cover work partly because it’s so different to many others in the genre, and that grabbed people’s attention and earned that first important click? How many factors we know nothing about might have played a role in the rankings leap, including the actions of other authors at the same time, and weird shifts in the Amazon algorithms?
Whatever the answer to those questions might be, the only thing Russell did differently to get the ranking surge was change his cover, and his take-home for us is this:
“Figure out what the story is, and then choose a theme that communicates it clearly.”
Simple.
And yet difficult.
Another indie who has weighed in on this is Joanna Penn, one of the world’s top self-publishing bloggers, and thriller author as JF Penn.
In an article about how she changed her book covers, Joanna shows us how one of her covers went from light and arty to dark and specific, and also how she’d added a person to one of her previous designs. (I notice that she has since added a woman to all her other designs in the series.)
Joanna says she made two mistakes previously: prioritising theme over character, and failing to meet genre expectations.
That raises a conflict for me… at the mystery and suspense end of the bookshelf, where Poison Bay will sit, a lot of industry covers feature setting or landscape, but no people. But I think her point about character is important, especially since my novel is character-driven.
What to do?
Derek Murphy of Creativindie has written a useful article on design secrets used by publishers to get us to buy books.
He mentions the Odd Thomas series by bestselling suspense author Dean Koontz. I find it interesting that these books have different covers between the Kindle and paperback editions.
Personally, I like the Kindle cover on the left. It’s moody and intriguing and classy (and it’s in the cover series Derek gave his tick of approval). The other one looks like a trashy supermarket novel to me (and what is with that really weird tall-skinny shape?). But the flutterings of my artistic little heart probably don’t trouble the publisher all that much. The question they care about is: which one triggers sales?
They both have humans on them, and as Derek says “people sell. Having a person on/in the cover creates intrigue and interest. But only if done right.”
Hmmm. “Only if done right.” That’s the tricky part.
How do traditional publishers figure this out?
This fascinating article by Jeff Kleinman of Folio Literary Management goes into a lot of detail about how publishers research the effectiveness of book covers. He discusses what book covers have in common with other forms of product packaging, and where they differ.
It’s a woefully inexact science, not least because the reader often doesn’t know what prompted them to like one cover over another, anyway. All we can be sure of is that a “good” cover (whatever that may be) can really sell a book. Often, we only know it was a good cover after it’s proved itself!
Obviously, online book purchasing works differently to the physical book shopping Jeff mentions. People can’t pick up the book, feel embossing or silky matte celloglaze, turn it over in their hands.
They’re restricted to seeing a small thumbnail image, and using it to decide whether or not to click to see a slightly larger image, and a book description.
From there, they can click the “look inside” feature. If the publisher has had the presence of mind to add the cover art, and the reader thinks to scroll UP, they will see the book cover even larger again.
However, they’ll never see the cover in its full printed glory until and if they order the paperback, AFTER they’ve made their purchasing decision.
Online bookstores do have one advantage over the bricks-n-mortar alternative as far as we authors go: all the books are shelved facing out! If anyone ever does happen to see our book among the gazillions of them on Amazon, it won’t be just the spine that they see. 😉
Rather than thinking about whether they “love” or “hate” their book cover, Jeff poses three questions for authors to ask themselves when they receive the cover art from their publisher:
- Will this stand out on a crowded shelf? [i.e., is it distinctive?]
- Is the cover’s message clear?
- Does this engage me emotionally?
They sound like good questions for self-publishers to ask themselves, too.
I’m asking those myself, right now.
My alternatives
I’ve got two cover designs to choose from.
My book is about a bunch of people with a shared secret who go trekking in the New Zealand wilderness. Let’s just say, they don’t all come home. 😉
The tagline is: When the wilderness is not your only enemy, who do you trust?
**EDIT: In response to some of the comments below, just as a test to see if it changes people’s reactions, I’ve changed the tagline for the Wave version to “When the elements are not your only enemy, who do you trust?” (Yeah, I know, awkward singular/plural thing going on there…)
Cover Option 1 has a breaking wave that looks like it’s about to eat you alive. It’s simple and delivers the message that nature can be dangerous.
Cover Option 2 ticks the “character” box Joanna Penn mentions by having a person in it, and also gives more indication of the specifics of the book.
As my own Publisher, I have to not only decide between the different emotions and content reflected in these covers, I also have to consider which is more likely to earn that first “click” at tiny Amazon thumbnail size.
I can always try one, and if that doesn’t seem to be working, switch to the other one. That’s the beauty of today’s self-publishing. We’re not necessarily stuck with 4000 books in the garage.
But there is a fee involved in switching the cover with a print-on-demand outfit like Lightning Source, so it’s not something I’d want to do every second day. 😉
What do you think? The wave or the woman?
Take the poll!
[yop_poll id=”3″]
EDITED: The poll is closed now – thank you all so much for your input. I’ve written a follow-up post that shows the poll results, how I processed them… and the finished book cover that emerged! You can find it here: https://smallbluedog.com/book-covers-processing-feedback.html
Your thoughts
Please leave a comment, too. What has your experience been? I’d also love some feedback on my two covers, and what it is that draws you to either one.
What types of covers influence you to click to read more? Have you been through the process of working this out for your own books?
I like them both, but lean towards the one without the woman on it. Not because one has a person on it and the other doesn’t. I just think the image on the left is more powerful
Thanks Blair. I always loved that wave. I ended up creating a cover that combined the two. The feedback here definitely helped me make my choices and tweaks. https://smallbluedog.com/book-covers-processing-feedback.html
Belinda, an excellent post. I am a graphic designer as well as someone who loves to read. Both covers are well designed and visually interesting. However, if I was searching for the next book to read, I would probably choose the cover with the woman over the wave design. Her presence instantly makes the book more personal…it focuses the threat implied in the title and subtitle in a personal way. We can all picture ourselves standing behind a tree wondering who or what is behind us somewhere. It makes me want to read her story in a way that the wave design just doesn’t accomplish as well.
Also, think about how much time we actually spend looking at a particular cover when there are other books competing for our attention. How much time do you give to a book cover? Five seconds? Seven seconds? Ten? You want your cover design to grab a potential reader’s attention as quickly as possible and make them want to turn to the first page of your story. I think the woman design does that job better.
If your story was about something that happened on an ocean, I might like the wave design better. But even then, I think a light shining in the distance – the hint of a ship or a person in trouble, etc…would still make the wave design more personal and compelling for a potential reader.
So true, Geoff. The cover has probably only a fraction of a second to make its impact! I love your suggestion about giving the hint of the human element. I may end up using that wave cover in the future for something else, so I’ll keep that suggestion up my sleeve! Thanks for your thoughts.
I voted for the woman book cover. My rule of thumb is : what motivates me in front of a book display? I reach for the book based on cover design and what I can read from my vantage point of two feet away.
It’s the title and graphic I see. One book seems about the subject of a “Poison Bay” and brings up my associations: oil spills and dying fish. The other cover has the title and a mysterious woman on the cover. Did she poison the bay? Is she in danger of being poisoned? See, there is conflict already. I’m speculating and reaching for this book.
There is my method, mad as it might be.
It doesn’t sound like a “mad” method at all to me, Mary Jo. Thanks for analysing your reaction for us. All of us will do well to consider these elements when designing a book cover!
I think the cover with the woman makes it look like a romance. I prefer the one with just the wave – the use of muted grayscale colouring sets a mysterious and eerie tone, as does the tagline at the bottom.
Thanks Elspeth, I appreciate your thoughts. 🙂
THE WAVE is definitely our (hubbie and me) favourite. It evokes a beautifully eerie atmosphere. Vaguely sinister without being able to pinpoint exactly “why” or “what”.
THE GIRL sidetracks the buyer’s attention. One sees HER first before the bay water. Regardless how the heroine is described in the book, the cover picture will usually come to mind. “The Poison Bay” is a super title, as well as the tagline — fits to both covers, which does make it hard to choose between the two.
Either way, you (unfortunately) have two good covers as “possibles.”
Best of luck!
Linda
Thanks Linda, it’s a difficult choice. And it’s very helpful to hear which you prefer and why. 🙂
A timely post, Belinda. I’m voting for the wave cover on yours – I think it conjours up the right mix of suspense and ‘what’s going to happen?’ in my mind. I’m going through the same dilemma with an overhaul of my first two covers at the moment, so thanks for posting this article – I’ve got some head-scratching to do too!
Thanks Rachel, and yes, it’s definitely head-scratching season over here too! I hope you get it all figured out, and that the resulting covers are great sale-makers for you. 🙂
Who are you trying to entice to read or buy?
Male or female?
If both then put a woman more like Russell Blake’s lady showing a full face on the wave cover. Also if one is using a pretty face why hide it with hair or hands or a coat? Dark hair rather than brown may work better if the plot is dark. I am always amazed how fed up models look on the newspaper and magazine fashion pages. Surely a smile or a cheeky look will do more to sell fashion or books.
I was looking at used books in a charity shop this morning sorted not by genre or alphabetically but by the author’s gender … female and male only.
Do you know the gender breakdown of your voting?
Alexander
Thanks for your thoughts, Alexander.
You are right on the money asking about the gender breakdown. I really wanted to know both gender and age, plus the reading habits (what genres people prefer, as a romance or sci fi reader is going to have a different reaction to a thriller reader).
Alas, polls only allow one question. I could have done a 10 question survey using something like Survey Monkey, but people would have had to click a link and go to another site to do that, and I knew that many wouldn’t have time/motivation for that! If only the survey sites allowed us to embed it in the actual article…
Difficult this interaction with potential readers. At the moment given all the other competition for my scarce reading time writers have to work hard to get me to read their books. Why should I read your book?
Ah well, people should read my book if they like mystery-suspense set in wild places with a lot of interaction between the characters. And they shouldn’t read it if they don’t like those things.
I think that’s a good point to make, Alexander. If we manage to persuade someone to buy on the basis of a promise the cover gives, and then the book doesn’t fulfil that promise but is instead about something else… we might have made a sale but lost a reader, and get negative reviews to boot.
The cover needs to give an accurate idea of what’s inside. Not always that easy to do, however.
If your cover said something like –
Read my book if you like mystery-suspense set in wild places with a lot of interaction between the characters – I would struggle to appreciate what the interaction meant … sex, conversation or competition?
A twenty word strap line is an essential selling point in my view. One of the best for me being Kate Atkinson in Life after Life.
“What if you had the chance to live your life again and again until you got it right?”
Many current books also have acres of enthusiastic review type comments many of which to me when reading the book contravene the Trades Description Acts! Ian McEwan in his latest book The Children Act has none. Great! He did get the book serialised on BBC Radio 4 in the UK. That’s why I purchased the book in hardcover and fortunately was not disappointed. The 140 blurb for the book On Amazon and on the cover is fairly full not holding much back about what the book is about. As the book is in the top 200 of Kindle and Hardcopy with 4 and 5 star reviews perhaps he is doing something right!
I’m one of the odd people who usually prefers a book cover design that doesn’t include a person, however, in this case, I like the one with the woman. It’s subtle. She’s not the whole cover, and she has all her clothes on — both good, in my opinion. The “B” cover seems to have more life in it, as a result.
I think in the covers that I see that have people and that I don’t like, it’s because the person is the primary object, and the image is too two-dimensional. There’s something about how a good cover is made that includes so much depth and dimension, and that’s what I find missing in a lot of covers I see (not yours!). That said, my hat goes off to designers; creating original art is not something I’d have any skill at!
Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Laura. Yes, it’s very much an art to create a good book cover. I see some designers who can throw three things on a page, and you go, “Wow!” They just have The Knack. Bless ’em.
And I suspect one reason so many book covers have what seem to be lingerie models on them is the limitations of stock libraries. 😉
Belinda, I have chosen the wave version rather than the one with the woman. This is because the wave in the former one looks more dangerous. Also, I think that the woman appears to be waiting for a date to turn up, rather than being frightened. Ideally the cover would include her, but not in a raincoat and not looking so composed. I agree that the byline should be larger, and in a different colour. I also think that the title would make more impact if the font was shadowed, or had some technique applied to make it more three-dimensional. Good luck!
Jane, it’s amazing how many different reactions that woman gets. Some thinks she looks anxious, others think she looks relaxed. Thanks for your thoughts! 🙂
I am drawn to the wave which is atmospheric and intriguing. It is bold and less cluttered than the alternative woman cover. Perhaps a different woman could have been more appealing though.
Good points, Louise. Stock art has its limitations… I wish I had the budget to book a shoot with a model, as that would be far preferable.
I prefer the wave. The title, after all, is ‘Poison Bay’. Adding the woman, to me, is saying too much … which sometimes, funnily enough, ends up saying nothing at all. I don’t particularly like the placement of the lettering on the 2nd one either.
I don’t believe I’ve ever bought a book, or picked one up, because it had a person on it … unless it had a closeup of a face, and little else. Then the face has to relay the essence of the book. Works well for non-fiction, of course, especially if the subject is Steve Jobs, or someone famous.
I agree that the byline probably needs to be bigger.
Thanks Carmel, really appreciate your input. The wave definitely has a more simple impact.
I don’t think I’ve ever bought a book because of a face either, except for one I can think of that had the face of a dog. 😉
Belinda, I chose the cover with the woman for most of the same reasons Debbie Young outlined, but I began to waffle over my choice. Then it hit me: the reason concerns the layout of the typographic elements. Though professionally executed, the “human” cover has a more self-published, amateur vibe to it—at least to my eye. I think of “title at top, author at bottom” as a more conventional solution. Your name above the title definitely has more of a “bestseller” feeling to it (See the pics further up this page.)
I still like the image with the woman—especially if women are your target audience. Is it too late to put the left-hand type treatment on the right-hand book? It should fit, and it might look good to boot.
Robert, that’s a good point about the typography and the “bestseller” feeling. We’ll definitely look at that.
A really interesting post Belinda. I was an event a couple of weeks ago with my Penguin editor and a member of the audience asked her about covers, and she said that for her covers are all about what will get people to pick up / buy the book, not necessarily a reflection of the content (although of course they mustn’t mislead either).
For your two covers I much prefer the wave, but not because I don’t think you should have the woman on the cover, just that the woman cover looks like two separate images (the woman and the greenery, and the sea). I appreciate that funds and time are limited, but I think the woman image would work better if the two parts could be merged more.
Claire
Thanks Claire, and in online buying, it’s that first “click” that counts. If you can’t get that, you’re nowhere.
I’ll give some thought to that “separate images” issue.
I voted for the ‘wave’. My problem with the ‘woman’ is threefold in that she is identifiable in terms of what she looks like and, for me, her expression doesn’t fit with the strapline. Perhaps more importantly the cover could just as easily fit in romantic fiction. The ‘wave’ says danger and unpredictability but then I am drawn to water and waves.
Thanks Catherine, good points.
Hi Belinda
I like the cover with the woman on it ,although I have not read the book I always feel that if there is a picture of someone on the cover,one can put a face to the story.
Good luck with your sales.
Tom
Thanks so much, Tom. Faces do conjure up that human element, don’t they?
Hi Belinda, while I agree that the sea could be seen as a wilderness, that wouldn’t be a generally held perception. Even with the word “bay” in the title, I don’t think it supports the theme & title strongly.
The other cover, on the other hand, oozes eeriness with the moss/fern covered ?rock next to the woman, and there is a balance of land and sea. For me, the fear on her face as she looks back clinches it. Definitely option B!
Glad you like the second one, Pierre, and also glad to know what it is you like about it! I have to agree with you (even though I do like that wave…)
I chose ‘The Wave.’ Unless one of the characters looks like the picture, I think the wave suits better. As a beach-lover, I don’t even think that’s the reason; I’m not particularly drawn to people on the covers of books, just a personal preference.
I’m coming out with a book of short stories before the end of the year, maybe. The title is ‘I Do.’ It’s about relationships, mostly marriages, (good and bad) and I chose a small country church as the cover. No people. The person who did my cover had suggested using the backs of a couple getting married, but I chose to use the church instead. Guess I can always change it if it doesn’t work. My thought is that I don’t ever want to use people, or a person, on the cover. But at some point I may have to change my thinking.
Give us more on this when you have more to share.
Thanks Barbara. I agree with you, I’ve never wanted to use people on the cover. I preferred a more “arty” kind of style. And yet many of the responses listed in the comments above show how different people are connecting with the cover with the “human” on it.
The country church idea for a book called “I do” has an obvious connection. The style your designer has used can probably help signal to readers that it’s fiction. I hope it goes really well for you, and as you say, you can always change it. That’s the beauty of this whole new system!
I’ll definitely do a followup as I discover how things work out.
No time to think about this much – but then that’s often the case with anyone thinking whether or not to click for more info. I voted for the picture with the woman for the obvious reason that it gave more promise of human interest. Sorry not to be more original!
Sue, none of us is very original when making that instinctive choice about a book cover, so that’s exactly the right response to give. 🙂 Thanks so much.
Hi Belinda,
I picked the cover with the girl – she adds scale to the picture (in the other one, I can’t tell that it’s a tidal wave about to eat you up, looks like a small-ish wave without something to give it scale).
You might lose some male readers as a result, but who’s your target audience?
I would make the tag line bigger – its a good one 🙂
Michael, my target reader is female, so all is well. Thanks for the thought about making the tagline bigger… would you believe, my mother has said that too??? 😉 (mother knows best)
Hi, Belinda – did the articles you read talk about how to specifically attract female or male readers? My experience in this is limited to one lecture about book covers in a grad dip (there’s the disclaimer!) but it strikes me that male readers might be less likely to pick up the book with the woman on the front cover. I prefer that cover though – and I think it’s not particularly that there’s *a* woman, but that she’s looking at the viewer as is to say ‘What? You saw me? I don’t care. You’d better watch out too.’ If I saw that person I would back away, which exactly makes me want to pick up the book. She’s not a passive victim – this woman might be the perp. Hook.
Ruth, I’m so glad you don’t see that woman as a passive victim. Because she’s pretty feisty, as it happens. I’ll leave it till you read it to find out if she’s a good guy or a bad guy (so to speak). 😉
As for male vs female readers, no, they didn’t tend to specify. I’m thinking she’s not going to grab the male reader, because she doesn’t look that “hot”. I may be oversimplifying it… but maybe not.
The bulk of readers in this genre are female, and I’m tending to favour a female reader in the way I’ve written (although of course happy to have male readers too!) so if you think it’s a suitable cover for women, then that’s a good thing. You’re one lecture ahead of most of us! 😉
I personally would never pick up the one with the girl, simply because it looks like so many other book covers our there. I would choose the one with the wave because for me it creates that exact feeling that I want from a mystery and suspense novel and because it stands out from all of the other books
good luck with your choice 🙂
Thanks Severina, yes I prefer the wave myself really… kind of sinister and spooky and understated. But it looks like I might end up with the other one, the way the voting is going! 🙂
Hi Belinda, thanks as always for a fascinating read and for the links to the other blogs. It’s particularly interesting and helpful as we are at the designing the cover stage for my new crime novel and been getting nowhere. Being reminded what the job of the cover is is, is exactly what we need. Also, interestingly, for the last six months we have also been been questioning the effectiveness of the cover of the first crime novel and talking about changing it. I can now see why the cover hasn’t been doing its job. So, thanks again, very helpful indeed. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll get the covers right but we have a better chance now 🙂 As for Poison Bay. I prefer the cover with the woman, only just. I also prefer the way the title and author name is laid out. The funny thing is I used to hate covers with people on them, especially crime novels. A bit like Sally, photos of people on covers meant nothing to me. I wanted my covers to be different and stand out! I now see that “being different” isn’t what it is about, and doesn’t necessarily sell. Ha ha ha! Good luck with it all and thanks again.
Marianne, I recall the discussion over your Food of Ghosts cover, and how you had a multicolour version, and then a B&W version which was more sinister. Amazing how such a small change can really shift the tone of the thing.
I rather liked your cover, but it’s always good to try something new. Russell Blake and Joanna Penn are the poster-children for that one… don’t hesitate to try something new if it’s going to make the difference!
Thanks for your comments on my two covers, and especially for telling me what it is that you like about them. 🙂
That’s a thought-provoking post, as usual, Belinda. I should be the last person to voice an opinion on covers as I have zero talent for design and aesthetics, but I’m going to anyway.
In general, I understand what others are getting at by saying there should be a person on the cover, but I think a lot of author-designers just slap the picture of a person on to a background without much thought – sometimes this is literally and there is an awful layered look with the body not blending with the background (so much so that even I can see it). In some drawn pictures the character looks plastic. In others they are unrealistically beautiful. To me, all these will make me think twice about the purchase.
Particularly annoying is when there is no connection between the character in the picture and that in the story – even a simple thing like the heroine is blonde, yet on the cover there is a brunette. Some people might say that doesn’t matter, as we’ve bought the book by then – but to me it is irritating and affects how I feel about the book and hence how I review it.
I love Stephen Leather’s Spider books, started reading them before they had a picture of the hero on the front where his face could be seen, and have read the whole series. The character on the cover is nothing like how I picture Spider, and nothing like how I want him to look – and this hits me every time a new book comes out. I’m not going to stop reading them, but maybe I wouldn’t have been so quick to buy the first one if I’d seen the recent covers and a whole series would have been lost to me and sales lost to the author. On the other hand, the Lee Child books have a silhouette of Reacher on all the covers and I think this work brilliantly – a bit of mystery (like the man inside) and not telling you how to imagine him.
Re your covers, I like them both. I prefer the one without the person as a picture, but I think that the one with a person is a more suitable cover – it adds interest. I would expect to find inside the book a young woman who is attractive but not glamour-model perfect, and who is outdoorsy and athletic. She gives the impression of being wary and a little fearful and looks like she is trying to stay out of sight. Is that what you were trying to achieve? (Her clothes and back-pack look a bit too clean, though, if she has been through some trauma.)
Good luck with the book. I am very much looking forward to reading it.
Sally, thanks so much for all your thoughts. Totally agree that a badly-done person-on-the-cover can really cheapen the affect. And I’m like you, I want my cover people to look a bit like the character. (My character has red hair, you’ll be pleased to know.)
I would have liked to make her a silhouette or just a rear view, so that I wasn’t forcing the reader’s imagination into a place it didn’t want to go, but couldn’t manage a silhouette effect on the dark background. It wasn’t really the kind of background that could look sinister if it was too light…
I might have to scruffy up her backpack and clothes though! Good tip!
Most definitely the one with the woman on it, for several reasons:
– the sea alone looks a bit dreary and depressing, all shades of a single colour, and that colour, although sinister, is quite easy to disregard
– looking at just the sea and the title makes one wonder whether it’s about an environmental theme, e.g. a contaminated sea that’s threatening the local community; it encourages one to take the title literally, which is misleading
– strapline (which I love) doesn’t work with the cover of just the sea, because (a) to me, at least, wilderness doesn’t mean the sea – it might be a wild sea, but wilderness to me means land (b) there’s nothing else on the cover to suggest what the other enemy might be
– the addition of rocks and landscape make it much more interesting and three-dimensional, and add gorgeous, sinister, moody colour
– the land on the horizon is more visible, so it feels more like a bay (at a glance, the first cover just looks like you’re gazing out to open sea)
– the figure is arresting, with the eye going straight to her in the context of the setting, which is actually what your story is about: human struggle in the wilderness
– the pose of the figure draws you in – I love the fact that she’s looking over her shoulder at the reader
– the figure is also quite mysterious – she looks anxious, possibly sinister with those slightly arched brows, and it’s not clear whether she’s anxious that you’re about to discover her doing something evil or whether she’s looking to you to support or rescue her; that duality makes you want to pick up the book and read the blurb to find out what’s going on
Hope that helps – I’ll be interested to see what others say, I love a good book cover debate!
I agree with everything you’ve said, Debbie. I was also going to comment about the wilderness suggesting land – I had to really stop to think that wilderness could also mean sea, and if you have to stop and think about a cover, it’s not really doing its job. (It’s still a lovely pic though.)
Sally, maybe I’ll need to keep the wave cover in my file and use it again for an ocean-based book. There’s sure to be one of them coming up in the series!!
Thanks so much for all the thoughts, Debbie. I really like being able to see why you’re thinking what you’re thinking. I have to agree with pretty much all of it, myself. The wave is my favourite as a book cover, and yet the woman may end up winning the day. (always good when a woman wins the day I guess?????) 😉
Hi Belinda, I am still a little way off from needing to choose covers, but it won’t be too long. I’m going to save this and keep the links for when I do go there. Thanks.
I’ll share this on facebook for my writing friends as well.
Re your covers. The wave doesn’t shout nature to me, it shouts lost at sea. The one with the woman is grounded by the fern, and given a sense of place that the other one doesn’t have. It’s not the woman as such, it’s the fern. The woman though, I like, particularly in the small version (which is the one that counts) as she’s nearly lost in the wilderness but her face shines out. I can see myself in her and yes, it makes me very interested in her story.
Good luck with your choice. Your story sounds really interesting. I’m sure you’ll let us know when it’s up.
Thanks for the share, Jill. And yes, it’s a big decision when the time comes.
Love your feedback, and yes I agree the ferns really do ground the second cover. Ferns also turn out to be rather crucial to the story, as it happens… but that was a matter of coincidence rather than excellent planning, I have to admit. 😉
Hi Belinda,
My initial preference was the cover with the girl on it, but I ended up voting for the wave. I like the lack of colour in the wave cover and thought it added a degree of more mystery than the other. For the type of book it is, the genre, I would pick up the wave cover, even though my preference would be to have a person on the front. Good luck with the decision making!
Thanks Cate! I actually prefer the “wave” cover as a piece of art, myself. I am very conflicted about these two covers. 😉
A thought-provoking and visually stimulating post! I write romance, so I tend to go with people on the cover as long as it’s people that brand the book in the right way. In your case, I would choose the cover with the girl because I also like the mossy green elements that are a better tie-in with “wilderness”—a vital keyword for you. The other cover is raw and excellent branding for a thriller, definitely eye-catching, probably more appealing to a male audience, but your keywords (“trekking”, “wilderness” and “who to trust”) are better represented by the second in my humble opinion.
Also, I tend to think that the wild crashing waves concept is maybe becoming the go-to solution for non-urban thrillers. The last one I read used exactly that. Take a look: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yhIwQ66OL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-v3-big,TopRight,0,-55_SX278_SY278_PIkin4,BottomRight,1,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
On the other hand, the cover with the girl does pose a limitation: it makes it look like the main character of your book is a girl, probably offering only her PoV? If that’s the case, then I’d go for that one for the reasons mentioned above.
Coincidentally, today is my debut novel’s cover reveal! Big minds think alike? Well, in our case a big mind and a smaller one today focus on COVERS!
Greetings from Greece!
Maria (MM Jaye)
Hi Maria, sorry your comment got caught in moderation… I’ve had to do that with comments with links, because of the escalation in spam in recent months!
I agree with you about these aspects of the two covers, especially that “wilderness” aspect… and I love that cover you’ve linked to. (nice fonts too)
Can’t wait to see your cover. Is it up on your blog yet? I just went over there and couldn’t see it. 🙂