Gay paranormal romance

[Nat]

This is my first cover, so, yeah, critique away. Made in gimp. I'm not super skilled so do anything mega fancy will probably just look chintzy, but I'm open to suggestions. I wanted something simple, to convey 'country music' and 'magic'. Thus, the sparklies by the title.

[Pamela]

Hmm... I like the picture, and I definitely get the country music element, but there is nothing paranormal about the cover, so I wonder if your ideal reader will find your book based on this cover.
Pre-made covers are a great way to get cheap, good-looking covers if you're on a budget - and I know I always am! It might be a good idea to look up some of those.

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

Nat, it's beautiful! Truly awesome!! I just wonder about making the title a little bigger. Not a lot so that "The" moves on top of "Voice." Just a bit bigger. Maybe add a few more sparkles around the word "Voice" and scatter a few more around the cover. Great job, Nat!! Hugs

[Nat]

Pamela wrote: "Hmm... I like the picture, and I definitely get the country music element, but there is nothing paranormal about the cover, so I wonder if your ideal reader will find your book based on this cover...."

Thanks for checking it out for me!

I did surf through a lot of pre-mades that didn't fit the story at all, thus I tried my hand at it. Any suggestions on making it more paranormal? The character has a magical talent and that's the paranormal aspect.

[Nat]

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Nat, it's beautiful! Truly awesome!! I just wonder about making the title a little bigger. Not a lot so that "The" moves on top of "Voice." Just a bit bigger. Maybe add a few more sparkles around t..."

Sam, thank you! Making the title bitter is easy enough and scatter more sparkles. Glad that you approve. :):) I was hoping the sparkles delivered the 'paranormal' feel, but it didn't work for other reviewer, but I'll see about dashing it up.

[M.L.]

I like the cover and the blurb. I also don't get the paranormal. The font looks like a vintage wanted poster font, which is nice. You could try making 'the' really small and 'voice' really big and almost see-through, the way some look half veiled. And possibly remove 'a gay paranormal romance' and 'by' and just have your name.

I like sparkles :) they don't show up as much in thumbnail but in an otherwise realistic picture I'm not quite sure if they add or not.

It's a nice cover!

[Junkomi]

While I am not an expert at covers, I have researched a lot about what makes good covers, the fonts used, design and so forth. This is only my opinion of it so I would say take it with a grain of salt.

The cover is very simple, which is good. It seems clean and easy to read. Nice stylish logo with a good serif font for your author name. Now with that said...I would say that putting "A Gay Paranormal Romance" seems unneeded as it should be clear from your book cover what genre your book is. If you have to tell your reader that this is "this genre of book" then in a way your cover has failed to do what it should have done. The sparkles on the title is a nice touch and can give a small hint as to what your book could be about.

All an all I think it is a great cover for someone's first book cover ^-^

[Nat]

ML and Wolfy,

thanks for your thoughts. I could certainly remove the 'gay paranormal romance'. I thought it would be helpful, but I can see what you're saying about it's superfluous.

I haven't even looked at the cover in thumbnail size. *smacks forehead*

Thanks! I've got some tweeking to do.

[Nat]

Okay, here's a few tweeks. I didn't try making the title more transparent yet.

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

Nice! I still think a few more sparkles are the word, "Voice." I also think the font for your author name should be larger. I'm a pain in the ass, ain't I? Hugs

[Junkomi]

Looks really nice. Personally, I thin the size of the author name looks fine. Generally, you want the focus on either the art of your book cover, or the book title. The only time you would want your author name to standout is if you were a big time author.

But yeah, I think the cover looks really nice ^-^

[Nat]

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Nice! I still think a few more sparkles are the word, "Voice." I also think the font for your author name should be larger. I'm a pain in the ass, ain't I? Hugs"

No, I need the help! You're helping!!! :) Okay, I'll tweek some more! Thanks!

[Nat]

Wolfy wrote: "Looks really nice. Personally, I thin the size of the author name looks fine. Generally, you want the focus on either the art of your book cover, or the book title. The only time you would want you..."

Thanks! I do think it gets lost a little, but I agree, it shouldn't be too huge. I still need to thumbnail it to see how it looks. I'll give it a few options and see what I like.

Thank you for your thoughts and help!!

[L.C.]

Nat wrote: "Okay, here's a few tweeks. I didn't try making the title more transparent yet."

In my opinion, the cover like this makes me want to pick up the book right away. I love this version of it and honestly have no suggestions to add. It looks great!

P.S. Let me know if you're looking for readers :)

[M.L.]

I like it, and with more sparkles than less. I think the font title looks good, it's big enough to see the sketchiness. The name should be bigger. It's so small now, in thumbnail it will be teeny tiny. Nice!

[Nat]

L.C. wrote: "Nat wrote: "Okay, here's a few tweeks. I didn't try making the title more transparent yet."

In my opinion, the cover like this makes me want to pick up the book right away. I love this version of ..."

Hey LC, thank you! Yeah, I'd love a reader if you're still interested. Can you PM me your email address, or email me at natkennedybooks at gmail. Thanks!

[Nat]

M.L. wrote: "I like it, and with more sparkles than less. I think the font title looks good, it's big enough to see the sketchiness. The name should be bigger. It's so small now, in thumbnail it will be teeny t..."

Bigger name, got it! And more sparkles. Sparkles seem to be the thing. :) Thank you for your thoughts!

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

Nat, could you please remove the blurb from your original post? Thanks.

Aside from that, I do like the cover, especially the second version.

[Nat]

Dwayne wrote: "Nat, could you please remove the blurb from your original post? Thanks.

Aside from that, I do like the cover, especially the second version."

Sure Dwayne... And thanks.

[Haru]

I am totally sorry, I rather be honest and hated than to sugarcoat things. Looks aside, this doesn't read as paranormal or romance to me. If I saw this on a bookstore, I would think it's about a country singer and absolutely ignore it. Now that you removed the "Gay paranormal romance" from the title I would even be less likely to pick it (and mind you, I am from your target audience).

[Nat]

Yeah, I was worried about removing my subtitle for that reason. Thanks for your honesty!

[Nat]

J.B. wrote: "I love the title font! It strikes me as very country-ish and the sparkles are lovely.
The only thing I would say is that if you're going to be making it an ebook, you might want to make your autho..."

Thanks for that tip! I will do that.

[Pamela]

Hmm... I still don't get the paranormal feel. More sparkle might do it, and then other thing could be a more paranormal-looking font maybe?

[Nat]

I added a subtitle in Amazon, so hopefully that helped. What would a paranormal font look like to you? I'm curious now. It's a country music themed story, so I went with the font I picked because of that.

Ah, this is so hard!

[Pamela]

It IS hard, but at the end of the day, it's your book. Of course, you want to find your target audience.

Oh, there are so many fonts out there! I guess it depends on where you're working on your cover, but I'd expect a paranormal font to be something a little creepy and out-of-this-world.

[Nat]

Ah, I see. Yeah, my story isn't creepy at all... so that would have been misleading as well. It's something I've learned, you can't show 'everything' in a cover. But hopefully it draws people in in some way. I know I totally skip over books when a cover doesn't pull me in, but if friends say 'no read it' I'll give it a try. I generally avoid the bare chested, well built men covers, figuring it's got no plot substance. And I know many times I've been totally wrong!

[Junkomi]

Nat wrote: "I added a subtitle in Amazon, so hopefully that helped. What would a paranormal font look like to you? I'm curious now. It's a country music themed story, so I went with the font I picked because o..."

As a person that studied a lot about typesetting and fonts, I can agree that it is hard. Picking a font can take time (in my case, hours and even days) But a good font that communicate a lot to someone even if we don't know it.

I honestly think you have done the best that you could with what you have. If you are hoping to do this for yourself then I think it is well done ^-^ if you are trying to do this for money...well, that is another story.

Generally, your cover needs to draw the reader into it so that they make it to the blurb. Once you have them all hooked with that, then hopefully they read the book until the end.