Could you help me out? I am trying to decide which book cover is the most appealing for a YA fantasy novel.

[J.D.]

Hello,

Could I please get some help? Which cover do you think is more appealing as a YA fantasy novel?

Please let me know why? *The link has been edited*

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B...

The work is my own and it is for a book I am preparing to publish.

I appreciate your help. Thank you.

[Harald, The Swimmer]

Hi J.D. Thanks for posting. I think you made some changes from when I first looked to now. Am currently seeing two covers exactly the same EXCEPT for the colors in the background image. Correct?

First, it's real important to review these at a small thumbnail size. Because you link them to a GoogleDoc, this is easy to do: just change the View to 50%. That's better.

Overall, it's an intriguing, elegant cover, and honestly, the different colors of the two don't really matter much to me. BUT... I strongly suggest you work on the increasing the contrast of the main text elements against the background. It's really hard to see the main title; it gets lost in the colored swirls (same for your name). Maybe an outer glow? Heavier weight on the font?

Also, I think you're too tight to the edges with the text. Just reduce the Tracking a bit.

Hope that helps. Let's see what others say.

[J.D.]

Thank you for your comment. I have taken the time to adjust the title like you suggested and I agree, it looks much better as a thumbnail.
I have put the new designs in the link if you wish to see. Thank you for your help!

[OldBird]

Hi. Unless you have a strong preference for eiher colour, I'd say you need to think about what you'd like it to convey. The purple/pink/blue colours together tend to imply the unnatural/supernatural, while the greens hint at something more nature-based.

For what it's worth, at thumbnail size I think the purple makes the firebird stand out more, although the brightness of those surrounding colours do blur the edges of it. A little extra shadow space around the firebird might help, but that's a nit-picky tweak idea.

[Harald, The Swimmer]

J.D. wrote: "Thank you for your comment. I have taken the time to adjust the title like you suggested and I agree, it looks much better as a thumbnail.
I have put the new designs in the link if you wish to see..."

Good changes! I like the one on left (red-purple) best.

[J.D.]

Emma wrote: "Hi. Unless you have a strong preference for eiher colour, I'd say you need to think about what you'd like it to convey. The purple/pink/blue colours together tend to imply the unnatural/supernatura..."

Hello Emma,
Thank you for your comments.
I added a shadow and I think it helped to break the colors apart from the bird. I decided to go with the purple cover as supernatural/magic is what I was going for. I have amended the cover in the link if you would like to see.
Thanks for your help :D