But its copyrighted if you look at the fine print at the top of the page. Can’t see it. Perhapas a bit more drop shadow and bevel, inner and outer glow.
Yep, that “copyrighted material” is a feature of Amazon’s Look Inside! preview and I believe it must be kept for fair use in review or criticism.
Waffles
9 years ago
There is no way that word would ever have developed as a natural word. Who would say that? Who could say that?
‘Seraphympire’? Seriously. That isn’t a word people would be able to just use casually.
“Look out Bob, it is the Sara-pfhu-hymm-pires!”, gasped Tom.
“The whats?”, replied Bob, confused.
“You know those half angel half vampire crazy chicks that has been chasing us for eight chapters now? The… uh… Ser-aph-iyum-pyres!”, Tom tried to get out.
“Oh them, Yeah I saw! We should total-”
*Bob and Tom get angel bitten and become Angelpires.*
(Alternate: Vangels)
Hi Guys,
Thanks for the feedback & comments on my cover, I’ve sort of been wondering about it myself, considering I was the one that did the cover in photoshop, which I’ve only recently learned how to do. I used Royalty free images that I brought the licenses for, there are five images all up that I combined. Seraphympire is a word I made up, pronounced sera-fim-pire,an amilgimation of Seraphim and vampire. The word itself is not used frequently within the book, my Protagonist has a name, like most people do. This is my first novel. The reason I’ve made the cover appear transparent was intentional, the world is not what it appears to be. My main character can de-materialise (disappear and still be there), the world she lives in is an illusion hence the reason everything being translucent,except the gnats as someone so aptly put it, which are in fact birds. The protagonist in my story can travel between worlds through gateways hidden on Earth.
The reason I chose the chiller font was because it sort of looked like blood, and if you look at all the books these days they seem all the same, just go to your local bookshop and you will see what I’m talking about. Most books have bold print that overpower the front cover. But hey, you all noticed my cover didn’t you? Whether it be for a good or bad reason, you noticed it. If you can give me some advice on what I could do to improve the cover I’m all ears, I like constructive criticism, the more the merrier, so please, what font would be a preferable one, and what could I do to make my cover better? I’m open for suggestions, if you would like to check out my website here it is http://www.reneespyrou.com you can download the first 9 chapters for free all you have to do is pay with a like, and you get access to the chapters, then you can get an idea of what the books about, and if you don’t like my novel it’s cool, we are all different. I’ve worked hard on my novel, 5 years worth of my time, and the reason I began writing was to take my mind off my terminally ill son, he’s the reason I began this journey, he’s no longer here with us, but it was worth doing, so please I implore you, if you can give me some advice I would really, really appreciate it. Thanks again everyone.
Compared to what normally appears here, this isn’t that bad. The fonts are what killed it. I have no suggestions as to which ones you should try. All I can say is “yes” or “no”.
In the future, you could try submitting your covers to covercritics.com. It’s the sister site to this one. All criticism over there is snark-free and intended to be constructive.
It’s great that you’re being a good sport about the criticism here, Renee, and that you’re open to input and constructive criticism.
I agree with others that this cover isn’t too bad, especially compared to some that appear on this site. But I also agree that the fonts used are inappropriate.
“if you look at all the books these days they seem all the same…”
Wanting to look different from everything else is good, but it’s also dangerous. The reason why many book covers use similar fonts is that designers have found fonts that work on book covers, and they tend to stick to those reliable choices. If you just jump in as a naive amateur saying “I want something different!” you’re far more likely to end up with something that doesn’t work than you are with something that does. In any field of endeavor, the best route for beginners and amateurs is to stay close to the conventions; to avoid trying to be edgy and different. Being edgy and different is a job for experienced artists.
As for that big long S-word on the cover, potential customers are just going to find it an annoying distraction. Nobody looking at the cover (who hasn’t read the book) will have the slightest clue what it means, and nobody’s going to take the time to sound it out syllable by syllable so that it becomes an actual word in their heads. Even people who have read the book probably won’t do that; they’ll just store it in their brains as “that big long S-word.”
Think of the “Dune” novels by comparison. “Dune” is a nice friendly word. Everyone knows what it means, and you can read it on a cover from a mile away. Even those who haven’t read the book will see the word coupled with an image of a science-fictiony sandy landscape and think “Aha, a book about a desert planet.” The word is readable and understandable, and goes a long way toward giving potential readers information about the book behind the cover.
Hey Karl,
Thanks for the great feedback. I really appreciate it, and where would we be if we couldn’t take constructive criticism, it’s feedback, it’s a tool for improvement, how else are we going to learn to do things correctly if not for peoples opinions and criticisms, we’d be fools not to listen, and any opinion at all is a welcome commodity. Feedback in any form is great, bring it on. I choose to listen and always have. I’m new to the writing game, and I know Seraphympire is a big no, no, but it’s different, and so is my protagonist. My Maiden name is different too, Papanikolas, I mean it’s easy to say when you know how, I got bagged in school, but different is good if you’ve got the fortitude to handle the bagging, which I was and still am. Anyway I am working on a new cover. I wasn’t really happy with the fonts myself when I have got the new cover done, I will post it to see if it’s any better than the first.
Cheers Renee
You pronounce it sarah-fim-pire, hope that helps, once you know how it’s quit easy it will be a word on everyones lips, one day I hope. Thanks for the replies, I’m in agreement Vangels has a nice ring to it 🙂
I love your alternate title names, Angelpires & Vangels that’s classic, thumbs up, I love to laugh and that’s a good one Waffles heh, heh ;), and your prose is great, I actually have a tom (Thomas) in my book sorry to say there’s no bob though. I like the Vangels best… Have great weekend, you put a smile on my face, not what you were expecting huh
Cheers Renee Spyrou
Oh good. Tom was my favourite character in that short story! I’m glad he is really in the book.
I am glad you actually like the alternate names, they were a joke at the time but I do like them now, especially Vangels. It is great when someone sees a good idea, even through light criticism, and I salute you.
So much in fact have you inspired me of your good humorousness and attitude that I have decided that you may have the word Vangels (if you so desire) as a gift! 😀
Hope to see the updated version on cover critics! If you do I will seriously write the sequel to that story and add a new character, Kevin! (gasp!)
Axolotl
9 years ago
That would be quite a nice picture, if it were not covered with a distorted leg and sword and horrid fonts.
Hi everyone,
I now have a new book cover, I stayed up late last night working on it, and I’m confident it won’t be posted here,for those interested in seeing the new cover click on the link bellow, thanks to you all for bagging the cover because I really wasn’t happy with it and finding it on this website was the push I needed to change it, I just needed a little honest feedback thanks again guys 😉
Cheers everyone….
Is everything transparent in this world?
Does nothing have substance?
I guess the fonts are all that matter.
Too bad they are doing it wrong.
Everything but the dang gnats. They are EVERYWHERE!
But its copyrighted if you look at the fine print at the top of the page. Can’t see it. Perhapas a bit more drop shadow and bevel, inner and outer glow.
To be fair, that text is a watermark put there by Amazon.
Yep, that “copyrighted material” is a feature of Amazon’s Look Inside! preview and I believe it must be kept for fair use in review or criticism.
There is no way that word would ever have developed as a natural word. Who would say that? Who could say that?
‘Seraphympire’? Seriously. That isn’t a word people would be able to just use casually.
“Look out Bob, it is the Sara-pfhu-hymm-pires!”, gasped Tom.
“The whats?”, replied Bob, confused.
“You know those half angel half vampire crazy chicks that has been chasing us for eight chapters now? The… uh… Ser-aph-iyum-pyres!”, Tom tried to get out.
“Oh them, Yeah I saw! We should total-”
*Bob and Tom get angel bitten and become Angelpires.*
(Alternate: Vangels)
Hi Guys,
Thanks for the feedback & comments on my cover, I’ve sort of been wondering about it myself, considering I was the one that did the cover in photoshop, which I’ve only recently learned how to do. I used Royalty free images that I brought the licenses for, there are five images all up that I combined. Seraphympire is a word I made up, pronounced sera-fim-pire,an amilgimation of Seraphim and vampire. The word itself is not used frequently within the book, my Protagonist has a name, like most people do. This is my first novel. The reason I’ve made the cover appear transparent was intentional, the world is not what it appears to be. My main character can de-materialise (disappear and still be there), the world she lives in is an illusion hence the reason everything being translucent,except the gnats as someone so aptly put it, which are in fact birds. The protagonist in my story can travel between worlds through gateways hidden on Earth.
The reason I chose the chiller font was because it sort of looked like blood, and if you look at all the books these days they seem all the same, just go to your local bookshop and you will see what I’m talking about. Most books have bold print that overpower the front cover. But hey, you all noticed my cover didn’t you? Whether it be for a good or bad reason, you noticed it. If you can give me some advice on what I could do to improve the cover I’m all ears, I like constructive criticism, the more the merrier, so please, what font would be a preferable one, and what could I do to make my cover better? I’m open for suggestions, if you would like to check out my website here it is http://www.reneespyrou.com you can download the first 9 chapters for free all you have to do is pay with a like, and you get access to the chapters, then you can get an idea of what the books about, and if you don’t like my novel it’s cool, we are all different. I’ve worked hard on my novel, 5 years worth of my time, and the reason I began writing was to take my mind off my terminally ill son, he’s the reason I began this journey, he’s no longer here with us, but it was worth doing, so please I implore you, if you can give me some advice I would really, really appreciate it. Thanks again everyone.
Kind regards Renee Spyrou
Compared to what normally appears here, this isn’t that bad. The fonts are what killed it. I have no suggestions as to which ones you should try. All I can say is “yes” or “no”.
In the future, you could try submitting your covers to covercritics.com. It’s the sister site to this one. All criticism over there is snark-free and intended to be constructive.
It’s great that you’re being a good sport about the criticism here, Renee, and that you’re open to input and constructive criticism.
I agree with others that this cover isn’t too bad, especially compared to some that appear on this site. But I also agree that the fonts used are inappropriate.
“if you look at all the books these days they seem all the same…”
Wanting to look different from everything else is good, but it’s also dangerous. The reason why many book covers use similar fonts is that designers have found fonts that work on book covers, and they tend to stick to those reliable choices. If you just jump in as a naive amateur saying “I want something different!” you’re far more likely to end up with something that doesn’t work than you are with something that does. In any field of endeavor, the best route for beginners and amateurs is to stay close to the conventions; to avoid trying to be edgy and different. Being edgy and different is a job for experienced artists.
As for that big long S-word on the cover, potential customers are just going to find it an annoying distraction. Nobody looking at the cover (who hasn’t read the book) will have the slightest clue what it means, and nobody’s going to take the time to sound it out syllable by syllable so that it becomes an actual word in their heads. Even people who have read the book probably won’t do that; they’ll just store it in their brains as “that big long S-word.”
Think of the “Dune” novels by comparison. “Dune” is a nice friendly word. Everyone knows what it means, and you can read it on a cover from a mile away. Even those who haven’t read the book will see the word coupled with an image of a science-fictiony sandy landscape and think “Aha, a book about a desert planet.” The word is readable and understandable, and goes a long way toward giving potential readers information about the book behind the cover.
Seraphympire would make a great name for a death metal album though.
It would wouldn’t it, 😉
Hey Karl,
Thanks for the great feedback. I really appreciate it, and where would we be if we couldn’t take constructive criticism, it’s feedback, it’s a tool for improvement, how else are we going to learn to do things correctly if not for peoples opinions and criticisms, we’d be fools not to listen, and any opinion at all is a welcome commodity. Feedback in any form is great, bring it on. I choose to listen and always have. I’m new to the writing game, and I know Seraphympire is a big no, no, but it’s different, and so is my protagonist. My Maiden name is different too, Papanikolas, I mean it’s easy to say when you know how, I got bagged in school, but different is good if you’ve got the fortitude to handle the bagging, which I was and still am. Anyway I am working on a new cover. I wasn’t really happy with the fonts myself when I have got the new cover done, I will post it to see if it’s any better than the first.
Cheers Renee
To be fair, I did know which words it was an amalgamation of, just no idea how to pronounce it.
I Still like Vangels. 🙂
You pronounce it sarah-fim-pire, hope that helps, once you know how it’s quit easy it will be a word on everyones lips, one day I hope. Thanks for the replies, I’m in agreement Vangels has a nice ring to it 🙂
I love your alternate title names, Angelpires & Vangels that’s classic, thumbs up, I love to laugh and that’s a good one Waffles heh, heh ;), and your prose is great, I actually have a tom (Thomas) in my book sorry to say there’s no bob though. I like the Vangels best… Have great weekend, you put a smile on my face, not what you were expecting huh
Cheers Renee Spyrou
Personally I like your expressed attitude. You sound like you will listen to criticism, fix what you think is broken and keep what you think works.
Oh good. Tom was my favourite character in that short story! I’m glad he is really in the book.
I am glad you actually like the alternate names, they were a joke at the time but I do like them now, especially Vangels. It is great when someone sees a good idea, even through light criticism, and I salute you.
So much in fact have you inspired me of your good humorousness and attitude that I have decided that you may have the word Vangels (if you so desire) as a gift! 😀
Hope to see the updated version on cover critics! If you do I will seriously write the sequel to that story and add a new character, Kevin! (gasp!)
That would be quite a nice picture, if it were not covered with a distorted leg and sword and horrid fonts.
Hi everyone,
I now have a new book cover, I stayed up late last night working on it, and I’m confident it won’t be posted here,for those interested in seeing the new cover click on the link bellow, thanks to you all for bagging the cover because I really wasn’t happy with it and finding it on this website was the push I needed to change it, I just needed a little honest feedback thanks again guys 😉
Cheers everyone….
pic.twitter.com/BdEqm0FSiO
Personally, I like it. Rather a lot, in fact; I think it has a good composition and it makes a real impact.
Much better. You could also submit it at covercritics.com and see what “the gang” comes up with.
Thanks guys, I’m getting really good feedback for this cover, and I think I will submit it covercritics.com have a great week all and thanks again.
If you’d like to check out my book on the twitter page About Author that would be great, and it would be even better if you liked it for me cheers all 😉
http://www.beingauthor.com/2014/09/seraphympire.html