If I could do that, so could the author. It would probably only take a couple of phone calls and/or emails to NASA to check that the image actually is in the public domain, and he’s got himself the basis of a decent cover.
Since he’s selling a paperback as well, he could do that as a wrap-around and have a cropped version for the ebook. But yes, starting with a good image doesn’t guarantee a good cover.
Oh my, that is supposed to be Jupiter, isn’t it? I assumed that it was supposed to be the main colony dome or something, because it seemed to be on the surface.
What worries me more than anything when I see art like this that someone obviously spent a lot of (wasted) time on is the nagging thought that perhaps the artist was so proud of the work that he went and wrote an e-book just to have a place to stick it.
I just wrote that crazy terrible run-on sentence, and I ain’t gonna fix it.
joiless
8 years ago
I own like twenty unremarkable late-70s to early-80s sci-fi paperbacks (the kind with the yellowy pages) that have covers really rather like this one, except marginally better. Maybe they were going to a misguided nostalgic look.
![cover[1]](https://lousybookcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/cover129.jpg)
As someone who makes most of their living creating realistic, scientifically accurate astronomical illustrations…I just don’t know what to say.
It took me about a minute and a half to find this apparently public domain image of a base on Callisto:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Callisto_base.PNG
If I could do that, so could the author. It would probably only take a couple of phone calls and/or emails to NASA to check that the image actually is in the public domain, and he’s got himself the basis of a decent cover.
THAT IS SO MUCH COOLER!
But… because that photo is landscape orientation, I can just imagine it not cropped, but squeezed do death. I shudder to think.
Since he’s selling a paperback as well, he could do that as a wrap-around and have a cropped version for the ebook. But yes, starting with a good image doesn’t guarantee a good cover.
Some beautiful work in your portfolio, Ron!
As for this piece of doo-doo, it looks like Jupiter has plopped down into a lake on Callisto’s surface… dafuq??? O_o
Oh my, that is supposed to be Jupiter, isn’t it? I assumed that it was supposed to be the main colony dome or something, because it seemed to be on the surface.
I thought the same thing. EPIC FAIL.
Is this a closeup of Titanimus’s t-shirt?
I was kinda doing OK with it until I scrolled down to the foreground. Dafuq indeed.
If that’s Jupiter rising over the horizon of its moon Callisto, what’s in the background?
Um, I think your planet’s drowning, I’d probably have a look at that.
Send this mock-up to a cover designer. That’s the magic filter. This concept could work quite well if…
What worries me more than anything when I see art like this that someone obviously spent a lot of (wasted) time on is the nagging thought that perhaps the artist was so proud of the work that he went and wrote an e-book just to have a place to stick it.
I just wrote that crazy terrible run-on sentence, and I ain’t gonna fix it.
I own like twenty unremarkable late-70s to early-80s sci-fi paperbacks (the kind with the yellowy pages) that have covers really rather like this one, except marginally better. Maybe they were going to a misguided nostalgic look.