![cover[1]](https://lousybookcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cover19.jpg)
The Wired Necktie and Other Suspicious or Less Suspicious Stories
Welcome to our country. In English, we read left to right.
The Wired Necktie and Other Suspicious or Less Suspicious Stories
Welcome to our country. In English, we read left to right.
What is suspucious?
Anything that raises suspucion.
And our trees grow from the ground up.
Maybe it’s set in Australia, on the opposite bottom side of the globe.
I would have been fine with the minimalist approach of a stark B&W photo of a tree. Even with the tree being upside down I could still have dealt with it. Lose everything else. Lose the drawn on necktie, the ginormous dragonfly, and definitely lose the text.
Why don’t you ever talk to authors? They sometimes do things on purpose on their covers.
Do you expect all of your potential readers to contact you for your rationale behind your cover before they decide whether they like it or not?
Well, I should hope what goes on a cover is there on purpose! However, all the purpose in the world doesn’t make a cover work. This cover lacks punch and it’s not something a casual, prospective reader can make sense of.
Is it an upside-down tree? Is it an overhanging branch as seen from maybe lying on the ground? I don’t know. I also don’t know what it symbolizes about these stories. Are stark branches suspicious? Are these stories all about naked trees? And what the hell do trees have to do with neckties? And wired neckties? Wired for electric shock? Stuffed up with a microphone? What kind of wired?
The cover gives me no suggestion of what’s inside–and, for the luvva Nathan, don’t say the cover makes sense after you check out the stories. Ugh. Totally backwards, that is.
Other points to ponder:
Black & white covers can work and be very dramatic but there has to be something of interest in the imagery. There’s nothing of interest here.
There is no contrast, no oomph. The type is lost and impossible to read, especially in thumbnail. A burst of color, at a minimum, would help. A stronger typeface is essential, but if one’s too attached to a font, a contrasting color would allow it to be placed partly over the image and then the type can be larger and stronger.
I cannot abide typos on covers. Okay, mistakes happen, but covers are a sales tool. They should be fine-toothed until they weep from the pain. Words and sentences should be proofed backwards until your eyes bleed. Everything should suffer Thought Police scrutiny to be sure it’s spelled right; only necessary punctuation should be included, and it better be used right. If there’s a typo on a cover it suggests carelessness throughout the work. As an editor, grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors in a book cause me to stop reading and make the noise the cop in Dumb and Dumber makes when he drinks Lloyd’s warm pee.
An author’s intention for a cover matters not when the result fails to do its job. This cover does not accomplish what it needs to accomplish.
Truth.
Testify, Sirona, testify!