[snark]But once you read the story, you will understand the meaning of the symbol.[/snark]
Without reading the story, the skull face strikes me as hoodoo symbolism (Baron Samedi). I would anticipate a native folklore twist to the story. Without the head, the cover art is simple and striking by itself especially when reduced to thumbnail size. Maybe too simple, though I am a big fan of the kiss principle: keep it sweet and simple.
But the skull face is just one possibly unneeded icon. At LBC, cover art with just one puzzling and maybe unnecessary and possibly confusing add-on is a blessing. At least it is not a clutter of tacked-on clip art.
Yes, I’d agree this one is redeemable. Lose the wacky cartoon skull thingie (which I’m guessing is maybe a mashup of Christian symbols from a baptismal shell to a Eucharist to a cross) and clean up everything. There’s a lot of weird ghosting and pixelation around the type at the bottom that makes it look like a low-res image of an image, so that needs improvement. Other thing that bugs me is that there’s nothing in the bleeding, weird heart that tells me WTF this book’s about! Genre? Demographic appeal? The title gives hints but the artwork doesn’t help us nail it down.
Catie
10 years ago
I don’t think it’s supposed to be a skull (our mind is just wired to look for face patterns in everything), it might be some kind of religious artefact or something. But I agree that it makes the whole cover look bad. And it really bothers me that it’s not centered.
The fact that the head/face is off kilter and off center seems to be part of the point to me. The head is also tilted. Why must everthing be symmetrical? The blood drip is not centered either. In a way they seem to counterbalance each other.
I don’t know, I guess I’m slightly OCD… The tilting bothers me as well. If it looked as if it’s a part of the heart, then it would be in the right place, between the two halves. But I think the problem is that it looks more like it belongs to the title (same color, texture, sharpness and whatnot) and it’s not aligned with the title. If it was incorporated with the heart better, it wouldn’t look like a random floating emoji and it wouldn’t bother people so much.
Emoji (Emojis?) do not belong on the cover of a book
Naaman Brown
10 years ago
I keep coming back to this cover. Maybe I’m jaded from exposure to Lousy Book Covers but I have seen worse covers. This cover will appeal to fans who know the author’s previous books simply by name recognition.
But the job of a book cover is to make it appeal to book buyers who don’t know the author’s prior work.
I am beginning to think that, as a symbol for a horror story, a larger skullface superimposed on the the broken heart, the broken heart alone or a larger skullface alone, would intrigue me as a browser either on Amazon or in a bookstore.
(From what I have read, the tale is Southern Gothic set in Alabama, a remote village is in jeopardy, the protagonist is a dead mountain Christ-figure, the antagonist a crazy hillybilly militia.)
Aha! It is the orange background! That’s what’s been bugging me!! Orange is the U Tennessee football colors; Alabama is the Crimson Tide. Fix the BG color, good to go.
![cover[1]](https://lousybookcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cover118.jpg)
Is it Christus or Christis? I don’t see the link to the book?
http://www.amazon.com/Be-The-Christis-Kid-Beheaded-ebook/dp/B00OKRD966
Ah, thank you. So it is Christis after all. Interesting blurb.
(I could do a nyah-nyah dance sing-songing “Nathan did a typo” bit “i” is too close to “u” on the keyboard to snark over that I guess.)
Good, because my faith in humanity would be shaken to the core to discover that there is NEGATIVTY on the net.
What’s NEGATIVTY?
You guys are trolling with the typos now, aren’t you?
I’m not sure what’s supposed to be wrong with this one. All of its ‘flaws’ are evidently intentional, and overall imo it works well.
Exactly. I couldn’t agree more. It really works for me.
I agree with Take Cover. I like this one. A lot.
I don’t think that silly cartoon head belongs where it is. If it were removed, TBH I think this cover would be perfectly serviceable.
[snark]But once you read the story, you will understand the meaning of the symbol.[/snark]
Without reading the story, the skull face strikes me as hoodoo symbolism (Baron Samedi). I would anticipate a native folklore twist to the story. Without the head, the cover art is simple and striking by itself especially when reduced to thumbnail size. Maybe too simple, though I am a big fan of the kiss principle: keep it sweet and simple.
But the skull face is just one possibly unneeded icon. At LBC, cover art with just one puzzling and maybe unnecessary and possibly confusing add-on is a blessing. At least it is not a clutter of tacked-on clip art.
Thornhorn? Bwhahahahaha!
Yes, I’d agree this one is redeemable. Lose the wacky cartoon skull thingie (which I’m guessing is maybe a mashup of Christian symbols from a baptismal shell to a Eucharist to a cross) and clean up everything. There’s a lot of weird ghosting and pixelation around the type at the bottom that makes it look like a low-res image of an image, so that needs improvement. Other thing that bugs me is that there’s nothing in the bleeding, weird heart that tells me WTF this book’s about! Genre? Demographic appeal? The title gives hints but the artwork doesn’t help us nail it down.
I don’t think it’s supposed to be a skull (our mind is just wired to look for face patterns in everything), it might be some kind of religious artefact or something. But I agree that it makes the whole cover look bad. And it really bothers me that it’s not centered.
The fact that the head/face is off kilter and off center seems to be part of the point to me. The head is also tilted. Why must everthing be symmetrical? The blood drip is not centered either. In a way they seem to counterbalance each other.
I don’t know, I guess I’m slightly OCD… The tilting bothers me as well. If it looked as if it’s a part of the heart, then it would be in the right place, between the two halves. But I think the problem is that it looks more like it belongs to the title (same color, texture, sharpness and whatnot) and it’s not aligned with the title. If it was incorporated with the heart better, it wouldn’t look like a random floating emoji and it wouldn’t bother people so much.
Emoji (Emojis?) do not belong on the cover of a book
I keep coming back to this cover. Maybe I’m jaded from exposure to Lousy Book Covers but I have seen worse covers. This cover will appeal to fans who know the author’s previous books simply by name recognition.
But the job of a book cover is to make it appeal to book buyers who don’t know the author’s prior work.
I am beginning to think that, as a symbol for a horror story, a larger skullface superimposed on the the broken heart, the broken heart alone or a larger skullface alone, would intrigue me as a browser either on Amazon or in a bookstore.
(From what I have read, the tale is Southern Gothic set in Alabama, a remote village is in jeopardy, the protagonist is a dead mountain Christ-figure, the antagonist a crazy hillybilly militia.)
Aha! It is the orange background! That’s what’s been bugging me!! Orange is the U Tennessee football colors; Alabama is the Crimson Tide. Fix the BG color, good to go.
I just looked at it again. It’s been modified a bit.