Murder by Elf OR Murder by Robot would either one have been good titles. Somehow Murder by Elf and Robot doesn’t do it for me. Plus neither one of those is on the cover. It looks like some random woman walking down a mall service corridor on her way to the bathroom.
AJ
7 years ago
I could almost like this cover if it had an appropriate set of fonts. And maybe a border consisting of some amalgamation of machinery and plants to represent the robot and elf stuff?
Ah. I checked the Amazon page just to see what this is about, and 1) it’s set at a theme park, which explains the title, and b) there’s a new cover and it’s not any better. Why not show some carnival stalls or rides or animatronic costumes?
The cover needs a “Dark Carnival” or “Something Wicked This Way Comes” vibe, just slanted more toward crime noir than horror/fantasy.
Naaman Brown
7 years ago
The current (10:35 EDT 4 Oct 2016) cover shows a stack of PUMPKINS with taglines, one being “Welcome to Halloween World”.
Yes the cover here gives no dangerous-theme-park vibe which gives the Elf and Robot a WTF? Sorry I don’t think the stack of pumpkins is any better.
Indie small press has limited budgets. Self-pub often has no budget. There are amateur cover artists in it for the love (amas Latin) who will work for recognition or for peanuts (unless they have an allergy, then maybe for something soy or tofu).
I don’t believe books end up here for lack of talent out there. I think they end up here do to lack of effort by authors and publishers to tap into the talent that is out there.
Murder by Elf OR Murder by Robot would either one have been good titles. Somehow Murder by Elf and Robot doesn’t do it for me. Plus neither one of those is on the cover. It looks like some random woman walking down a mall service corridor on her way to the bathroom.
I could almost like this cover if it had an appropriate set of fonts. And maybe a border consisting of some amalgamation of machinery and plants to represent the robot and elf stuff?
Ah. I checked the Amazon page just to see what this is about, and 1) it’s set at a theme park, which explains the title, and b) there’s a new cover and it’s not any better. Why not show some carnival stalls or rides or animatronic costumes?
The cover needs a “Dark Carnival” or “Something Wicked This Way Comes” vibe, just slanted more toward crime noir than horror/fantasy.
The current (10:35 EDT 4 Oct 2016) cover shows a stack of PUMPKINS with taglines, one being “Welcome to Halloween World”.
Yes the cover here gives no dangerous-theme-park vibe which gives the Elf and Robot a WTF? Sorry I don’t think the stack of pumpkins is any better.
Indie small press has limited budgets. Self-pub often has no budget. There are amateur cover artists in it for the love (amas Latin) who will work for recognition or for peanuts (unless they have an allergy, then maybe for something soy or tofu).
I don’t believe books end up here for lack of talent out there. I think they end up here do to lack of effort by authors and publishers to tap into the talent that is out there.
I’ll second that. My research has shown that there are plenty of affordable book cover designers out there.
I love that the author’s name casts a shadow. Outstanding!
When elves go urban, the result is usually murder.