Yea. it is so hard to read that you were able to make out the name of the book for this page. This site is stupid. People are trying to do something productive and all you want to do is sit at your parents house all day while playing video games and making fun of people for going after their dreams. So how does it feel to live out your dreams by making fun of everyone that is really doing something other than sit on their asses all day. I am sure this post will not make the comments because this is the truth and the truth sets people free!
No, Mr. on a Stick (may I call you Poop?), I normally let the abusive comments through so that the complainers can be seen to all the world for what they are.
Point #1: I read the title off the amazon page, not the book’s cover. Of course, you can puzzle it out, but the point of a book’s cover is to announce or advertise to the potential reader, not to obscure itself.
Point #2: I own my own house; I have for fifteen years. I don’t play videogames. (It’s true that I sit on my ass all day, but that’s because I have a desk job.) I don’t know why you think that making baseless personal allegations somehow strengthens your case.
Point #3: I write (and publish), I cartoon, I design, and between it all I run this site. I live out my own dreams. I also point out where overenthusiastic people let their dreams outstrip their ability and publish their lack of judgment for all the world to see. It serves as a cautionary tale to others. I also run CoverCritics.com, at which indie authors can post their covers BEFORE publishing them to receive constructive criticism.
Point #4: I think that before you engage further in this conversation (unless your only intention was to throw “the truth” at us in a drive-by posting), you should familiarize yourself with two pages on this site: “Can You Do Better?” and Judging Books By Their Covers, which disassemble most of your frothing-at-the-mouth comments.
Point #5: The truth sets people free. Unless it’s the truth that a particular self-designed cover is amateurish. Then you’re mean bullies who destroy other people’s dreams. Got it.
Deanna
10 years ago
I stumbled across this site and I am appalled. The fact that you would be proud of bashing book covers really seems kind of childish. If you do in fact own your own house doesn’t that mean you have more important things to do with your time? Frankly, this cover is beautiful. The colors choices ate intriguing, their eyes pop off of the page, the male character is not only good-looking but he is mysterious and alluring (and for the comment that he’s black and white really? You must be color blind because I can see color in his cheeks and lips!) and not only is the text not difficult to read it reminds me of Tolkiens elvish text. This cover is definitely not lousy. I’ve seen some pretty lousy covers lately (look at the books Unspoken Dreams and Calico: Children of the Shawnee if you want to see some lousy covers) but this is not one of them.
Be honest. You didn’t just “stumble across” this site and decide to comment on a post three weeks old — you and several other commenters are friends/family of Amanda Marie, and have come to defend her honor, the validity of our criticisms notwithstanding. Congratulations, your place on her Christmas list is secure.
Actually, I’m kind of ashamed for YOU, in that you seem not to understand what “defamation of character” means (hint: it doesn’t mean “stuff I think is mean”). While you’re at it, you might want to educate yourself on what “First Amendment” means, too.
Suzie
10 years ago
Keep up the great blog Nathan. I get my daily laugh four times a day form this site.
Oh BTW to the complainers, I do not site on my but all day. I work, own my house and vehicles. I rescue animals and I farm. Never owned a video game system in my life.
Suzie
10 years ago
Sorry for typos it is storming in my area and internet keeps going out
Michael Waller
10 years ago
Exactly what brought poop, Deanna, and Roger to this site in the first place? Not to offend Nathan and make him feel unloved (too late), but the only reason I even know about this site is because of his comics; this is one site you have to know exists to find it.
I am not sure why these people are all upset, this site not only brings to light problems with the cover that may be preventing it from selling, but Nathan also provides information and services to help you get a commercially viable cover.
Book Author Daily is a e-zine that guides new and seasoned authors in getting books sold and one of the issues that the author of the e-zine stresses is that books live and die by their cover.
“this site not only brings to light problems with the cover that may be preventing it from selling, but…”
That’s a great point. Presumably, most of the people responsible for these covers think of themselves as authors first, and cover designers second (if at all). So it follows that what they really want is to be recognized as writers, not as cover designers. And if bad covers are standing between them and greater success and recognition as writers, being made aware of that fact is a good thing.
Do these weary folk believe this is the only site of its type on the interwebs? Well, it ain’t. There’s one that’s devoted entirely to crappy romance covers and a few more out there I’ve heard about (mostly genre-related).
If something is presented for public consumption, one must assume that not everyone who consumes said item will love it or even like it. Some people will not like it, outright hate it, or just not take to it. Both the lovers and the haters are entitled to express their opinions and will do so at their leisure. Nathan provides a valuable service by kindly gathering some of these questionable “arts” for our convenient consumption.
Funny thing is, some of the stuff that appears here some of us find isn’t too bad, and when that’s the case, we say so–even disagree with Nathan on occasion. We reserve the right to call art art and, well, the opposite-of-art an equally proper name when necessary. Free will. Gotta love it.
gp
10 years ago
I like the color of his eyes and her hair. These elements attract attention. This site’s original comments only pointed out two relatively minor (compared to many other glaring mistakes common on this site) issues: (1) it’s hard to read and (2) professional covers don’t look like simple cut and paste.
The color elements of the cover and the fact that it’s fairly nice overall means that the thumbnail will probably attract attention on Amazon. This site surely isn’t going to deter sales, as shoppers on Amazon aren’t apt to run over to lousy book covers to see if their prospective purchase happens to be here.
But the author coming here to comment, and others coming over on the author’s behalf, is a huge mistake. This can deter sales greatly, whereas just being listed here likely wouldn’t make a difference. The wise course would be to improve sales by making the cover slightly more readable, be grateful for the free advice, and not be lured into looking unprofessional and creating a negative snowball effect.
Defensive behavior tends to attract not only negative attention, but also trolls. It’s never worth the risk.
One thing this site does accomplish effectively is to provide numerous actual illustrations of what not to do in the way of cover design.
The link doesn’t go anywhere. Did they unpublish it?
Yeah, I think this book was written by a teen girl and the comments are from her and her parents. Just the vibe I get. Criticism at that age is heartbreaking. I’ve been publishing free stuff since I was 14 and I remember some of my first hurtful (and truthful) critques.
Parents, you are disabling your child’s ability to write by protecting her so much. As a writer, she’s gonna need tougher skin than this! Waaay tougher. NONE of the comments on this cover were insulting or even remotely hurtful in my opinion. Boy, if you could read some of the ‘flame’ reviews I used to get, you’d change your mind about us.
Wow. Everyone jumps to conclusions so easily. Thanks for taking notice to my cover 😀 Lousy? Hardly. I had very specific reasons for creating the cover I did, and if you actually read the book you’d find out why.
Now, for the people who think these are my friends and family….hardly. I don’t know any of them, but I thank you for the kind comments 🙂
I am not ashamed of this cover. I am also not an amateur. Every review I’ve gotten from readers prove that this is not a lousy reader. Do I wish this wasn’t posted. Sure, but I can’t change it. However, I do want it known that until this point I did not comment until now. I was shown the link from someone and I only came here out of curiosity. The only mistake made here is that someone assumed I had been here.
Reviews from your readers are hopefully about the quality of the writing, which is NOT what anyone here was commenting about. It was about the cover. You are free to feel that you created the most wonderful cover in the world, and we are just as free to feel that it is a lousy cover.
And if I have to read the book to understand the cover, then you don’t grasp what a cover is supposed to do.
I skimmed the book excerpt, and I must say I wasn’t intrigued, and I would find it a lousy read.
However, that is not the point. The concept of the cover is… well, stereotypical paranormal romance. I get that. The QUALITY of the cover is pretty bad. I could make it, and I don’t know how to use Photoshop. You SHOULD be ashamed of this cover. Not because it’s a bad idea, but because the quality makes me think a 14 year old put it together. Investing in a good cover is the best thing an author can do for marketing, and it’s clear this cover had no investment.
The cover is not attractive, it was poorly composed, and I can barely make out the title. It has nothing to do with your writing, and everything to do with your choice. You might not think you’re an amateur (and maybe you aren’t), but covers speak just as much as the novel does. I should look at a cover and be intrigued, not pushed away. It screams amateur. Whether you like it or not, that’s the way it is.
Did you mean to have light coming from all different directions so they obviously aren’t really side by side? And for her head to be cut off at the top? And for his head to be freakishly large (or hers freakishly small)? What is the egg-shaped thing behind them supposed to be? And why a random zipper?
And if you are proud of your writing, why didn’t you get a professionally designed cover? You can do so for less that $100.
Well I do not know her personally. I picked up her book and liked it. Then I went to search for more information on her book and ran into this. The cover fits the genera. If you really do own a publishing house then I would think you would have better things to do that bash people. If you are going to bash a cover then you should make the cover for the book in question then link it to the bashing page. Looks like I started a comment debate. Thank you for posting my post even tho you were trying to make me look bad. Oh and yes you can call me poop.
I *wish* I played video games all day! That would be awesome! There are some great games out there.
I own my house. I also write, though not nearly often enough. I know all too well that my graphic design skills are limited, so I let other people create my book covers.
I strongly recommend covercritics.com as it is the complete opposite of this site. It is a snark free forum where authors submit their proposed cover designs and receive constructive criticism and suggestions.
I’m also a member of an indie book review blog, and I want authors to realize that people *do* judge books by their cover. It’s taken several years for self-publishing to shake off the stigma that self-published = crap. Bad covers (and poor editing) do not help.
No, in this case there was a terrible publishing house in charge of the publishing. The author took back control over the rights and publishing. Thanks for not assuming.
“Now, for the people who think these are my friends and family….hardly. I don’t know any of them, but I thank you for the kind comments”
Granted, Tess posted after the author did. But, we have to assume Tess is a friend of the author or else how would she know these sorts of details about this book’s history?
Would be interested to know whether any of these defenders share the same IP address.
So after it was pointed out how the cover is lame, the petulant author is even more so, said author returned to give us another helping of “I’m rubber, you’re glue. Bounces off me and sticks to you…no backies.”
When publishing, you are addressing the world, or at the very least, your audience. If you haven’t noticed, the world sucks, which is why you’re writing in the first place. You want a mental playground where you are the protagonist, not the whiny, useless, myopic nobody. Understand the world owes you nothing and takes great pleasure in kicking your teeth in. If you’re going to publish, you should be of sufficient emotional strength to have someone metaphorically reach up your rectum and pull out your intestines, while all you say is, “Thank you for your opinion.”
Or, I can say this in a way you will understand. “This place is so sketch. Like totes don’t let it mess up ur game.”
Robbie
10 years ago
When you create a thing — anything — and release it into the world, you also open it up to comments from everyone who encounters it. This can be gushing praise or foaming abuse, flippant mockery or honest consideration. This site exists to exercise the last two options.
Apparently you’ve never taken a good, strong, meaningful course in any creative pursuit. Our comments here are candyfloss and rainbows compared to what a decent teacher would tell you. You’d quickly learn what it’s like to have your work torn to shreds for the sake of your development.
The very first step in becoming a creative professional is to learn to accept all criticism, no matter how it might be expressed. You do this because, as a professional, you constantly seek to improve. You want to know your flaws so you can work to eliminate them.
Having been given criticism, your next step is to consider it thoughtfully. After due consideration, you might decide to change your existing work, or shrug and vow to do better next time, or you might decide you honestly want to keep it the way it is. But only because it’s deeply, purely right the way it is and can’t possibly be bettered.
You’ve been given some clear, useful criticism here. If you’re truly a professional, you’ll say “thank you” and see what you can learn from the interlude.
![cover[1]](https://lousybookcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/cover163.jpg)
The text is easy enough to read – “To jkl;aio hkf fjkdsla, Hook, I” – a perfectly good name for this book.
That dude’s GIANT head is frightening me. He could bite her head clean off. And the oddly placed zipper doesn’t help.
And combining color photos with one that’s black, white, and GREEN!!! is never a good plan.
He’s not black and white. I can tell there’s color there, he’s just pale.
I think that’s a weird blade of some kind and not a zipper.
I see Jupiter’s got da blues.
How is Torii pronounced?
How can I read a book where I can’t pronounce it. Like our planet Aerth.
What’s so hard about the name Torii?
Please give me an example of a word in English that ends with a double “i” so I can have a reference how to pronounce “torii”
I’m drawing a blank.
I think this is a fabulous cover!
You have GOT to be kidding! Not a single element works.
Yea. it is so hard to read that you were able to make out the name of the book for this page. This site is stupid. People are trying to do something productive and all you want to do is sit at your parents house all day while playing video games and making fun of people for going after their dreams. So how does it feel to live out your dreams by making fun of everyone that is really doing something other than sit on their asses all day. I am sure this post will not make the comments because this is the truth and the truth sets people free!
No, Mr. on a Stick (may I call you Poop?), I normally let the abusive comments through so that the complainers can be seen to all the world for what they are.
Point #1: I read the title off the amazon page, not the book’s cover. Of course, you can puzzle it out, but the point of a book’s cover is to announce or advertise to the potential reader, not to obscure itself.
Point #2: I own my own house; I have for fifteen years. I don’t play videogames. (It’s true that I sit on my ass all day, but that’s because I have a desk job.) I don’t know why you think that making baseless personal allegations somehow strengthens your case.
Point #3: I write (and publish), I cartoon, I design, and between it all I run this site. I live out my own dreams. I also point out where overenthusiastic people let their dreams outstrip their ability and publish their lack of judgment for all the world to see. It serves as a cautionary tale to others. I also run CoverCritics.com, at which indie authors can post their covers BEFORE publishing them to receive constructive criticism.
Point #4: I think that before you engage further in this conversation (unless your only intention was to throw “the truth” at us in a drive-by posting), you should familiarize yourself with two pages on this site: “Can You Do Better?” and Judging Books By Their Covers, which disassemble most of your frothing-at-the-mouth comments.
Point #5: The truth sets people free. Unless it’s the truth that a particular self-designed cover is amateurish. Then you’re mean bullies who destroy other people’s dreams. Got it.
I stumbled across this site and I am appalled. The fact that you would be proud of bashing book covers really seems kind of childish. If you do in fact own your own house doesn’t that mean you have more important things to do with your time? Frankly, this cover is beautiful. The colors choices ate intriguing, their eyes pop off of the page, the male character is not only good-looking but he is mysterious and alluring (and for the comment that he’s black and white really? You must be color blind because I can see color in his cheeks and lips!) and not only is the text not difficult to read it reminds me of Tolkiens elvish text. This cover is definitely not lousy. I’ve seen some pretty lousy covers lately (look at the books Unspoken Dreams and Calico: Children of the Shawnee if you want to see some lousy covers) but this is not one of them.
Be honest. You didn’t just “stumble across” this site and decide to comment on a post three weeks old — you and several other commenters are friends/family of Amanda Marie, and have come to defend her honor, the validity of our criticisms notwithstanding. Congratulations, your place on her Christmas list is secure.
Actually I don’t know her, but thank you for calling me a liar. I’ll remember that.
Agreed – don’t you have a better way to spend time and affect change? Seems petty.
This site should be shut down for defamation of character! You should be ashamed of yourself!
Actually, I’m kind of ashamed for YOU, in that you seem not to understand what “defamation of character” means (hint: it doesn’t mean “stuff I think is mean”). While you’re at it, you might want to educate yourself on what “First Amendment” means, too.
Keep up the great blog Nathan. I get my daily laugh four times a day form this site.
Oh BTW to the complainers, I do not site on my but all day. I work, own my house and vehicles. I rescue animals and I farm. Never owned a video game system in my life.
Sorry for typos it is storming in my area and internet keeps going out
Exactly what brought poop, Deanna, and Roger to this site in the first place? Not to offend Nathan and make him feel unloved (too late), but the only reason I even know about this site is because of his comics; this is one site you have to know exists to find it.
I am not sure why these people are all upset, this site not only brings to light problems with the cover that may be preventing it from selling, but Nathan also provides information and services to help you get a commercially viable cover.
Book Author Daily is a e-zine that guides new and seasoned authors in getting books sold and one of the issues that the author of the e-zine stresses is that books live and die by their cover.
“this site not only brings to light problems with the cover that may be preventing it from selling, but…”
That’s a great point. Presumably, most of the people responsible for these covers think of themselves as authors first, and cover designers second (if at all). So it follows that what they really want is to be recognized as writers, not as cover designers. And if bad covers are standing between them and greater success and recognition as writers, being made aware of that fact is a good thing.
Do these weary folk believe this is the only site of its type on the interwebs? Well, it ain’t. There’s one that’s devoted entirely to crappy romance covers and a few more out there I’ve heard about (mostly genre-related).
If something is presented for public consumption, one must assume that not everyone who consumes said item will love it or even like it. Some people will not like it, outright hate it, or just not take to it. Both the lovers and the haters are entitled to express their opinions and will do so at their leisure. Nathan provides a valuable service by kindly gathering some of these questionable “arts” for our convenient consumption.
Funny thing is, some of the stuff that appears here some of us find isn’t too bad, and when that’s the case, we say so–even disagree with Nathan on occasion. We reserve the right to call art art and, well, the opposite-of-art an equally proper name when necessary. Free will. Gotta love it.
I like the color of his eyes and her hair. These elements attract attention. This site’s original comments only pointed out two relatively minor (compared to many other glaring mistakes common on this site) issues: (1) it’s hard to read and (2) professional covers don’t look like simple cut and paste.
The color elements of the cover and the fact that it’s fairly nice overall means that the thumbnail will probably attract attention on Amazon. This site surely isn’t going to deter sales, as shoppers on Amazon aren’t apt to run over to lousy book covers to see if their prospective purchase happens to be here.
But the author coming here to comment, and others coming over on the author’s behalf, is a huge mistake. This can deter sales greatly, whereas just being listed here likely wouldn’t make a difference. The wise course would be to improve sales by making the cover slightly more readable, be grateful for the free advice, and not be lured into looking unprofessional and creating a negative snowball effect.
Defensive behavior tends to attract not only negative attention, but also trolls. It’s never worth the risk.
One thing this site does accomplish effectively is to provide numerous actual illustrations of what not to do in the way of cover design.
The link doesn’t go anywhere. Did they unpublish it?
Yeah, I think this book was written by a teen girl and the comments are from her and her parents. Just the vibe I get. Criticism at that age is heartbreaking. I’ve been publishing free stuff since I was 14 and I remember some of my first hurtful (and truthful) critques.
Parents, you are disabling your child’s ability to write by protecting her so much. As a writer, she’s gonna need tougher skin than this! Waaay tougher. NONE of the comments on this cover were insulting or even remotely hurtful in my opinion. Boy, if you could read some of the ‘flame’ reviews I used to get, you’d change your mind about us.
It’s still on Amazon — http://www.amazon.com/Torii-Rule-Universe-Amanda-Marie-ebook/dp/B00KO10TI8/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
Ah, so it is. Thanks for the link.
Just checked the author bio and she’s not a teenager. 🙁
Seeing stuff like this from adults always makes me sad. So, never mind all that stuff I said up there. Just….never mind.
QQ
Wow. Everyone jumps to conclusions so easily. Thanks for taking notice to my cover 😀 Lousy? Hardly. I had very specific reasons for creating the cover I did, and if you actually read the book you’d find out why.
Now, for the people who think these are my friends and family….hardly. I don’t know any of them, but I thank you for the kind comments 🙂
I am not ashamed of this cover. I am also not an amateur. Every review I’ve gotten from readers prove that this is not a lousy reader. Do I wish this wasn’t posted. Sure, but I can’t change it. However, I do want it known that until this point I did not comment until now. I was shown the link from someone and I only came here out of curiosity. The only mistake made here is that someone assumed I had been here.
Please leave it alone.
None of the comments have been about the quality of the writing or the story.
Reviews from your readers are hopefully about the quality of the writing, which is NOT what anyone here was commenting about. It was about the cover. You are free to feel that you created the most wonderful cover in the world, and we are just as free to feel that it is a lousy cover.
And if I have to read the book to understand the cover, then you don’t grasp what a cover is supposed to do.
I skimmed the book excerpt, and I must say I wasn’t intrigued, and I would find it a lousy read.
However, that is not the point. The concept of the cover is… well, stereotypical paranormal romance. I get that. The QUALITY of the cover is pretty bad. I could make it, and I don’t know how to use Photoshop. You SHOULD be ashamed of this cover. Not because it’s a bad idea, but because the quality makes me think a 14 year old put it together. Investing in a good cover is the best thing an author can do for marketing, and it’s clear this cover had no investment.
The cover is not attractive, it was poorly composed, and I can barely make out the title. It has nothing to do with your writing, and everything to do with your choice. You might not think you’re an amateur (and maybe you aren’t), but covers speak just as much as the novel does. I should look at a cover and be intrigued, not pushed away. It screams amateur. Whether you like it or not, that’s the way it is.
*not a lousy cover. Now, I have work to do. Good day.
Did you mean to have light coming from all different directions so they obviously aren’t really side by side? And for her head to be cut off at the top? And for his head to be freakishly large (or hers freakishly small)? What is the egg-shaped thing behind them supposed to be? And why a random zipper?
And if you are proud of your writing, why didn’t you get a professionally designed cover? You can do so for less that $100.
Well I do not know her personally. I picked up her book and liked it. Then I went to search for more information on her book and ran into this. The cover fits the genera. If you really do own a publishing house then I would think you would have better things to do that bash people. If you are going to bash a cover then you should make the cover for the book in question then link it to the bashing page. Looks like I started a comment debate. Thank you for posting my post even tho you were trying to make me look bad. Oh and yes you can call me poop.
I *wish* I played video games all day! That would be awesome! There are some great games out there.
I own my house. I also write, though not nearly often enough. I know all too well that my graphic design skills are limited, so I let other people create my book covers.
I strongly recommend covercritics.com as it is the complete opposite of this site. It is a snark free forum where authors submit their proposed cover designs and receive constructive criticism and suggestions.
I’m also a member of an indie book review blog, and I want authors to realize that people *do* judge books by their cover. It’s taken several years for self-publishing to shake off the stigma that self-published = crap. Bad covers (and poor editing) do not help.
Just fwiw, several times recently the links to Amazon have been somehow broken; it may be the “tag=” thing on the end…?
No, that’s not the problem. The book has a different ASIN (Amazon number) than it originally had.
The only time I have seen that happen is when the author deletes and reposts to get rid of negative reviews.
No, in this case there was a terrible publishing house in charge of the publishing. The author took back control over the rights and publishing. Thanks for not assuming.
Says the author up above:
“Now, for the people who think these are my friends and family….hardly. I don’t know any of them, but I thank you for the kind comments”
Granted, Tess posted after the author did. But, we have to assume Tess is a friend of the author or else how would she know these sorts of details about this book’s history?
Would be interested to know whether any of these defenders share the same IP address.
No, no signs of sockpuppetry.
Guess I’m just suspicious by nature. Thanks for checking.
So after it was pointed out how the cover is lame, the petulant author is even more so, said author returned to give us another helping of “I’m rubber, you’re glue. Bounces off me and sticks to you…no backies.”
When publishing, you are addressing the world, or at the very least, your audience. If you haven’t noticed, the world sucks, which is why you’re writing in the first place. You want a mental playground where you are the protagonist, not the whiny, useless, myopic nobody. Understand the world owes you nothing and takes great pleasure in kicking your teeth in. If you’re going to publish, you should be of sufficient emotional strength to have someone metaphorically reach up your rectum and pull out your intestines, while all you say is, “Thank you for your opinion.”
Or, I can say this in a way you will understand. “This place is so sketch. Like totes don’t let it mess up ur game.”
When you create a thing — anything — and release it into the world, you also open it up to comments from everyone who encounters it. This can be gushing praise or foaming abuse, flippant mockery or honest consideration. This site exists to exercise the last two options.
Apparently you’ve never taken a good, strong, meaningful course in any creative pursuit. Our comments here are candyfloss and rainbows compared to what a decent teacher would tell you. You’d quickly learn what it’s like to have your work torn to shreds for the sake of your development.
The very first step in becoming a creative professional is to learn to accept all criticism, no matter how it might be expressed. You do this because, as a professional, you constantly seek to improve. You want to know your flaws so you can work to eliminate them.
Having been given criticism, your next step is to consider it thoughtfully. After due consideration, you might decide to change your existing work, or shrug and vow to do better next time, or you might decide you honestly want to keep it the way it is. But only because it’s deeply, purely right the way it is and can’t possibly be bettered.
You’ve been given some clear, useful criticism here. If you’re truly a professional, you’ll say “thank you” and see what you can learn from the interlude.