Gee, and I had a dozen other elements I hid in Photoshop. (Only kidding). Now my cover has turned your eyes away but made an indelible impression on your mind. Not a good one, I can see, but some time when you least expected (perhaps after eating too many deviled eggs), the big head will loom and the balloon will descend on you in dreams and you’ll wake up screaming in the night – “Too many tags! Too many tags!” I love this forum and think I’ll stick around, if that’s oay with y’all.
Ericb
10 years ago
So does Roger Ebert’s movie rule about hot air balloons work for book covers as well?
Kris
10 years ago
This cover is hilarious! It’s like he tried to cram more in at the bottom and everything kept needing to be smaller! “We don’t need no stinking proportion!”
L.
10 years ago
The sad thing is I’ve read this author before and he’s not that bad, but all of his ebook covers are trainwrecks like this.
I’m the antithesis of a cover artist. (I was a marketing director for most of my career and know marleting design etc.) But my book covers reflect me and ru counter to all the “tags.” Cruikshank is my god. And despite the painterly cut and pasty look, some of my readers regard my covers with favor after they read the book and see what all that minutia means. (Where’s Waldo and all that – a bonus). They look at the hot air balloon and know it’s the Gananadana sailing over the Cetronian Heights. They know the golden eye is the Sceptas and leetle bitty people are the Cetrone (the tale reflects Cherokee history). But alas, I agree wholeheartedly that a resign is in order when I’m dead and those who inherit Dancaster Creative can do what they want. BTW, I sometimes get a “Hated the Cover,” in a review, but generally in innards get a 4 or 5 star. As for royalty and income, I’m more into circulation and readership. I began publishing my various enterprises on the Kindle in 2007 (one of the first Indies out there) and boy I made lot’s of mistakes. But I’ve only redesigned three covers, because they were stock and looked too professional giving the books a souless aspect. But I’ve now joined this group to follow the discussion on other authors who do their thing in public. Criticism is a wonderful thing and those who flash their wares in public must have thick skins and also listen. I cherish my one-star reviews as much as my five-stars.
There is no sarcasm or anything in my last comment, or in this one. (Hard as that is to believe on this site.)
The fact that you made the cover like this on purpose, that you OWN it and everything about it, that you love it like this, called yourself the queen of bad covers, and came on here with a great sense of humour… is amazing!
I didn’t there was sarcasm. I believe we all take ourselve too seriously on the survace. But between the covers, I’m very serious, as my small circle of some 50,000 readers will tell you. I’m on Facebook too and an open, open book.
Axolotl
10 years ago
Lol, that giant head floating there looks like it is someone’s hot air blune in a race with the other blune to reach the end of the rainbow. You can just see where someone has tried and failed to photoshop a basket under it.
The basket came with the blune (at least that’s what I paid for when I bought the image) lol. The big head was also a bought image. But if you think we’re spoofing Wizard of Oz imagery, I am – although the 704 page fantasy inside the pages goes no where near Oz and its the 1st of three books probably amounting to 2100 pages – a short fall from my other Where Waldo cover series, The Jade Owl which tops 3800. But I think in the second book I will use the word “blune” as the characters speak a language or languages of my own invntion mostly based on Cherokee. Thanks for the word – it will spring to life in the near future.
You could copy the basket from the other blune, make it a bit bigger, and paste it under the head. Of course it would probably look a bit pixellated, but that would probably just add to the cover’s appeal. 🙂
![cover[1]](https://lousybookcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/cover138.jpg)
Look at all the tags on this one! I can see more that should be still be applied. Photobombing eyes for example.
Is there a limit to the amount of tags you can put on a cover Nathan? Did this one seriously reach the limit? Lovely!
No, but there’s a limit to the time I’ll look at a bad cover.
Gee, and I had a dozen other elements I hid in Photoshop. (Only kidding). Now my cover has turned your eyes away but made an indelible impression on your mind. Not a good one, I can see, but some time when you least expected (perhaps after eating too many deviled eggs), the big head will loom and the balloon will descend on you in dreams and you’ll wake up screaming in the night – “Too many tags! Too many tags!” I love this forum and think I’ll stick around, if that’s oay with y’all.
So does Roger Ebert’s movie rule about hot air balloons work for book covers as well?
This cover is hilarious! It’s like he tried to cram more in at the bottom and everything kept needing to be smaller! “We don’t need no stinking proportion!”
The sad thing is I’ve read this author before and he’s not that bad, but all of his ebook covers are trainwrecks like this.
L.
Thank you L. for the compliment. When Book 24 comes out this summer, I have tried my best to maintain my reputation as the Queen of Bad Covers. lol.
E. C. Patterson
You did this on purpose and you like it like this?
…
You’re my favourite now!
I’m the antithesis of a cover artist. (I was a marketing director for most of my career and know marleting design etc.) But my book covers reflect me and ru counter to all the “tags.” Cruikshank is my god. And despite the painterly cut and pasty look, some of my readers regard my covers with favor after they read the book and see what all that minutia means. (Where’s Waldo and all that – a bonus). They look at the hot air balloon and know it’s the Gananadana sailing over the Cetronian Heights. They know the golden eye is the Sceptas and leetle bitty people are the Cetrone (the tale reflects Cherokee history). But alas, I agree wholeheartedly that a resign is in order when I’m dead and those who inherit Dancaster Creative can do what they want. BTW, I sometimes get a “Hated the Cover,” in a review, but generally in innards get a 4 or 5 star. As for royalty and income, I’m more into circulation and readership. I began publishing my various enterprises on the Kindle in 2007 (one of the first Indies out there) and boy I made lot’s of mistakes. But I’ve only redesigned three covers, because they were stock and looked too professional giving the books a souless aspect. But I’ve now joined this group to follow the discussion on other authors who do their thing in public. Criticism is a wonderful thing and those who flash their wares in public must have thick skins and also listen. I cherish my one-star reviews as much as my five-stars.
There is no sarcasm or anything in my last comment, or in this one. (Hard as that is to believe on this site.)
The fact that you made the cover like this on purpose, that you OWN it and everything about it, that you love it like this, called yourself the queen of bad covers, and came on here with a great sense of humour… is amazing!
Yep. Still my favourite!
Agree!
I didn’t there was sarcasm. I believe we all take ourselve too seriously on the survace. But between the covers, I’m very serious, as my small circle of some 50,000 readers will tell you. I’m on Facebook too and an open, open book.
Lol, that giant head floating there looks like it is someone’s hot air blune in a race with the other blune to reach the end of the rainbow. You can just see where someone has tried and failed to photoshop a basket under it.
The basket came with the blune (at least that’s what I paid for when I bought the image) lol. The big head was also a bought image. But if you think we’re spoofing Wizard of Oz imagery, I am – although the 704 page fantasy inside the pages goes no where near Oz and its the 1st of three books probably amounting to 2100 pages – a short fall from my other Where Waldo cover series, The Jade Owl which tops 3800. But I think in the second book I will use the word “blune” as the characters speak a language or languages of my own invntion mostly based on Cherokee. Thanks for the word – it will spring to life in the near future.
You could copy the basket from the other blune, make it a bit bigger, and paste it under the head. Of course it would probably look a bit pixellated, but that would probably just add to the cover’s appeal. 🙂
Thanks for the suggestion, but I keep all my blunes in one basket and all my heads (and eyes) float without canastrastic assistance. lol