Cover for Sorrel Snowbound

[Lensman]

I'm finally in a position to publish the sequel to Sorrel in Scarlet. I have a cover for it which I think is pretty good, but I'd love to have some feedback and thoughts on it.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/943051_505589519490997_359271747_n.jpg

What do people think?

[factotum]

The plane looks very obviously CGI and thus doesn't match up well with the rest of the cover, and I do wonder how the guy in the rear seat is planning to recock that enormous crossbow in the space he has available. Everything else looks fine to my untrained eye.

[Dr.Epic]

The plane looks very obviously CGI and thus doesn't match up well with the rest of the cover

:smallconfused: The whole thing looks very CGI.

[Weezer]

Like with the vast majority of covers for self-published books, all I can think of for advice is this: hire a good artist. You want the cover to accurately represent the work you've put into the novel, and convince people that it is a worthwhile read. Your current cover would end with me tossing it down and never thinking about it again. Presentation is important, don't skimp on it.

[The Succubus]

Being honest...I don't particularly like it.

As others have said, the CGI rendering clashes badly with the rather nice back drop you have. The lettering on the title seems a little off and while Sorrel's uniform is good, there's something...off...about her facial expression.

I'd probably get someone to sketch the cover or at least the outlines of it, so that the artwork has a uniformity to it. As it is now, it seems like random elements from different styles all put onto one page.

Sowwy. :smallfrown:

[Lensman]

Being honest...I don't particularly like it.

Sowwy. :smallfrown:

Don't apologise! I asked for comments, and if you all don't like it then it means I need to work on it some more!

My feeling is that the picture of Sorrel herself works pretty well, though I'll experiment with her expression some more. The dragon/triplane dogfight obviously isn't working - too CGI and not matching the rest of the look of the picture. We'll try a complete re-render of that part of it.

It does represent a specific and dramatic scene in the novel - my assumption from the comments so far is that the image is not dramatic and "grabbing" enough.

Watch this space and I'll try again!

[GolemsVoice]

As others have said, the CGI rendering clashes badly with the rather nice back drop you have. The lettering on the title seems a little off and while Sorrel's uniform is good, there's something...off...about her facial expression.

That's a sad effect of 3D rendering (or however the process is actually called) when it isn't done professionaly. I find it very off-putting myself, too.

I understand that for a self-published writer, hiring an artist is a lot of money, but yeah, even a quite simple but nice illustration would look good.

Or at least, hm, "tie" the individual elements together somehow? Now, as other said, it looks like various parts thrown together.

However, congrats on getting published/publishing! Keep going!