a critique site for book lovers, hosted by author Jude Hardin
Friday, August 26, 2011
4 Play by Jess C Scott
What's the genre? What is it you like or don't like about this cover? Does it make you want to know more about the book? Does it make you want to BUY the book? Discuss.
Erotic short stories! Easy to tell since it's on the cover
Overall I really like the concept of this cover. It's simple, direct, and striking. There are a few things I think could improve it.
First, the grey box at the top hiding her face has no other role, and it's kind of odd just floating there. Since it cuts off her face but her feet are floating, she appears to be anchored to the top of the page instead of to the floor. Floating people are one of my peeves. I'd get rid of the top box and make her larger or show her whole face, having her feet touch the bottom grey line OR putting a light rule behind her at perhaps about ankle/calf height to give her a surface to stand on. the image also looks a bit fuzzy/pixelated, like it was a found piece of clipart that is bitmap instead of vector, maybe that improves in full size but I'd want it to look a bit cleaner.
Are the P and Y of contemporary capitalized? That should be fixed unless there's a compelling reason to leave them that way. Overall the font use is good, but there's a lot of space between the P and L of Play; you might want to kern that.
Well, I find the "cut off her face since only her tits and ass matter" concept pretty deeply offensive. But that's me. We all have our pet peeves and since I am sure as heck not the target audience, you have to take my opinion with an appropriate grain of salt.
@J.R. Tomlin, I don't mind it in the context of erotica, and the overall feel of this cover to me is stylistic/1920s rather than over sexualized (which, come to think of it, might not be what the author wants to hear). But I do get your point! I guess I just see so many covers with torsos (male and female) that it doesn't seem odd or offensive. Especially since I'm not usually a big fan of "face" covers; too often it's the wrong face for me.
Erotic short stories! Easy to tell since it's on the cover
ReplyDeleteOverall I really like the concept of this cover. It's simple, direct, and striking. There are a few things I think could improve it.
First, the grey box at the top hiding her face has no other role, and it's kind of odd just floating there. Since it cuts off her face but her feet are floating, she appears to be anchored to the top of the page instead of to the floor. Floating people are one of my peeves. I'd get rid of the top box and make her larger or show her whole face, having her feet touch the bottom grey line OR putting a light rule behind her at perhaps about ankle/calf height to give her a surface to stand on. the image also looks a bit fuzzy/pixelated, like it was a found piece of clipart that is bitmap instead of vector, maybe that improves in full size but I'd want it to look a bit cleaner.
Are the P and Y of contemporary capitalized? That should be fixed unless there's a compelling reason to leave them that way. Overall the font use is good, but there's a lot of space between the P and L of Play; you might want to kern that.
Well, I find the "cut off her face since only her tits and ass matter" concept pretty deeply offensive. But that's me. We all have our pet peeves and since I am sure as heck not the target audience, you have to take my opinion with an appropriate grain of salt.
ReplyDeleteThe word "contemporary" definitely looks wonky.
@J.R. Tomlin, I don't mind it in the context of erotica, and the overall feel of this cover to me is stylistic/1920s rather than over sexualized (which, come to think of it, might not be what the author wants to hear). But I do get your point! I guess I just see so many covers with torsos (male and female) that it doesn't seem odd or offensive. Especially since I'm not usually a big fan of "face" covers; too often it's the wrong face for me.
ReplyDelete