a critique site for book lovers, hosted by author Jude Hardin
Friday, April 6, 2012
My Life as a Dog by Cynthia and Mike Asuaga
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.
Let me first say, big dog person here. I have shown and trained dogs for 30 years now. So you would think this book would be one to attract my interest.
Unfortunately the cover design is just... well... bad. (sorry). The typography has no balance, has a very 70s vibe, and the super busy background means that even though it's bright yellow, it can barely be read. The dog is sort of an afterthought down in the right corner.
I looked in closeup, and it turns out, she's supposed to be handling a gun. But it's been blurred out, so really it just looks like she's kneeling and pointing oddly. And seriously, who aims a gun one way and looks another? Is that safe?
Finally, the entire cover sort of (badly) denotes a fiction genre, but then we find that it's by "secret cravings publishing," with some stretched roses at the top making the cover even more OMG busy. Now I get a totally different and icky vibe. Secret cravings. Is she going to be some kind of dog sex slave? Or even worse, is there something really gross like beastiality?
I would not pick up this book based on this cover.
When we point out problems with book cover we are not trying to be mean. We want to give honest information to help increase sales of the book.
In this case there is some really bad Photoshop work going on. The images are just tossed together and do not look like they fit. If one of my student turned this in I would not pass it.
The text work also doesn't work it's hard to read and the font doesn't fit the rest of the images.
Eric is right. I never intend to personally hurt anyone with my cover reviews. But the goal of this site not to act as a direct marketing arm for authors (which is why we regulars get really tired of the Giffies, which is what I've decided to call the Gratuitous Fan Squee folks, who come over here and rave on a cover even if it's awful, just to try to help the author increase sales).
If an author has actually designed their own cover they tend to be very protective of it, which is natural, except that in this case, they have posted the cover on THIS site, which is here ONLY to discuss covers and cover design.
We do not really care about your writing skills; or at least I don't. That's not what I'm here for. I'm here because, believe or not, I like helping authors. It is NOT helpful to try to justify crap as quality. It really isn't.
I know I am blunt, probably a bit too blunt sometimes. But do take home that really, in the end, I want the cover to look amazing so that your book is more likely to be picked up and actually purchased.
Yikes. When I read the cover, I saw "My as a Life Dog". Fail. There is really no blending of the images, they look haphazardly thrown together. All of the proportions look off and unrealistic. I'm a cover artist. This is why.
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Let me first say, big dog person here. I have shown and trained dogs for 30 years now. So you would think this book would be one to attract my interest.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the cover design is just... well... bad. (sorry). The typography has no balance, has a very 70s vibe, and the super busy background means that even though it's bright yellow, it can barely be read. The dog is sort of an afterthought down in the right corner.
I looked in closeup, and it turns out, she's supposed to be handling a gun. But it's been blurred out, so really it just looks like she's kneeling and pointing oddly. And seriously, who aims a gun one way and looks another? Is that safe?
Finally, the entire cover sort of (badly) denotes a fiction genre, but then we find that it's by "secret cravings publishing," with some stretched roses at the top making the cover even more OMG busy. Now I get a totally different and icky vibe. Secret cravings. Is she going to be some kind of dog sex slave? Or even worse, is there something really gross like beastiality?
I would not pick up this book based on this cover.
When we point out problems with book cover we are not trying to be mean. We want to give honest information to help increase sales of the book.
ReplyDeleteIn this case there is some really bad Photoshop work going on. The images are just tossed together and do not look like they fit. If one of my student turned this in I would not pass it.
The text work also doesn't work it's hard to read and the font doesn't fit the rest of the images.
I would strongly suggest starting over again.
Eric is right. I never intend to personally hurt anyone with my cover reviews. But the goal of this site not to act as a direct marketing arm for authors (which is why we regulars get really tired of the Giffies, which is what I've decided to call the Gratuitous Fan Squee folks, who come over here and rave on a cover even if it's awful, just to try to help the author increase sales).
ReplyDeleteIf an author has actually designed their own cover they tend to be very protective of it, which is natural, except that in this case, they have posted the cover on THIS site, which is here ONLY to discuss covers and cover design.
We do not really care about your writing skills; or at least I don't. That's not what I'm here for. I'm here because, believe or not, I like helping authors. It is NOT helpful to try to justify crap as quality. It really isn't.
I know I am blunt, probably a bit too blunt sometimes. But do take home that really, in the end, I want the cover to look amazing so that your book is more likely to be picked up and actually purchased.
It's terrible in every way.
ReplyDeleteYikes. When I read the cover, I saw "My as a Life Dog". Fail. There is really no blending of the images, they look haphazardly thrown together. All of the proportions look off and unrealistic. I'm a cover artist. This is why.
ReplyDelete