Mockup Design for my Novel (in progress)

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

This is possibly one of my final designs for my novel, Before the Dawn discussed in the Warrior 4 Jesus Art thread (art corner).
It's still a work in progress. I have to give Dexiz (the guy on the front) a face, make armour spikes shorter so they don't impale him and clean up some of the line work.



Comments or criticisms?

[Sammy Boy]

Hello, just wondering what kind of novel it will be? If it's going to be a gritty read with a lot of grim fight battle scenes, it may help to make the cover look a bit "darker" in the sense of the colours used (black, brown, grey) and use another font instead of the current one (maybe gothic fonts or similar).

Just an idea. Cheers.

[Yumie]

Cool, it looks good to me!

[Esoteric]

Hey, I very much like the breakup of elements...(green at top, picture, larger green at bottom. Over all, it's a good layout. I'm wondering if more text or perhaps a small design is going to go in the lower green portion. If not, it will seem a bit, bare.
Until the picture is a bit more finished, it's hard to critique. Use of the crackled earth pic in the background is effective. Depending on what sort of effect you want, you could add a drop shadow behind Dexiz so that he would 'pop' out from the 'wall' more. But that's only if you want more depth. Again it all depends on the feel you want.

[That Dude]

You might want to add a little more color to Dexiz. Like darkening him some. I think that it'd add a nice effect. But it's up to you.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Ultra Magnus, its a fairly dark fantasy/sci-fi novel with one or two battle scenes but its much more than that. I agree with changing the green to something a little more grim, but I don't think I'm going to change the font. I really like it and think its appropriate for the cover.

Yumie, thanks!

Eosteric, I agree with the drop shadow, sounds like a good idea. As for the amount of space at the bottom I thought it was a good idea in terms of design to allow some 'breathing' space. I will probably only have a 'fake' publishing company logo at the bottom corner (W4J or something like that).

That Dude, I'm not that good at colour detail but it sounds like a good idea and I'll probably try it.

Thanks everyone!

[Godly Paladin]

Wow! You did that? I'm quite impressed.

I'd definitely cut down on the size of the spikes, and change the green to black or a darker green.

[faithfighter]

that is sooooooooooooooooo awesome!!!

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Thanks Godly Paladin!

Yeah, I'm going to cut down the spikes. Which of these is the better colour scheme?
I like the black one best.

[Godly Paladin]

I think the black one matches the sidebar color better, but just as a color I think I prefer blue.

[faithfighter]

I like the blue!!!

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Thanks guys! I don't know what to go with. I like the black one, but everyone else (2 people (lol) like the blue one better. I can't win. Argh!!!

[ShiroiHikari]

I think the black one looks a lot classier.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Thanks ShiroiHikari, I like the black one best because of that also. I've never designed a book cover before - its a bit daunting but fun! Do you have any suggestions? Do I need to add a publishing house (fake) name at the bottom or not? Some people say its empty, I say it has 'breathing' space. (lol)

Thanks!

[ShiroiHikari]

The layout itself looks pretty good to me; it's not too busy. :]

[Rachel]

That's really cool! I kinda like the black one better.

[soul alive]

i like the black one. maybe try a bit of a compromise and do a very subtle gradient from black to dark blue, the black being on the upper and lower edges, fading toward the picture; just a thought.

[Sammy Boy]

Black is gooooooooood.

[CreatureArt]

The black is nice. I particularly like the white bars separating the main picture from the background - perhaps that is one of the reasons it looks classier. The sidebar, like someone else said, goes well with the colour scheme too. Very nice. It's a great piece of work.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Cheers everyone!
Soul Alive, I'll give that a go tomorrow but I'm too tired at the moment. Thanks!

[Mave]

I like the black version better. Nice job, W4J!

[Godly Paladin]

I could never do that... Kudos kudos kudos.

[Zane]

How'd I miss this thread Tin? I assume now that you're doing the cover design you're finished with the writting itself, or just taking a breather?

And are you going to go to some small-time publishers in SA or send it nation-wide to NSW or something? And since its a christian novel do you reckon secular publishers will pick it up or will you only have a chance with christian publishers? Have you thought about that?

Go with the black btw.

[Alice]

Sweet meat! Did you finish writing the story?

[bigsleepj]

And are you going to go to some small-time publishers in SA ...

Do you mean South Australia? For a moment I thought you meant South Africa. Doh!

On topic - All those covers look good to me - but the last / black one looks the best to me.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Zane! Good to hear from you mate!

Zane, Alice and Everyone:

No, sorry. I'm nowhere near finished. I'm trying to spruce up my writing skills first. I have 16 typed pages of notes. The longest story I've written is 16,000 words. (Long stories don't come to me easily (not just because of my dyslexia), but I hope to get 60,000 words for this novel, or whatever it takes to tell the story best). I'm beginning the proper rough draft soon, but since I've planned better beforehand, hopefully the novel will be of a higher quality). So yes, you could say I was taking a breather.

I want to just get it published full-stop. That's pretty hard actually. It would be great to be done by small publishers in SA, but I really would like to send it nation-wide and maybe sell e-book versions to download for those non-Australians.

Its a Christian novel in the sense that its written by a Christian (in more ways then one) lol. A Christian world-view is taken and questions of faith and Christian themes are discussed etc but I want it to be fairly subtle. If I want to find out stuff about Jesus I read the Bible. The first thing I want is the novel to be entertaining. I don't like reading Christian books that read like sermons. Then the second thing is I want the reader to question and I want to use the book as a tool to plant a seed, a thought or something directing towards the Truth: Jesus without bashing people over the head with faith. I respect and admire authors like Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. Hopefully I can get both secular and Christian markets but I think a lot of praying will need to be involved.

Thanks bigsleepj and everyone for your kind comments! I hope this info helps you understand a bit better.
God Bless!

[Naga Kisaki]

Very neat. The cover's intriguing and seems to promise a good read. I like the purple cover, becuase it betercatches the eye, but thats just my opinion.

[Alice]

Sounds really good. : )

[yukinon]

Honestly, I like the green version best. It's an appealing color and would make me randomly pick the book up off the shelf and say "hmmm....what ees thees?" Seriously, it would. And I actually think it would be a neat effect to leave the guy faceless. That also grabs my attention and intrigues me.

Hooray for the unconventional!

And as cool as the armor spikes are, they definitely need some trimming.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Thankyou! Actually that's not a bad idea to keep him faceless! I'll have to keep that in mind (may do it). Thanks!