It’s book cover time! This is always one of my favorite parts of any book launch. Book covers are so visual and fun, and, especially if you’re the author, it’s a blast getting to see some of your imagination brought to life by someone else‘s imagination. This year, I’m going to cheat just a little bit and give all of you a big, fat sneak peek at the book cover for my upcoming historical/dieselpunk mashup Storming.
Why am I cheating?
#1: It’s way too hard to resist sharing all this deliciousness.
#2: You guys were so awesome in helping me choose the right story summary for Storming that I just have to do it again!
The awesome book cover creators at Damonza have come up with the first round of great cover concepts. They’re all amazing (although none of them are in any way finalized), so it’s ridiculously hard for me to choose. That’s where you come in. This book is for you–so which of the following covers do you like the best?
Tell me: which of the following book covers is your favorite? Which would grab you out of your book browsing and demand you read it? After you’ve voted in the poll widget at the bottom of the post, please leave me a note with any further suggestions to help us make the cover even better.
Cover #1: Plane and Dirigible
Cover #2: People
Cover #3: Goggles
Cover #4: Bi-Plane
Cover #5: Art Deco
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#2 tells more of a story than the others.
And we are storytelling after all!
Exactly, it was my least favorite from the beginning. I agree number 2 is the one that reflects the book better 🙂 It´s the most shinny and attractive one 😀
Number two all the way!! I LOVE that cover! LOVE! I don’t just like it the best of the choices, I LOVE it, period. I want to read it right now.
All capital letters always make me happy in instances like this. 😉
I love cover #1. Cover #2 is my least favorite, because it kind of feels like a self published book cover to me (and not really in a good way 😛 ). I know a lot of other people loved it though, so…
Well, that’s not a good thing. :p If I go with that one, I’ll definitely be requesting some further tweaks.
Cover #2 is most eye-catching, but has a childlike, self-published feel. I would assume it’s a magical story for kids/teens.
The one thing that makes me hooked on your story and want to read more is a woman in a ballgown falling out of the sky…and that’s nowhere to be seen on the cover. I would assume this is an historical story about airplanes, war, or pilots, and wouldn’t be interested in reading further. Put a woman in a ballgown dangling off the edge of the plane wing or something (put her SOMEWHERE) and I’m definitely interested just based on the cover, because now it has an element of “strange” and I want to find out more.
That’s a good point. I’ll bring that up to the designers.
I like the one with people best because of the gear elements. I am not a goggles fan.
I thought the gears were pretty cool myself.
The #2 cover with a casual looking female pilot indicates this is not an intense, realistic WWI war story. With pilots of both genders on the cover, we can expect a romantic component. The golden circle decorations suggest a lighter tone even if the story is a mystery or adventure. The other covers do not have these clues and could apply to dark, gritty stories too.
I feel like #2 *does* present too “slick” and whimsical of a tone, but otherwise it does represent everything you’re getting out of it (not a war story, not super-intense, has romantic component, and is light-hearted and adventuresome), so that’s good!
Katie’s book cover for Storming
While I like #1 and #4, #2 gives a more steampunk feel and a hint of romance.
However, I’m influenced by the darker feel of #1 and #4 and #5 doesn’t give me a steampunk feel.
I’m curious to know what the stats will show. 😉
He votes and … wow!
#2 is edging ahead!
—hmmmmm- I chose number one but think the colours are too wishy washy and need more oomph.
the title does use the word “storm” so add more of that by making the colours more primal–and start with RED–make it STANDOUT! cheers. M
Red is definitely a good one, since the plane is red! Thanks, Mark.
Cover 3 is mysterious and attention grabbing without giving away too much about the story. The best one of them all!
Thanks for sharing your opinion!
Number 3 definitely has an air of mystery about it and then reading your blurb number one kind of had a strong sense of mystery to it too so number 1 blurb and number three book cover will go together very well.
It’s like Mix and Match! 🙂
I love #2 because it looks like such an intriguing story. But I also like #4 with it’s feeling of depth and ‘storminess’. A mix of #2 and #4 would be about perfect in my mind. 🙂 Can’t wait to read it!
Thanks! I think a mix like that would be pretty perfect too.
Despite being a lifelong action movie / book guy, #2 caught my eye. Why? If there is no relationship then it’s a documentary. I wish I could have the relationship of #2 with the excitement of # 1 or 4. Either way, I’m in!
Good deal! ‘Cuz we definitely want to catch the of “action movie” guys!
I really like Cover 2, because it’s perfect for the book, but Cover 3 looks the most like the cover I’d imagined onto the book. 🙂 These are all cool, though!
Note: I also liked the gears in the background of 2 😉
Yeah, I love the gears. So pretty!
(Disclaimer: I am not familiar with the genre, so what I keyed into may not apply.) I keyed into the reflection in the goggles, which was not anything I expected to see. I wanted to know why the dirigible was so near, and what happened next. The tension of the reflection captured my attention.
The dirigible in the goggles is my favorite part of that cover.
It’s a toss up between #2 and #3, but I went with 2 because the people made it more lighthearted. #3 made me think of mystery, suspense and war–who’s behind those goggles, and is he going to shoot down the blimp? I like the Art Deco feel and the brighter red of #5, but the plane nose looks like a cartoon bug face saying “oh.”
Hah. It does kinda look like a bug.
Hi,
to me it’s either cover 1 (indicating an adventure story) or cover 2 (indicating a steampunk story).
I vote for cover 2 with a little less glossiness.
Regards
It’s both an adventure story and a (diesel)punk story, so I’m definitely thinking that if we can bringing the former into #2, we might be in business.
Looking forward to the layout.
I don’t seem to be on the same wavelength with your other readers! I tried.
The poll wouldn’t work for you?
Hi K.M.,
Although the Art Deco style of 5 makes it very interesting, I don’t like the typeface.
I definitely prefer cover # 3, how we see the zeppelin reflected on googles. Perhaps if the mountain and the harsh light are removed, ant the light aircraft could be red and slightly bigger, it would gain more importance. I think the beam is quite annoying, it diverts attention.
In story description you wrote a powerful phrase: ‘an airship with the power to control the weather’, which is difficult to describe with images but the conflict between the zeppelin and the aircraft is pretty well designed.
Thanks a lot for sharing your covers and letting us participate.
Thanks! I think we’ll be messing with the typeface whatever cover ends up being the final.
Goggles, definitely goggles. The aircraft on the art deco is a bit too modernish… it looks to be a Pitts-special of recent years, not an aircraft from the time frame of your story. The Goggles cover seems to nail all the right aspects of the general time frame and is a wonderfully intriguing cover. It would make me pick the book up to at least read the covers!
Yes, we’d definitely have to tweak the airplanes on most of these covers.
#2 As a reader I would not pick up a book with the main picture being an aeroplane. I would lead me to believe it is more suited to a male. I like the brightness & diesel punk look of book two. I would be more likely to pick this book up to read.
Sometimes I will walk past a book shop & see people looking for that book cover that is going to catch their eye & ask them what helps them choose. “Something different, if the cover or spine is interesting I will pick it up. If the blurb on the back matches the front I will open the book”. How interesting…
It is an interesting question that I will post to my friends on facey as well.
That’s good to know–and exactly what I’m going for in a cover!
I think WordPress ate my previous comments, so apologies if this is something you’ve heard before…
I voted for #5 because it seemed most exciting, and because the composition is (imho) a cut above the others, and also because the Art Deco style is CLASSY. If I had to take one of those covers home, it would definitely be #5.
That said, #2 was a very close second for me (the gears! SO PRETTY – and the font! – and the people!). The reason #5 still won out was twofold. First, #2 looks a lot slower and more character-driven. Having skimmed some of your other replies to comments, though, is it possible that might be a better fit for the story? Second, the composition of #2 doesn’t seem as good to me–the three elements (dirigible and 2 faces) seem to be fighting for attention and not meshing together very well.
I think a few compositional tweaks could solve the second issue while injecting a bit more sense of adventure into the cover.
(I love the cover design process! Thanks for sharing it with us!)
Based on the neck-and-neck voting here, I went ahead with #2, but definitely requested some tweaks. We’ll see what the designers come up with!