Eternal Forest | Cover Review
There are certain elements that all covers have and I think going over those elements and how they are represented for each cover would be a great place to begin (for now) with my teardown of a cover design.
Fonts (Title, Sub-Title, Author Name)
Art (Illustrated, etc.)
Colors
Layout
FONTS - 5/25
Like the first book in my 5th Compass Series I am using the same fonts for the Title as for my name and the name of the series. And while that is a MUST HAVE when you are writing a series, that doesn't discount the fact that the title is the overly used CINZEL! AAHHH!!!! I really must come to terms on if this font will stay or go when I do a complete overhaul of the interior and exterior of this series... I'll admit I am on the fence. It's not that they don't "work" with fantasy books, they do. It's just that everyone uses it to the point of putting it on the level of say Comic Sans!
Anywho, the score remains identical to that of my previous review for those reasons. I trust other fantasy books I review will get higher scores because they took the bold step of NOT using CINZEL.
ART - 3/25
Due to the nature of the title and entire premise of the book, it was essential that there be TWO characters on the cover...alike in dignity...
They are brother and sister, though that isn't really relevant (right now). What is relevant is that this was me using someone from Fiverr. Not the same person as my first book, I wanted to branch out. That...was a bad idea...Now, don't get me wrong, there are a few things I like about these two creatures. For starters, what they are wearing is pretty much on point. The hair as well and the weaponry they are holding. What is completely off is their stance as well as their skin tone. Well, their skin tone is close to what I said which was that they should look almost stone-like in color due to lack of sunlight and the condition of the disease they have. They are definitely creepy. But not in a good way.
And it's for these reasons we have to chop you. (SORRY! I've been watching a lot of Chopped lately...)
COLOR - 4/25
This was meant to be a dark cover. The Eternal Forest (name of book) is so named because anyone who's ever stepped foot inside the forest has never come out. It's dark and there are these creatures that live inside the Eternal Forest, rumored to be cannibals! A really great book and one of my favorites because it's the first fantasy creatures I created and named myself. I'm pretty proud and gave myself quite a pat on the back for it.
However, this is not a post about judging my creativity. This is about the color choices. The characters definitely stand out from the background a lot better than the first book cover. The background is almost non-existent which I appreciate. But what I'm not a fan of is the color of the title. Like the first book, I really have no explanation as to why I felt the need to change the title color for each book. As someone who understands the importance of uniformity among all of the books, I feel I greatly failed in this avenue.
LAYOUT - 10/25
There are things I love about this layout (all things considered) that I want to highlight, however small and insignificant they might seem to you. For starters, I like how I stacked the title. Again, this might seem like no big deal, but in fact, it is. It took me several pixel nudges and zooming in several hundred percent to make sure it lined up perfectly. There are little subtlety's in the positioning of Eternal to Forest that I'm sure someday the average reader of my book will never notice, but I will notice and that is important to me. I get terrible eye twitches if something isn't lined up properly or at least have some sense of symmetry.
I will dispense with my earlier discussion about where the series name should be (closer to the title or the author name). There are many schools of thought there, I'm sure. But for now, the rest of the cover layout is good for me. Characters front and center. Title at the top. My name and series name at the bottom. Lined up perfectly with subsequent books. Boom. Winning here. Now if only I can be winning in all the other areas.
