I like your version of The Mechanical Crown cover the best by far. The Wattpad version is clearly playing off the portrait of Queen Elizabeth on the money circa 1970. That will, of course, be lost on American audiences, and the younger of her subjects as well. (Or maybe that is unintentional, though the similarity is striking.) The downside of your cover from a marketing POV is that it does not include a human face, and I suspect that is a significant factor in their design approach. Faces, particularly young pretty female faces, draw the eye.
Getting human faces on a cover is a problem for those of us who design our own covers, particularly so when our subjects are Anglo-Saxons of the late 8th century. Finding stock pictures of faces that don't show modern clothing, makeup, or hairstyles is almost impossible. People writing about later periods may be able to find paintings they can use (as I have done with the cover for Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight), but there is nothing for the Anglo-Saxon period except sketch-like schoolbook illustrations. The art of the period tends to be cartoonish in its depiction of faces.
As far as giving up control to publishers, I broke with my was-to-be publisher over matters of style. They were very accommodating over the cover design. I was consulted all the way and ultimately they executed a cover from an idea of mine. I wish I could have used it. Where they would not accommodate me was in much more mundane matters of style. I am a great lover of prose rhythm, but I have learned that a good percentage of the population is completely deaf to it. Prose rhythm is achieved by the use of grace notes, word choices, and playing with the order of words and clauses. They wanted to reduce it to plain business English, and no amount of pleading or protestation on my part could make them see that they were ruining the rhythm. I can only assume that they simply could not hear it. More on that journey here: https://www.storiesallthewaydown.com/p/in-which-i-part-company-with-my-publisher
I delighted my first publisher when I told him that I had no thoughts whatsoever about a cover image for Playtime's Over. His relief was palpable, and he went on to explain that so many authors show up with ideas of what they want their cover to look like and most of them are terrible (I don't say this to judge yours, I actually prefer yours for The Mechanical Crown to Wattpad's).
I do personally, though, subscribe to the principle of 'stay in your lane'. I consider myself a writer, so when the time comes for discussion with my new publisher about the cover for my next book, I'll tell her exactly what I told my first publisher - I've no input to offer. I'm no designer (as anyone who's seen one of my self-published titles will tell you). I'll do the words, you fill your boots when it comes to the picture on the front.
And as you said in your article, a lot of that comes from appreciating the experience of the professionals you're dealing with. A publisher almost certainly has a better idea of what will sell a book than I do. I barely credit myself with the knowledge of how to write one - the processes after that are a dark art to me.
I'm equally bemused by those writers who get so caught up in adaptations of their work, positioning themselves as the source of all wisdom when it comes to how their work should play out onscreen. The idea that what makes a good book is the same as what makes a good tv show is ignorance (albeit one shared by audiences - people who complain that the tv show isn't like the book are idiots, if you want it to be exactly the same as the book, read the book). Different mediums tell stories in different ways, that's why we have different mediums. If, as an author, you've successfully created your story in prose, why automatically assume you're the only one who can tell it on screen? It's folly.
Not to say there aren't great adapters of their own work, but it's unlikely to be true in most cases. For me, I'd rather let someone else get on with all that and get back to my keyboard...
I like your cover of The mechanical crown better, although it gives me no clue about the content of the book. Your version of A Day Of Faces is a tad muddled for me - I was not sure of what it is supposed to represent until I read your description. The new cover of A Day Of Faces is attractive - to say the least. Still no clue what it's about but would definitely read the description of this one to see if the story is my type of things. The title of The mechanical crown is nice, but the cover makes me think of a fairy- medieval love story type of story (not my cup of tea). My two-pence, just at face value.
Aug 16, 2022·edited Aug 16, 2022Liked by Simon K Jones
I mean, the main takeaway here is, "Yay! Simon's writing might actually get him a small paycheck! More importantly, he might get more readers!"
Not a big fan of the new covers. I can see the market research at work, but the problem there is by moving along the safe path of "Data shows human figures engage people," is you end up with something safe, but boring and unmemorable.
The original ADoF covers might have almost nothing to do with the book, but I can close my eyes and call up all of them - and it's been years since I've read it. They are unique and eye catching, even if they feel more like a cyberpunk thriller. I'm not going to remember the current ADoF cover tomorrow because it's a boring portrait of Poison Ivy from Batman holding a snake. If they'd at least given her slitted snake eyes or a hint of fangs or something? Hell, even taking a female portrait and shattering it like the original image would be more interesting. Anyways, green skin girl, red hair. I've forgotten her eye color. I typed "holding snake," but don't actually remember if her hands are in frame. I think I'm remembering that detail because you typed about it?
(Edit: after posting this comment I looked at the covers again. Oh. Green girl DOES have slitted eyes and a hint of scales. Yet, less than a minute later the eye color and the color of the snake she's not holding because her hands aren't in frame have slid right out of my brain, because I made a Poison Ivy crack and my own joke has now overwritten what the cover artist did in my own brain.)
The original Mechanical Crown cover may be a bit low contrast, but the gears under the landscape tie directly into the themes of the story. The new cover has a pretty cool letter "O" in "Crown," but, if you're going to do boring side portraits, at least do something interesting with the crown itself. Yeah, the book isn't about a literal mechanical crown, but some sort of cog/gear motif would have been something interesting? I've literally forgotten the cover while typing this. Blonde woman with crown looking left. I don't remember if she's young, old or middle aged. I don't remember if the crown is silver or gold. I don't remember what color she's wearing, or even if we see below the neck. I don't remember what's behind her. It's just there.
(Edit: and while typing the other parenthetical, above, I have, again, forgotten the background of the TMC cover, the color of the crown, if we see lower than her neck, etc... I do remember she's more middle aged now, but it's just so generic it's sliding away. Bear in mind this is a common issue I. Now have with book covers and movie posters, because everything is all portraits now. That's been the trend for the last 15-20 years I think. A lot of book covers and movie posters I just can't remember.)
Neither cover would catch my eye, neither cover would make me look at the book.
If you're not Simon, stop reading now. This is an added sentence to warn you I'm about to go off topic.
But, I'm not a marketing guru with a bunch of data in front of me telling me what appeals to the most people (although I did do a year of advertising and marketing classes in university when I was a visual arts major), and probably shouldn't ever be in that position, because I'll always work against the "accepted wisdom." Much like how when I do a YouTube video I don't say the word "You," in the first five seconds, don't ask a question in the first 15 seconds*, flap my hands for no reason while I'm talking, and don't end every sentence with an upward inflection. Basically, I did everything wrong... Wait a minute. I'm talking about my Hitfilm University channel and, despite doing everything wrong and only putting out 5 videos in five years I have the fourth largest subscriber base of the nearly 100 Hitfilm/VFX tutorial channels I'm subscribed to! The other three are FXhome, FilmSensei and Motion Epic, all of which have released weekly material every week for years! It's almost like if you actually do the best damn work you can have success without paying attention to marketing, sometimes?
I'll deliberately work against marketing recommendations almost every time. Because I'm still an arrogant ass. See the end of the above paragraph where I said "best damn work." I meant that. Only you, Axel and Zach Allen did Hitfilm tutorials equal to or better than mine... And I'm not talking presentation, I'm talking CONTENT. There's a reason why my tutorials from Hitfilm 2017 are still recommended by all the forum Moderators, Ambassadors, large sections of long time users, and even some FXhome Staff (devs) over more recent tutorials. Javert and Tom are fantastic artists and good presenters. I'm a better teacher. I don't have an opinion on Louisa yet. The current spate of short form tutorials hasn't allowed her to present any material of depth. But I'm digressing. That happens.
*OK, I lie. A lot of the Hit-U tutorials have an "If YOU want to learn about >topic<, then you're in luck, because that's what we're taking about today!" Voiceover over my Triem Visual logo. My one concession to "suggested YouTube Marketing."
Congratulations! I like the Day of faces cover. The other is not as appealing, in my opinion, but I don’t know Wattpad reader’s tastes. Time will tell. Best of luck to you. 🤓
I hear you, Simon! Hey, I write literary fiction. The conundrum is more: am I writing just for me or for the other person! Nearly crashed the Wattpad servers with my one (member of staff) reader.
I like your version of The Mechanical Crown cover the best by far. The Wattpad version is clearly playing off the portrait of Queen Elizabeth on the money circa 1970. That will, of course, be lost on American audiences, and the younger of her subjects as well. (Or maybe that is unintentional, though the similarity is striking.) The downside of your cover from a marketing POV is that it does not include a human face, and I suspect that is a significant factor in their design approach. Faces, particularly young pretty female faces, draw the eye.
Getting human faces on a cover is a problem for those of us who design our own covers, particularly so when our subjects are Anglo-Saxons of the late 8th century. Finding stock pictures of faces that don't show modern clothing, makeup, or hairstyles is almost impossible. People writing about later periods may be able to find paintings they can use (as I have done with the cover for Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight), but there is nothing for the Anglo-Saxon period except sketch-like schoolbook illustrations. The art of the period tends to be cartoonish in its depiction of faces.
As far as giving up control to publishers, I broke with my was-to-be publisher over matters of style. They were very accommodating over the cover design. I was consulted all the way and ultimately they executed a cover from an idea of mine. I wish I could have used it. Where they would not accommodate me was in much more mundane matters of style. I am a great lover of prose rhythm, but I have learned that a good percentage of the population is completely deaf to it. Prose rhythm is achieved by the use of grace notes, word choices, and playing with the order of words and clauses. They wanted to reduce it to plain business English, and no amount of pleading or protestation on my part could make them see that they were ruining the rhythm. I can only assume that they simply could not hear it. More on that journey here: https://www.storiesallthewaydown.com/p/in-which-i-part-company-with-my-publisher
I delighted my first publisher when I told him that I had no thoughts whatsoever about a cover image for Playtime's Over. His relief was palpable, and he went on to explain that so many authors show up with ideas of what they want their cover to look like and most of them are terrible (I don't say this to judge yours, I actually prefer yours for The Mechanical Crown to Wattpad's).
I do personally, though, subscribe to the principle of 'stay in your lane'. I consider myself a writer, so when the time comes for discussion with my new publisher about the cover for my next book, I'll tell her exactly what I told my first publisher - I've no input to offer. I'm no designer (as anyone who's seen one of my self-published titles will tell you). I'll do the words, you fill your boots when it comes to the picture on the front.
And as you said in your article, a lot of that comes from appreciating the experience of the professionals you're dealing with. A publisher almost certainly has a better idea of what will sell a book than I do. I barely credit myself with the knowledge of how to write one - the processes after that are a dark art to me.
I'm equally bemused by those writers who get so caught up in adaptations of their work, positioning themselves as the source of all wisdom when it comes to how their work should play out onscreen. The idea that what makes a good book is the same as what makes a good tv show is ignorance (albeit one shared by audiences - people who complain that the tv show isn't like the book are idiots, if you want it to be exactly the same as the book, read the book). Different mediums tell stories in different ways, that's why we have different mediums. If, as an author, you've successfully created your story in prose, why automatically assume you're the only one who can tell it on screen? It's folly.
Not to say there aren't great adapters of their own work, but it's unlikely to be true in most cases. For me, I'd rather let someone else get on with all that and get back to my keyboard...
I like your cover of The mechanical crown better, although it gives me no clue about the content of the book. Your version of A Day Of Faces is a tad muddled for me - I was not sure of what it is supposed to represent until I read your description. The new cover of A Day Of Faces is attractive - to say the least. Still no clue what it's about but would definitely read the description of this one to see if the story is my type of things. The title of The mechanical crown is nice, but the cover makes me think of a fairy- medieval love story type of story (not my cup of tea). My two-pence, just at face value.
I mean, the main takeaway here is, "Yay! Simon's writing might actually get him a small paycheck! More importantly, he might get more readers!"
Not a big fan of the new covers. I can see the market research at work, but the problem there is by moving along the safe path of "Data shows human figures engage people," is you end up with something safe, but boring and unmemorable.
The original ADoF covers might have almost nothing to do with the book, but I can close my eyes and call up all of them - and it's been years since I've read it. They are unique and eye catching, even if they feel more like a cyberpunk thriller. I'm not going to remember the current ADoF cover tomorrow because it's a boring portrait of Poison Ivy from Batman holding a snake. If they'd at least given her slitted snake eyes or a hint of fangs or something? Hell, even taking a female portrait and shattering it like the original image would be more interesting. Anyways, green skin girl, red hair. I've forgotten her eye color. I typed "holding snake," but don't actually remember if her hands are in frame. I think I'm remembering that detail because you typed about it?
(Edit: after posting this comment I looked at the covers again. Oh. Green girl DOES have slitted eyes and a hint of scales. Yet, less than a minute later the eye color and the color of the snake she's not holding because her hands aren't in frame have slid right out of my brain, because I made a Poison Ivy crack and my own joke has now overwritten what the cover artist did in my own brain.)
The original Mechanical Crown cover may be a bit low contrast, but the gears under the landscape tie directly into the themes of the story. The new cover has a pretty cool letter "O" in "Crown," but, if you're going to do boring side portraits, at least do something interesting with the crown itself. Yeah, the book isn't about a literal mechanical crown, but some sort of cog/gear motif would have been something interesting? I've literally forgotten the cover while typing this. Blonde woman with crown looking left. I don't remember if she's young, old or middle aged. I don't remember if the crown is silver or gold. I don't remember what color she's wearing, or even if we see below the neck. I don't remember what's behind her. It's just there.
(Edit: and while typing the other parenthetical, above, I have, again, forgotten the background of the TMC cover, the color of the crown, if we see lower than her neck, etc... I do remember she's more middle aged now, but it's just so generic it's sliding away. Bear in mind this is a common issue I. Now have with book covers and movie posters, because everything is all portraits now. That's been the trend for the last 15-20 years I think. A lot of book covers and movie posters I just can't remember.)
Neither cover would catch my eye, neither cover would make me look at the book.
If you're not Simon, stop reading now. This is an added sentence to warn you I'm about to go off topic.
But, I'm not a marketing guru with a bunch of data in front of me telling me what appeals to the most people (although I did do a year of advertising and marketing classes in university when I was a visual arts major), and probably shouldn't ever be in that position, because I'll always work against the "accepted wisdom." Much like how when I do a YouTube video I don't say the word "You," in the first five seconds, don't ask a question in the first 15 seconds*, flap my hands for no reason while I'm talking, and don't end every sentence with an upward inflection. Basically, I did everything wrong... Wait a minute. I'm talking about my Hitfilm University channel and, despite doing everything wrong and only putting out 5 videos in five years I have the fourth largest subscriber base of the nearly 100 Hitfilm/VFX tutorial channels I'm subscribed to! The other three are FXhome, FilmSensei and Motion Epic, all of which have released weekly material every week for years! It's almost like if you actually do the best damn work you can have success without paying attention to marketing, sometimes?
I'll deliberately work against marketing recommendations almost every time. Because I'm still an arrogant ass. See the end of the above paragraph where I said "best damn work." I meant that. Only you, Axel and Zach Allen did Hitfilm tutorials equal to or better than mine... And I'm not talking presentation, I'm talking CONTENT. There's a reason why my tutorials from Hitfilm 2017 are still recommended by all the forum Moderators, Ambassadors, large sections of long time users, and even some FXhome Staff (devs) over more recent tutorials. Javert and Tom are fantastic artists and good presenters. I'm a better teacher. I don't have an opinion on Louisa yet. The current spate of short form tutorials hasn't allowed her to present any material of depth. But I'm digressing. That happens.
*OK, I lie. A lot of the Hit-U tutorials have an "If YOU want to learn about >topic<, then you're in luck, because that's what we're taking about today!" Voiceover over my Triem Visual logo. My one concession to "suggested YouTube Marketing."
Congratulations, Simon. Perseverance hopefully paying off. 💪🏻
Hey, congrats on getting that deal! That's amazing, man. Well done.
As for the covers, I do like the new ones better. I don't *love* them, but they're at least 'clearer' if that makes sense?
I like the green girl best, though not a fan of how they spread the title across the whole cover.
The second one... I dunno, I think something more focused on the crown itself might have worked better.
In both cases, the typography feels a bit too plain--and your name should be bigger!
I do also like what they did in the O of Crown, though, that's pretty cool! ;)
Congratulations! I like the Day of faces cover. The other is not as appealing, in my opinion, but I don’t know Wattpad reader’s tastes. Time will tell. Best of luck to you. 🤓
“The main challenge...was simply to actually do some writing”. Precisely.
Congratulations on the Wattpad win! Love the green lady cover revamp.
I hear you, Simon! Hey, I write literary fiction. The conundrum is more: am I writing just for me or for the other person! Nearly crashed the Wattpad servers with my one (member of staff) reader.