Cover Poll, Part 2

[rowyn]

The "three figures dancing" was more popular than any of my other choices from the previous poll on the cover for A Rational Arrangement, so I've been working on that one. I fixed the ratio* first, and added a bit of the heretofore unseen dancers on the right and left, and made a few adjustments to the figures. I also fiddled a lot with the background in an effort to make the text would stand out better and to make the whole thing look better when it's shrunk down to thumbnail size. This meant ditching my beloved parchment background, which I've used for all the headers so far**. Oh, and tuftears and archangelbeth both suggested putting the frame at the very edge of the image, so I did that.

Then I tried text layout again, and branched out from Amazone to experiment with some less-script-like and possibly-more-readable fonts. Also a few different layout choices. archangelbeth suggested both making the word "Arrangement" more prominent and putting the author name at the top, so I did samples with those. I think I personally prefer the author name at the bottom. I am not sure about making "Arrangement" the dominant word: I think the significant word in the title is "Rational", myself.

Anyway, I've got four different variants now, I figure I can do a new poll!

You should be able to click on the images to see the full size versions on Flickr. I've thumbnailed them at the size Amazon displays thumbnails on its main page.

[Poll #2012821]

@fullaquirkes on Twitter pointed out that I didn't order the images by typeface, or clearly label them. Ack. The images in the poll are:

1. Amazone
2. Harrington
3. Amazone (again)
4. Chisel D

* Amazon's Kindle site has one ratio in the guidelines for uploading to the site, and a different ratio that they actually display at and that everybody else uses. I dunno what's up with that.

** I am resisting the urge to replace the backdrop for all the existing headers to match the cover. This way lies madness.

Comments

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

I'd go with the bottom one, but move the title up a little... and use a font without the double lines for the author name so it could be a little smaller so it didn't nearly touch the hem of the dress. Or maybe move the illustration/background up a bit along with the title.

*looks at them all again* I think the reason why I prefer the last one is because it's the only one which doesn't have "A Rational" nested behind the "A" of "Arragnement". That kind of nesting that makes the first word of the second line the first thin my eyes are drawn to confuses me.

[rowyn]

I really should've put a "do not nest title words" option into the poll. Rats. Thank you for letting me know!

I'm leaning towards the Harrington typeface myself (second of the images), but may switch it to the style of the fourth, with author name on the bottom. And pull the image up a bit, so there's more blank space at the bottom and less at the top.

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when I ignore the nesting issue, I'd say Harrington looks more "romancey" than Chisel D, but more easily readable than Amazone.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

It doesn't matter much to me where the author name is; what does matter is that there's something in those spaces. Covers have real estate, and designers tend to drop elements into each part of it, and with text there's usually a top and bottom unless the major graphical element's at the top, and then you get middle and bottom (etc). It's not unusual to have multiple fonts on the same cover, and to have lots of little finicky bits of text on it that aren't clear unless you make the cover larger (which all the e-tailers expect you to do or they wouldn't require you to upload covers that are 4000 pixels tall).

I would browse through the historical and fantasy romance sections and see what the prevailing trends are for font, art, and marketing text before making a cover. You might want to do the same if you're concerned about it looking coverish?

Poll comments

[vik_thor]

Definitely non-nested if you go with one of the first 2 typefaces.
I think I like the Chisel D typeface for the title the most, and the nesting isn't as severe. I like how your name looks in the Harrington, but not sure how it would look paired with the Chisel D.
Another thing, Rational and Arrangement look more equal in Chisel D, which I like.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I think Harrington is the most appealing typeface, but Amazone suits the story better?

[catlinye-maker.livejournal.com]

I prefer the Chisel D (and the bottom cover) because it echoes the architectural background and sets off the softer, more flowing figures. At the time of this writing I note that all the covers have equal partisans, which is amusing if not useful.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

The author name on the top seems to work better only if the author is very well known. Otherwise, putting stuff on the top that most readers don't react to is avoided. At least you can have an emotional reaction to the words in the title even if you've never heard of the author.

[archangelbeth]

If you go with the bottom one, I agree with you and ankewehner -- move the title up a goodly bit. And, yeah, move the images up a little, so your name isn't quiiiite so close to the art.

(I like 3 and 4. Yeah, name-at-bottom works better once you swap the A-sizes, nesting or not.)

[kara (from livejournal.com)]

The reason I voted author-name-at-top (which does not seem to be a popular choice!) is that it makes the figures feel less crowded. They seem almost caged by text in options 3 and (especially) 4.