EDIT: I've decided to use the second cover!
Two awesome covers that I love. A difficult decision with many factors. Welcome to the grand Streets debate (auto-corrected to "death" by my Mac after a typing blunder. Oh, how appropriate...).
Take the first cover. Regard the charming young man who slightly resembles DeathX. Photogenic. Grabs your attention. The setting suits the name of the novel. The orbs of light are carried over from the Darkness Surrounding cover. Both Zanni and DeathX stare off into opposite directions. The covers flow. The dude is hot, and the femmes shall swoon.
However, this young lad is not a dead ringer for DeathX, and he is not threatening. Enter cover number two.
The young man in cover number two is a dead ringer. Bingo. Bullseye. Spot on. He's creepy, haunted, spooky. The darkness engulfing the Darkness Surrounding cover has, well, surrounded. DeathX is here, so everything totally sucks for everyone.
The boy folk aren't afraid to pick up this book. It looks inviting. Dude-ish. The girls aren't so sure, and would rather stare dreamily at the young lad of cover number one.
Now personally, I like both.
Now, I could use the image on the second cover as the back cover of the first cover. (Whoa, that was a trippy sentence!) Still, that wouldn't be a win-win for me. I want people to get what DeathX looks like. Although the ambiguity in his appearance would work in terms of what goes down in this particular installment of TAT, I'm still struggling with what I've always struggled with: making money or staying true to my characters. One of the reasons I self-published was so that I could make the people on the covers juuuuust right. Trying to sell copies now after I could have tried to publish the normal way is stupid, don't you think? Well, maybe not. Maybe I should sacrifice a little bit of creative control for the sake of actually making a profit, even if it is a little too late in the game.
Which is your favorite? Which would you buy? Which caught your eye first?
The second one, It fits the mood, looks very professional, and is easy on the eye. Its not a cover that I would be ashamed to be carrying around, either. With the second one feel like the bright colors and light mood doesn't quite fit, as striking as the resemblance may be.
ReplyDelete#2.
ReplyDeleteWhere'd you get the pics from?
The first one makes me think of "Newsies." I vote for the second one. As a guy, Exhibit A is a little off-putting. It makes the book seem more like a teeny-bop, romantic, Twilight-ish story, and that doesn't do it justice. On top of that, I love the ambiguity with the second one.
ReplyDeleteOh, and about my hair (feel free to delete this comment after you read it, I just didn't know a better way to show you since I'm always extremely wordy and can't limit my discussion to just 180 words on Twitter/be creepy and email you pictures of myself).
ReplyDeleteI was long and blonde for AGES. See picture here (November 2010): http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4084/5196097834_ccdd26f771_b.jpg
Last January, I went red:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a208/heartshapes/january24_04.jpg
It was fun, but that shit fades quickly (April 2011):
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a208/heartshapes/april11_03.jpg
Then, I went dark brown (July 2011):
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a208/heartshapes/july20_03-1.jpg
Did you read my blog when I had green ends? (July 2011)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a208/heartshapes/july27_01.jpg
Then, I chopped it off in August and went back to blonde.
HAIR JOURNEY!
@ Ashley: From a royalty-free site! I paid moolah to license these images for my book covers and promotional material.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion... I'd say the very first mock covers you designed. They go with the current copies of DS, and would be a nice addition next to DS on everyone's bookshelves.
ReplyDeleteThat's me.
If I had to really choose between these two, I'd go with the second one - it looks DeathXy, whereas the first looks like Garr (more gentle, etc.)
All from me :P
As you said Kat, the first cover matches your first book in style, for me that would be the one to make sense to go with.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't worry too much about the pic of DeathX matching your image of him because your readers might picture him differently anyway. People always build their own image in their heads, regardless of the cover. Good to see you back!