Good picture to start with?

[Travis haselton]

Thik thiss would be a good picture for a book titled "An Oceanside Murder" ?

[nogdog~6op6ou]

The colors seem a bit too muted to me and there is not a lot of contrast. Of course, all of that could be overcome by the right choices for font color (and size and style) for the title and author text, along with any other graphic artist tricks (including color manipulation of the photo); but for now, just looking at that photo, it does not jump off the page and say "Buy me!", at least for my personal tastes.

[Strapped-4-Cache]

Please note: These comments are from a reader and NOT a graphic artist.  Just my opinions, for what they're worth.

It looks like you're trying to use the same concept used on "The Man With No Past", which makes sense if you're going to serialize it.

The first thing that came to mind is that it needs to be in a portrait format instead of landscaped.  Nothing that some digital creativity can't fix.

Another thought is to have your character rotate toward the shoreline to allow the viewer to see both legs.  Right now he's more of a blob with a hat.  Showing more of an outline may help.

Is it set in the present or the past?  More "stuff" may clutter the image, especially on the small bit of real estate available on the cover of a book, but for some reason I'm picturing a beach umbrella out there.

Again, just my thoughts.

  - Mark (S-4-C)