Debut thriller author seeking feedback on cover: Part 2 - the redo

[John Avery]

Hello again, and sincere thanks to all who participated in my earlier cover critique thread.

After carefully considering all of your great feedback, I've come up with a new cover idea for my debut thriller. For those of you just joining us, I've attached the original cover, as well.

Thanks again! I'd love to hear what you think.

- john

New cover:



Original cover:

[mandiS]

I like both covers, but they give me different vibes. The first cover, I feel, is better if you don't want your readers to know much about the story. We see the blood and bullet holes (?) in the title, which gives an idea of whether or not it's our type of book. I also like the red color scheme and how the city appears to be a standstill. The original cover, on the other hand, seems to give us more insight as to what happens. We see that there's going to be a fire and something to do with money (robbery, kidnapping?). The lightening seems out of place, though, although it does add an eerie vibe to it. The 2nd cover seems more chaotic. I would go with the first one, I think.

[KayBratt]

The first one for me by a mile. I like the way the read stands out, as well as it is just cleaner with less going on than the other. I also like how you kept it at just "A Thriller" and dropped the word 'Suspense" and the 'A Novel' stuff.

Just enough to tantalize, IMHO. Great job.

[John Avery]

I like both covers, but they give me different vibes. The first cover, I feel, is better if you don't want your readers to know much about the story. We see the blood and bullet holes (?) in the title, which gives an idea of whether or not it's our type of book. I also like the red color scheme and how the city appears to be a standstill. The original cover, on the other hand, seems to give us more insight as to what happens. We see that there's going to be a fire and something to do with money (robbery, kidnapping?). The lightening seems out of place, though, although it does add an eerie vibe to it. The 2nd cover seems more chaotic. I would go with the first one, I think.

Thanks so much, Mandi. Good points on the differences between the two. I'm glad you like the new one!

- john

[John Avery]

The first one for me buy a mile. I like the way the read stands out, as well as it is just cleaner with less going on than the other. I also like how you kept it at just "A Thriller" and dropped the word 'Suspense" and the 'A Novel' stuff.

Just enough to tantalize, IMHO. Great job.

Thx Kay, I really appreciate your input. I'm so glad you like what I did to it!

- john

[Alex MacLean]

Definitely the first one.

[ChadWilliamson]

LOVE the new cover. Much simpler, more direct, much cleaner looking. Would look good on a bookstore shelf.

[Seanathin23]

Much better simpler always trumps over the top.

[smreine]

I like the red one MUCH better.

You don't need to tell the whole story of the book on the cover. You should impart a sense of genre and tone. The first cover does a better job of that, especially since the other one is too cluttered (in my opinion).

[MichaelWallace]

I think that's a great cover and a huge improvement. Nicely done.

[DonnaBurgess]

The red one is great! I love the cool crime/thriller vibe I got. It's very professional.

[julieannfelicity]

I like them both, but the first one is better as a thumbnail. As others have mentioned it's cleaner and leaves more to the imagination.

[James Bruno]

As a thriller writer myself, I go with the red cover. It's more in your face. Nice job.

[ToniD]

The red one is much better--simpler, and packs a punch. Also, the font is more thriller-ish.

Well done.

[S.A. Mulraney]

Going red myself with my middle book. Definitely like the first one. The only thing I would note is that "A Thriller" will be absolutely lost on smaller images. And, given the title and cover art, do you think it's even necessary?

[jnfr]

The new one looks great. All kinds of good luck to you!

[Sheila_Guthrie]

The red one is awesome! You could maybe change the "A Thriller" to a short, snappy tag.

[marshacanham]

excellent job on the redo. The red is much better and no need for all the clutter taking away from the title.

good job *g*

And I agree, you don't need to *say* it's a thriller...the cover art already says it is

[Beatriz]

Hello again, and sincere thanks to all who participated in my earlier cover critique thread.

After carefully considering all of your great feedback, I've come up with a new cover idea for my debut thriller. For those of you just joining us, I've attached the original cover, as well.

Thanks again! I'd love to hear what you think.

- john

New cover:



Original cover:

I would go with the first one.  It has more mystery and that's what you want.

[Eric C]

It depends on what kind of book it is. The red one would be great for a crime noir type of story in which one person may die while the burning building one would be great for a world hangs in the balance type of thriller in which a huge number of people may die.

By the way, is that "general nefariousness" blurb a joke? I'm not even sure what "foul imprisonment" means. If it's not a joke I'd suggest a blurb thread too. IMO as it now stands that blurb would only be appropriate for a Donald Westlake style comic caper.

[D a l y a]

I really like the image on the second one, but the font, with thin lines and thick lines, makes the title hard to read. 

The font on the first one (red cover) makes it the better one.

I don't think the title has to be perfectly legible at thumbnail size (as evidenced by my covers), but there's this magical line between covers looking big budget vs. not-so-big-budget.  It's hard to say exactly what the difference is, but even non-designers tend to know it when we see it, and I think the red cover has all right the elements, so it's getting the votes.

[charlesfaddis]

The red one with the bullet holes is much better. More punch. The other one is too busy, hard to digest in the instant most people will look at it. I would work on the description. Language is a little awkward. My two cents.

[Nancy O'Hara]

Ditto to all the votes for the red one

[Lynn ODell]

I liked the red one.

As a matter of fact, I liked the red one so much that I went to look at the book on Amazon.

Alas, I didn't buy it because I couldn't find a book description.

Maybe there's a description buried among all of those reviews and shouts of how wonderful the book is, but I really didn't feel like spending that long trying to figure out which part of that mass of text might tell me something about the content.

You could have the most compelling cover on Amazon, but if you won't tell readers what the book is about, what's the point?

[John Avery]

Definitely the first one.

@ Alex MacLean
@ ChadWilliamson
@ Seanathin23

Thank you so much for your comments. It's good to hear positive feedback!

- john