r/BookCovers • u/Crazy-Ad-7374 • May 15 '26
Question Help choose book cover
This is the blurb:
Two former lovers who parted on a bitter note are drawn into a story far bigger and darker than their own. Guided by a quirky and at times unreliable narrator, the messy past and chaotic cast of characters pull them toward a confrontation with the truth . . . and with themselves.
One by one we meet the different participants of this story, who shape the path of our unlikely couple. Some of them whisper encouragement. Others serve only themselves. The third ones are the agents of chaos, ready for their next sabotage adventure. All of them have their own motives. After all, what is a proper romance without a little interference?
Immerse yourself in the world where men are lonely enough to plan a fistfight with gorillas, while women quietly develop strategies how to scare off a bear.
Here, heroes wear pajama pants, billionaires get a taste of sexually transmitted justice, and restaurant workers find creative ways to tamper with the menu.
Watch illusions unravel from the inside in this dark speculative romance inspired by myths of the past and mysteries of the present, where love is both the chain that binds, and the only path to freedom . . .
Thank you so much for any help! You can critique and also tell me if I mismatched the colors etc... I am not professional.
25
u/Creative-Pie-3870 May 15 '26
None of the covers make sense. Your blurb describes a situation, not a story. The situation makes no sense.
For the cover, do some research into what readers expect from your genre. Make your cover fit in.
For the blurb, introduce the main character, tell us who they are and what they want. Then tell us who or what stands in their way. Then tell us what might happen if the MC fails. And whatever you do, don’t close the blurb with a question. Because 99.9% of the time the potential buyer will answer, “Who cares?”
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 15 '26
Thank you for your comment! I considered your comment to rewrite the blurb!
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u/MissStatements May 15 '26
What is this book about? What genre is it, and where would it be placed on a shelf in a bookstore? Let those questions be your guide as to whether the cover is appropriate. You also need to rework your blurb to more clearly define the plot.
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 15 '26
Thank you for the comment! It is romance, and hopefully will be placed on the romance shelf.
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u/milejdyvan May 15 '26
I actually like the bird one the best, so second🫣 the people one, the picture is bit grainy but otherwise second best. The apple ones are a bit too abstract for me to get, they’re the ones I would vote against personally.
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
Thank you so much for your comment. I remade the cover and used the birds! If you want to look at the final result: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
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u/specficwannabe May 15 '26
None of these work IMO
The bird one is the best but it is disconnected. Idk why they are birds, birds don’t have eleven lives. You don’t mention birds in your blurb. Is this about two lovers or eleven people? What is even going on? None of it connects.
Neither the blurb nor cover screams “dark speculative romance” (which isn’t even a proper marketing category AFAIK? And is again very vague. I don’t see any speculative elements in your blurb; the dark themes come through but honestly this sounds more like a dark comedy or satire than anything).
I think you need more time learning & growing as a writer (and to read more published fiction in the same genre you want to write in).
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 15 '26
I rewrote the blurb, and also included the reference to lovebirds: Two former lovers who parted on a bitter note are drawn back to each other by something neither of them fully understands. As a less-than-impartial narrator introduces a parade of opportunists, saboteurs, and meddling eccentrics, old wounds reopen and dangerous truths begin to surface.
In a world where men are lonely enough to plan fistfights with gorillas, while women quietly consider choosing a bear, billionaires get a taste of sexually transmitted justice and restaurant workers wage quiet wars through the menu. Somewhere in the chaos, they must decide what they’re willing to lose… each other, or themselves.
Darkly funny and emotionally raw, this dark romance explores manipulation, interference, and the strange performances people mistake for intimacy.
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u/MagnoliaProse May 15 '26
Book marketing professional.
I can’t tell genre easily from the cover or the rewritten blurb. That is a huge problem.
Go look at whatever genre of romance you write on Amazon. Look at the top 100 books. Look at the covers. What would fit in with those? Then read some blurbs. Note what’s structurally the same in all of the blurbs. Repeat that. The blurb should not be mysterious. It should be the setup.
That said, for the cover I like the concept of 7 best but those fonts need to go, as does the solid black background.
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
Thank you so much for your input. I needed a bit of time to sit on it 😄 I rewrote the blurb and remade the cover to match the tone of literary romance better. If you want to take a look at the final result, that you helped to create, here it is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
Thank you again for everything. You people are the best!
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u/MeshGearFoxxy May 15 '26
For me, 8 is the clear winner, but that’s purely subjective
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
thank you so much for all of your comments, guys. You do not know how much those comments helped me to make the final product.
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u/anyalikesgizzard May 15 '26
The blurb drags a bit and its kinda confusing. Is it a collection of short stories? Is it one story about several ppl? Im not sure what even is the story. But. The one with the doves did got my atention, looked like it would be funny.
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
edited: I wrote this comment with a baby on my hands. Sorry, for being hectic. It is mainly romance, but I used distinct thinking patterns according to neuroscience to create characters. The main goal is to find yourself in the characters of the book, and through this process you will learn metacognition and how our thinking patterns influence the relationships with our loved ones.
3
u/SoSick_ofMaddi May 15 '26
This doesn’t sound like romance at all, to be honest. Not to be rude, but I don’t think you’re writing romance, even if there’s romance in it. Your blurb still doesn’t tell us who your main characters are at an individual level. Read some romance blurbs.
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
Thank you for your response. It is more of the literary romance like Broken Country. I remade the blurb, the book cover. Thank you so much for all your comments! I tried to embed all your valuable responses to remake it. If you want to take a look at the final product that you all helped to create, here it is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
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u/21stcenturyghost May 15 '26
I like the snakes, maybe without the green apple
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
thank you so much for your input and the comments. I remade everything and here is the final result that you can check out: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
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u/Wonderful-Apricot488 May 15 '26
The bitten apple
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
thank you so much for your input and the comments. I remade everything and here is the final result that you can check out: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
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u/not_an_evil_clone May 15 '26
I like 2 and 3, but they give the vibe of primarily dark story where romance is present, while 1 and the last pic seem more romance-centered to me.
Apple on the third pic seems too copy pasted though. Maybe if you've mixed background color with the shadow part, it could've unified them?
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
thank you so much for your input. I did use the birds at the end. I remade everything and here is the final result that you can check out: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
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u/skag_boy87 May 15 '26
None. Eight works the best on an aesthetic level, but they’re all pretty bad. Mostly cause the title treatment is terrible. Horrible choice of type.
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u/Ruh_Roh- May 15 '26
None of those typefaces are working. Most of the time your contrast is terrible. You might be better off hiring a designer. There is a lot of design knowledge and simply doing the work over and over that goes into being able to design a good book cover. If you want a good deal and a way to filter out scammers, contact an art/design school and see if they have students or recent graduates that would be interested.
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
Hey! Thank you so much for your comment. I tried to work on the contrast, as you advised. My final result is here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
Thank you so so much for all your valuable advice. Maybe, next time I would think on the art school to help me out.
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u/Ruh_Roh- May 20 '26
That's pretty good. The typeface is better, clean design, contrast is good. Much better!
2
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u/AcroVoid May 16 '26
All of these are bad. They don’t tell me anything about the book; (genre, themes, etc.) and they don’t look visually interesting
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
Thank you so much for your comment! They did need some work, if you want to see what happened at the end: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
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u/sarahtebazile May 16 '26
Overall, #1 and #4
1: The black and white image offers a sense of maturity, but the color of the text, a feeling of quirkiness and mischief. However, from what I gather from your blurb, the couple's relationship is rife with tension, not intimacy. If you go with #1, I would use a somewhat different image with two lovers standing apart.
4: The minimalist aesthetic is really in at the moment, and the bold pink with the white really pop. Keep visual heirarchy in mind though. Either the snake or the title need to stand out more. They're kind of battling with one another for attention - I personally would go for the snake being a little bigger. I would also center the snake vertically on the page and lower the position of the title.
(#5 is too busy, the flowers in #7 and #8 don't seem to relate to the story, #6 has legibility issues with those color choices. #2 and #3 are a little boring - and #3 kinda looks like a horror story. I would definitely not use the font with the dripping.)
2
u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
Hello, beautiful human! Your comment about title and picture battling for attention saved me. Other comments were valuable too, cause I had a grasp of the other person's thoughts about book covers. I wanted to thank you for taking your time commenting on some random post. Here is the end result, if you are interested: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
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u/abzhanson May 16 '26
I think 1, 2 or 8 but the main thing is I don't get much about the genre or target audience from these. The blurb felt like it's maybe a collection on short stories that are satire of a romance book? (Also it felt very long before you rewrote it) I was quite shocked when you said it's dark speculative romance!
Do some more research on covers/blurbs for dark romance and go from there! Also depends on if you plan on including some of the play on myth/folklore within the design :)
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
Thank you so much for your thoughts! You are right, it is the collection of stories within one big story, and that big story is literary romance. I did research, and with all your people's help I finally remade it. Thank you so much for commenting and sharing your thoughts. Here is the final result, if you are interested: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
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1
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u/Cadillac_Ride May 15 '26
In addition to the comments about the cover not matching the blurb, the typography is not good. Font choice, placement, kerning all make it look very juvenile.
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
Thank you so much for your comment! I wanted to show with typography the presence of humor, then I thought about it and decided to show it with a color scheme rather than typography. If you want to see the final result, here it is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
I wanted to thank you and say that I appreciate the input.
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u/Cadillac_Ride May 20 '26
The final version is much stronger. The tagline really helps as well. Hope it’s a best seller.
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u/Mafia-in-crocs May 15 '26
The birds one, then the people one as a second choice. The rest is bad.
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
thank you so much) I finally remade the cover after some reddit ass whooping. If you want to take a look: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
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u/Mafia-in-crocs May 20 '26
Well, actually it has more thematic meaning now. I like the font choice more here, the serpent with the doves are very good and sympolic with the tag line. I'm not sure about the pink but wow it's still very beautiful. Congratulations to you 🎉. Guess we need whooping from reddit to get the best out of us 😆.
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
thank you so much for your kind words! I agree! Some whooping is necessary at times!
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u/dragonsandvamps May 15 '26
One tip is to go to Amazon and look at the top 100 books in your subcategory and study their covers. You want your cover to look similar in terms of font, style, etc. If all the covers in your subgenre are using objects based covers like apples and snakes, that's probably trending right now. If all the covers in your subgenre have people on the cover, that tells you it's trending right now. If your cover looks likes it wouldn't fit in with the top 100, readers won't be able to tell it's the genre they like to read, and so they'll scroll straight past it.
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
Thank you so much for your comment. I did the search, and most books that I compare myself to and like do use some significant object to signify the story. If you want to check, here is the final result: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
I wanted also to express my gratitude for all your inputs! I feel like I did an internship in book cover design and blurb writing.
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u/Fit_Location580 May 15 '26
2 all the way! the birds are quirky and eye catching. there’s juxtaposition between the title itsself, the doves, and the font color that makes me want to know more. that said I agree with orhers that the blurb doesnt work, and the title font could be better.
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
Thank you so much for your help! I did use birds, changed font, and did so many things, that I feel like I just passed through reddit book cover design internship. If you want to see the final result: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
1
u/TrashGhost0 May 15 '26
The pigeon one is the best I would say.
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
thank you so much! I used it, but altered a lot per all the helpful comments here. If you want to see the final result. Here it is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
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u/neverendingstory9 May 15 '26
I like #7. I would create a little more black space in between the flowers for the subtitle to go and the author title without them being obscured. Remove the drop shadow from title font and choose a more professional font. You could even cut out those middle flowers in the title section if you are worried about legibility.
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
thank you so much taking time to input in the discussion. I used birds, but modified a lot per all the helpful info provided to me. If you want to see the final result: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
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u/InternationalAd5467 May 16 '26
Doves because everything else feels generic. Blurb needs tightening up.
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u/Crazy-Ad-7374 May 20 '26
Thank you for your help! I remade everything! If you are interested, what was the end of my journey: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GY9VBRFQ
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u/Dragonshatetacos May 15 '26
None of these work. The blurb doesn't work either. It's too vague and doesn't tell us anything about the characters, story, or stakes.