Friday, April 10, 2015

What is the most engaging cover design?

One element that puts off self-published novel is, I believe, the cover; too many look amateurish. And while you may not be able to tell a book by its cover, an attractive, professional cover can only help.
Proposed cover 1

While Createspace and other publishers offer templates into which authors can pour their designs, I think it's an unusual author who can design an attractive, engaging, and effective cover. I certainly can't.

I am fortunate to have an exceptionally talented graphic designer friend, Susan Brier, who has her own firm, The WriteDesign Company. She designed the jackets for my two earlier novels and is working on ideas for the new book.

Death in a Family Business is a mystery, a cozy, and the action centers around an appliance-TV retail store. Polaroid photographs of nude women and a Cessna airplane play a role in the story. 

Tommy Lovell's dream restaurant has failed, taking his shaky marriage along with it. He's licking his wounds back in his childhood bedroom while he takes stock of his life at the end of his 20s. Reluctantly, Tommy agrees to tag along when his father offers to help family friend Otto Jonker save a struggling store in a dying Berkshire town. Tommy is ready for a change of scenery, maybe a bit of romance, and—if he's really lucky—more opportunities to fly his father's Cessna.
Proposed Cover 3

The trip takes a disastrous turn after Otto skids off the road during a midnight motorcycle ride and is critically injured, forcing Tommy and his father into unexpected danger as they make disturbing discoveries about Otto’s personal and professional troubles.  

Susan is also one of my beta readers and she not only suggested a couple of editorial improvements (both of which I took), she came up with three proposed cover approaches shown here. 

Proposed Cover 2

I know which one I prefer, but I'm not a prospective buyer, so I'm looking for some outside opinion. Given what I've said about the story, which of the three possible designs do you think works best? 

Many thanks for your votes and comments.

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