[original submission and comments here]

Nathan says:

From one extreme to the other! 🙂

I like where this is heading — it definitely doesn’t give off the AI vibe of your previous submission — but it brings its own set of problems:

• Not much is visible (or graspable) from the thumbnail. I can’t make out any of the text, and of the rest, there may be a window, and either a path or a stream… If you change the typeface to something without as many thin elements, it will be more readable, and cropping the image a little closer will make the visual components of the image more prominent.
• The lens flare looks really artificial compared to the rest of the image. Trimming it down to just the sun, without the halo, would let it be prominent but not overpowering.
• That would also help the human figure, which is in danger of being lost next to the flare. A slight darkening of that figure’s silhouette would also bring more focus to it.
• There’s no need to make the byline look like an afterthought. put it on there margin to margin. (And you don’t need “By.”)

Other comments?

The author says:

Eidola, a world recovering from a two hundred year war with the demonic forces of hel still finds itself in the shadow of the relics left behind, giving rise to a new profession. Chaos drifters, highly skilled adventurers and explorers whose purpose is to gather and neutralise these items. Brail a new drifter finds it difficult to maintain his financial situation and his crumbling party. That is until he meets the reclusive and mysterious Von, offering to take part in a job which could put their names with the best. But are Von’s intensions so pure? And what is his relationship with the vile and illusive humanoid species known as the “empties”.

Nathan says:

It’s a pretty good cover… but not for this book.  Your blurb speaks of action-adventure in the ruins of a (SF? fantasy?) world. Your cover would probably catch the eye of someone who wants a grittier version of Twilight. The people who would like your book aren’t going to click on the cover, and the people who click on the cover will read the blurb and realize the book isn’t for the.

The author says:

Genre: meta-horror

Setting: from the 1980s to the near-present in a world not too different from our own except where otherwise noted (i.e. the black magic involved in the protagonist’s origins)

Target Audience: experienced horror fans who’d like a novel that does for them more or less what John Scalzi’s Redshirts did for Trekkies

Premise: What if (minor spoilers) the cat in the “cat scare” scenes in horror movies (and sometimes horror novels) actually *is* the monster, and this is his way of warning people nicely that they’re not welcome in his domain and really ought to be leaving if they don’t want to suffer some horrible fate? What if the reason he does this is that most ordinary people are actually a lot more reasonable and capable of taking the hint than the cliched characters in poorly written horror stories? What if we saw some of these horror stories from said monster’s point of view for a change? That’s what this story does: explains his origins, and how and why he does what he does.

Nathan says:

Aw, what a cutesy-wutesy kittie!

…Which shows the problem right there. Looking at this cover, between the kitten photo and the typeface, I might think that it’s some sort of cozy paranormal fantasy.

If you want this to appeal to horror fans, lean into it. Use typefaces familiar from horror movie posters. Use a full-grown cat — NOT a kitten — hissing or arching its back or doing something ominous. Don’t make the mistake of thinking the cover’s fine because you know the story and it fits; think, “Will this tell the target audience who knows nothing about the book that this book is for them?”

Other comments?