busyWhat makes a good title for a poem, story, or book?
A good title should be distinctive. It should not be easily confused with other titles; ideally, it should be unique. This makes it easier for people to find when they search for it. Titles which are overly colorful or metaphoric may be distinctive at the cost of relevance and clarity.
What makes a good book cover?
A good cover should be eye-catching. It must snag the attention of casual browsers and cause them to focus on this one book out of hundreds. Bright colors, high contrast, vivid imagery, and a sense of motion or action in the illustration are all conducive to this.
What's the point of all this?
A book cover's job is to make a reader pick up a book. Whatever does that is effective. Whatever fails to do that is ineffective. The job of the cover text (front and back) is to make a reader open a book. Once the book is in hand, the reader must be enticed to venture further. Once the book is open, it is up to the author's content to hook the reader and complete the sale. Everything else is just aimed at getting to that point. It doesn't matter how good the content is if the setup is so poor that nobody ever gets that far; and it doesn't matter how good the setup is if the content flops.
What are your thoughts on titles and cover art?
October 5 2008, 18:45:12 UTC 12 years ago
Feedback
October 5 2008, 19:14:15 UTC 12 years ago
Let's see, "When Diplomacy Fails" refers to a common saying about how wars get started, which tells the reader it's a book about war(s). It's succinct yet catchy. The subtitle simply adds detail (short military SF).
Cover illustration is dramatic, with armored soldiers spilling out of a ship. That brilliant white light off-center is very eye-catching, and the lines of motion draw the viewer's eye down to the lower right corner where a close-up face is visible. Minor quibble: the American flag is barely visible and not congruent with established motion. Probably nobody will notice or care.
The cover text is clearly visible in plain type and colors that suit the background. Minor quibble: the background at the top is so intricately detailed that even the very plain serif font fribbles a bit when placed atop it; a sans-serif font might have worked better.
But the cover works. I'd pick up this book, even though military SF isn't my most favorite subgenre, because it looks promising enough that I'd want to scan the table of contents for favorite authors and check the story blurbs for especially fascinating premises.
Re: Feedback
October 5 2008, 20:14:16 UTC 12 years ago
And one touch I like is that all of the soldiers appear to be clones.
Re: Feedback
October 5 2008, 21:55:06 UTC 12 years ago
October 6 2008, 08:00:47 UTC 12 years ago
October 6 2008, 08:06:51 UTC 12 years ago
There is no reason why the 2 editors' names should be capitalized and italicized AND bigger than the title. It conveys a sense that these two people are giant egomaniacs, because their involvement is more relevant than the content itself.
The only time an author's name gets top billing consistent with the title is when the author is someone like Stephen King (or perhaps Issac Assimov). A really big name, that is. And their name should never be bigger than the title. The same size, yes, bigger, no.
If one or both of these editors is a big enough name that their name alone will get people to buy the book without knowing anything else about it, then their name should be possibly as big as the title. But not more emphasized, as it is here.
October 6 2008, 15:27:52 UTC 12 years ago
October 6 2008, 18:07:02 UTC 12 years ago
Deleted comment
Thank you!
October 5 2008, 21:57:07 UTC 12 years ago
October 6 2008, 02:16:01 UTC 12 years ago
October 6 2008, 07:36:27 UTC 12 years ago
October 6 2008, 15:24:51 UTC 12 years ago