I think you have some good stylistic elements there. It screams that 1920s/Agatha Christie vibe, with the black and white and the type choice. Which is right for "A Reason to Murder", why the name change BTW?

However, I'm not sure the element mix is right, or proportional. I do like the silhouetted figure, but I'd make him more prominent (I presume it's our Inspector Chapel?). The car just seems slightly oversized and I'm not sure how it relates to the content...

These are just gut reactions, by the way.

-Matt

Realms Publishing

I think its a great looking image, but there is a lot of space at the top. Is that intentionally left blank for something to be added?

Solipsist RPG, on its way ... eventually

I wonder if you'd want the name at the top? It might make it more visible when on display with other books (in a bookstand, say).

There was some discussion of this regarding The Esoterrorists cover, some may recall.

Quite a good-looking image - but unless the product is about giant vintage cars that can drive on water (Fordzilla!) I don't think it gets it across too well. Maybe add some period-looking murder weapon?

Tim Gray
Silver Branch Games
www.silverbranch.co.uk

I must admit I thought it was a Film Noir or 1920's gangster game from looking at the cover.

Ash

You're not meant to criticize. You're meant to tell me how great it looks.

Graham

It looks great, are there car driving rules?

Oh it looks great, it just isn't quite evoking the subject matter at hand.

Ash

It's great!

Now we can all get a need to kill Graham Walmsley.

...would be to keep the writing a safe distance from an edge in case it gets cut off, or appears too close to the edge. They reckon that 0.25" is as close as it should ever get (since this is typically how far a trim can move when a printer cuts up your books). I'd err on the side of caution and keep text a little further in that that.

White on black text needs to be bolder to stand out. I noticed that the font had a very fine line as part of the characters, that might not survive printing. I tend to make white text bold, or "black", for font weight when it appears on a black background.

The moon is in the middle, I wonder if Jon Hodgson or Paul Bourne has something to say on that? Should it be slightly off to one side. We tend to view art from left to right, so maybe the moon should be on the right, with the title at top left?

I think that the layout of the image is very art deco, which is all about symmetry and simplicity, I like that, and I assume the text is in a deco font as well. It reminds me of the start of Poirot :)

...I came up with this, but I think it's overworked possibly.

Alternative Cover showing Moon moved, different text and some blood splats.

I like the text on this version a lot, it really stands out like a crime novel, I love it!

I'm not convinced about teh blood splats, though I don't hate them, but the rest all looks pretty good to me.

Solipsist RPG, on its way ... eventually

Just take my masterwork and show me how I should do it better. I hate you all.

Yes, OK, it is better. I don't like the script-like writing, but it's good.

I am grumpy about this now.

Graham

Hire a professional.

Thought you were grumpy before? Ha Ha.

I'm just kidding, I think I like it probably more than some of the other posters. Great feel, love the minimalism of it. I'd probably want to try out a whole bunch of 20s/30s fonts to make sure that was the right one ( http://www.dafont.com if you don't already use it)

Yeah right enough Gregor, stuff on the centre line can be dodgy compositionally. Also you want to try and make inverted triangles with your elements more than triangles resting on their bases. That adds dynamism to the image rather than stability, which can look static. I think this one looks very "static" in those terms - it doesn't feel like anything is going to move or happen, which is something the human brain likes to perceive, and so holds the eye. Which is what you want a cover to do. Happily phenomena like that work even in tiny thumbnails, so its worth doing even for e-book covers, or stuff you;re selling over t'intarwebz.

But hey, I critted when crit wasn't wanted, so feel free to ignore. I hope it was helpful stuff rather than just empty opinionating.

Cue Paul with a totally contradictory but just as edjumacated opinion!

Some nice ones here: http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=115

Jon Hodgson
www.jonhodgson.net

I like the new cover, although I agree with Greg about the blood splats. One thing I am curious about though is the layout. I initially thought this was supposed to be a wraparound cover, but now it looks more like it's the entire front cover artwork. Are you planning to lay the book out in landscape format, or is this going to be a (very) narrow band on the front of the book?

Ash