Here are two versions of the new cover being designed for book 3:
The goal with this new cover is to evoke the Vikings attack on Paris–which, in 845 A.D., was still a fairly compact town, located on Mount St. Genevieve above the Seine River. The key word is “evoke”–with a book cover, due to its limited size and the need for clarity rather than being too cluttered and busy, the visual elements are best kept relatively simple.
These are just very rough first drafts, not finished covers. But I’d welcome comments, critiques, and votes for which version you like best.
i really liked kathleen lynch’s comments. her descriptions gave a vivid image in my mind of what the book would represent, and how the story still centers on the young man’s life. your last publisher definitely didn’t market them well but i still see your books as having a greater appeal to the young adult group, although i get the impression that most who take the time to write to you are adult men who enjoy the history aspect as much as the story line. you write a good, clean story housed in viking history. i’m waiting for the last books to be published before i recommend them to our school librarian. we’re north of you in conroe (covenant christian). can’t wait!
Thanks, and I agree–Ms. Lynch’s comments were very insightful and quite excellent.
Re: waiting until the series is finished, I thought I’d mention that there will be five books in all. Book 4 will be coming out in 2012, but after that I will return to writing The Beast of Dublin and will complete it before I write the final book in the Strongbow Saga series, so it may be a few more years before all books in the series are out.
And concerning whether young adult readers are the series’ primary/natural readership, books one through three do have a very strong theme of a young man growing into adulthood, which certainly makes them appealing to YA readers (but much adult fiction contains that theme, too). However, by the end of book 3, Halfdan is an adult, and that aspect of the story is pretty much complete. Books 4 and 5 will be more focused on themes of revenge, loyalty, love, and loss.
I liked the first one a bit better, as well. I liked the man closer, and the city brighter and more apparent.
Thanks. Version #1 seems a strong front-runner so far. I confess it’s my favorite, too. Although perhaps it can be tweaked to improve it.
Maybe the man’s edges could be softened a little – his banner, especially. Maybe a slightly brighter font to match the edges of his pennant? I like it, either way.
I have to agree with most of the rest of the people I like the first one better.
Let me first say, I love your Strongbow series, it is wonderful storytelling. I appreciate honest feedback whenever I ask for it, and think you do too, so here goes.
Your first three book covers with Harper Collins communicated a vibrancy of color and strength and captured the attention of the viewer. Really dynamic covers, and books need to stand out on Amazon. If you surf Amazon you’ll find strong covers as well as ones that don’t “pop”, and some that are barely visible at all to the viewer.
To my eye, neither version of the proposed covers work and don’t reflect the quality of writing that’s contained within them.The covers are weak and unfocused, and the colors way to too bland. You mentioned keeping them simple (which is what Harper Collins did) yet these covers have no real focus. Are we to look at the warrior, the flag (which is great by the way) or the hillside with it’s brooding sky?
Here’s what I would do: I would make the warrior larger along with the flag, and place him more in the center of the cover. Very dynamic. This would be the main focus of the cover I would experiment with the warrior and his legs and find the best way to position him, maybe not showing his legs…. Harper Collins showed only the upper half of Halfdans body, and this worked very well. The flag the warrior is holding is powerful and maybe you could make the warrior taller so you could get more of the flag in there.
The background of the town is fine but should be smaller so the “main” focus is on the warrior and the flag. The hillside color of the town needs to be warmed up and the brooding skyline is good. Maybe it could be made even more dramatic. I like the the title graphics, very well done, but don’t care for the font used for your name as it looks too modern against everything else.
All the colors need to be bumped up. I enjoyed writing to you and hope you find my suggestions useful.
Kathleen Lynch
Thanks for the detailed, specific feedback!
I like the top book cover best.
Thanks.
okay, lots of people, lots of opinions. sorry, i know it’s been a while but when i think of the series the boy and his story stands out. because of this i liked the cover of the young boy and since the audience primarily should be to young adults and teenagers I think the same young man in a viking suit would appeal more than an image of what appears to be an older to old man in the picture. The heavy beard is what translates to ‘old’ in my book. Aside from that, I like the top picture as a background. I am SO looking forward to reading it!!
Thanks very much for the feedback. The original covers designed by HarperCollins did emphasize the young man supposed to be Halfdan (the photo was actually of some male model in New York). I was told they were specifically designed to appeal to female readers, to try to entice them into picking up the books and looking at them. HarperCollins also published the books as young adult fiction, although when I wrote them my original intent was that they were adult historical fiction.
I think the combination of the original covers’ appearance, plus the books being published as YA fiction and sold in the YA or children’s sections of bookstores, caused the series to be missed by many potential readers. As I’m re-releasing them myself, I’m trying to position them as adult fiction, and get them in front of a new group of readers. I certainly don’t want to lose the younger readers who are fans, but I’d like the series to find a wider readership than it did when published by HarperCollins.
Very glad it’s going to be made to look more like fabric than clay. 🙂 Looking forward to seeing the final product!
I vote for the 1st cover for several reasons. I think seeing the viking from behind is much more of an effective visualization of the planned invasion on the town. I also like the dark billowing clouds in the sky in the 1st picture. The other colors on the 1st cover seem more vibrant and striking, The frontal view of the viking shows more details of his attire and weaponry, but it looks like he should be in front of his army, not just standing alone.
Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback! Re: the red pieces, I think they’re supposed to be tassels–the figure is actually a photograph of a miniature. They’ll be either “adjusted” or removed in the final version–in fact, there will be a lot of touch-up on the banner in the final version, to make it look more cloth-like.
Definitely the first! The figure looks less “pasted on,” as they say. 🙂 And the city (along with everything else) is more vibrant. I like it a lot. (Are those red pieces hanging from the banner supposed to be there?)