Here is a list of the cover submissions that were worth commenting on. Let me know if you think you can improve on your earlier submission and those of the others here. I’m happy to pay for a new submission.
Many thanks.
General comments :
As earlier stated, this is for an eBook, dimensions must be 1600×2560.
As earlier stated, please only submit flat samples of your work. I do not want to see 3D images. That is not the way anyone ever sees an eBook cover on an Amazon promotional page.
The text which must appear is
Author : David M Rowell
Author tag-line : Best-selling Kindle Author
Title : Mission: St Petersburg
Review quote : A great read, Clancy crossed with le Carré (a second line with the name and title of the person saying this will probably also appear)
Please keep in mind, if the text can’t be clearly read at this size, it is not sufficiently clear.
I’ve added a synopsis below the samples.
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The submarine clip art is good, but the cover needs much more than just a submarine picture.
There is too much detail on the top of the submarine. My name at the bottom is almost invisible. The text at the top – black on grey – does not stand out. I don’t like the font for “Mission: St Petersburg” |
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A huge improvement over the previous version.
Now has some color. Now has a Russian element as well as a submarine. Text is greatly improved, but now we have red text on a red background which doesn’t stand out well. Nice font. |
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I like the combination of images and the abstraction of them. A submarine, St Basil’s church, and a man and woman.
I don’t much like the font. The plain solid red at the bottom seems weak. |
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One of the few samples that actually did include the requested review quote. But I think the quote should all be on one line, not broken onto two.
I don’t like the font for the title and my name. The submarine is average rather than good. I prefer a picture of a submarine actually moving, not dead in the water. The couple are okay. The man in the background with the gun is okay. He looks like one of the heroes of the story. But there is nothing Russian on this cover. Overall, a cover with potential, but at present, it feels flat, and doesn’t “stand out” and must have a Russian element.
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I love the text on this cover. All is very clear and easily read in a small sized image. It looks very professional.
But the image of the man is a bit puzzling – what is in his right hand? What is outlined in front of him? The man himself seems suitably mysterious and like a spy, though. What are the lights in the background? No submarine, nothing obviously Russian. I like the dark and abstracted nature of the cover, but it is missing some important elements and doesn’t hint enough at the nature of the story. |
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Text is good and clear. Very easily read. The St Basil’s in the background is okay, but there’s unnecessary messy detail to the right of the church that distracts and confuses.
The GIF type computer image of a squashed pistol stuck on the top right corner to “fill a gap” clashes with the other picture elements, and screams “clip art”. The couple in silhouette are okay. No submarine. |
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I think that “Best Selling Kindle Author” needs to be close to my name. And while my name is not as important as it would be if I were a famous author, it is probably too small here.
Indeed, all the text could be made more prominent. There’s a hint of St Basil’s in the background, the man in a jacket might be okay although far from my favorite, but then all of a sudden, there’s a couple in the background – they look like children – on a wooden post looking at a lake that seems to be from a different story entirely! I’m also not sure if the most important visual element should be a single person. |
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My hero is not black. Apologies to black people everywhere, but he isn’t black. And even if the hero was black, I don’t think I want a photo-realistic picture of a person as the key visual element.
Again, needs to link the “Best Selling” tag with my name. Text needs to be more generally prominent. Lots of stuff in this image. St Basil’s = good, a couple = good, a hint of Seattle = good. No submarine. I like the generally dark moodiness of this cover. |
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I very strongly dislike the image of the man on this cover. He is obviously neither a US Navy officer nor a FBI agent.
The text on the map is very much more prominent than the title and other text – it should be the other way around. No submarine. |
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This is a cover with promise, but with some major weaknesses currently. The top half looks like a romance novel. Then there’s a photo-realistic pistol shoved in the middle for no obvious reason, a picture of some carriers at sea or in a harbor, something really strange on the right – looks like a UFO, a hint of St Basil’s on the bottom left, something next to it that is probably a submarine (might be a St Petersburg rostral column), but not obvious at this size.
Some of the text is way too small, and yellow font against yellow background is not sufficiently contrasty. The font for “Best Selling Kindle Author” is not a good choice. The review tag is unreadable. |
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Very clear text, but I don’t like the font for my name (the rest of the text is fine, in terms of font choices). but the imagery is weak – the text dominates and drowns out the imagery. The heading is misspelled – there must be a colon after “Mission”. There’s a “bulls-eye” pattern that just confuses things, some sort of something black at the bottom, the Seattle Space Needle, and the half-transparent pair of figures with pistols, back to back rather than side by side or facing.
There is nothing Russian and nothing to do with submarines. |
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Good clear text, although where will the review quote go? I guess the heading can move down a bit. The line spacing between the two lines of the title needs to be closer to more visually tie them together.
Obviously St Basil’s, but I think the “hero” image of the man with pistol is too photo-realistic. No submarine, no girl. |
Synopsis
Sir Winston Churchill’s 1939 description of Russia being “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” remains true today. Mission: St Petersburg is not as presumptuous as to try and solve this puzzle (Churchill proposed a solution in the next sentence of his speech). But I draw on my regular visits to Russia, time living and owning a business there, a Russian wife, and interactions with Russian diplomats in the US to build a story around the perplexities and contradictions that comprise Russia around the turn of the millennium.
In the novel, an honest Russian scientist is compelled by the difficulties of living in Russia to sell the submarine technology secrets he has developed, via a shady business associate and that person’s nephew, the Russian Consul in Seattle. Although these people believe they are selling the technology to a fishing company, it is a front for the US Naval Intelligence, who are desperate to obtain the technology. A Naval Intelligence Officer travels incognito to St Petersburg to conclude the deal, but an honest Russian Special Investigator is on the shady business associate’s trail and knows what is happening.
The businessman attempts to bribe and influence his way to immunity via the KGB (now known as the FSB) and offers to betray the scientist, the Navy Officer, and potentially his nephew too. A duplicitous American Diplomat, an accidental shootout, and a problematic escape by slow train heighten the stakes while the angry involvement of Russia’s President bullies the CIA into refusing their support when the mission needs it the most. What happens to the Consul in Seattle, can the scientist and his family escape to the West, and will the Navy Officer marry the scientist’s daughter?
The plausible plot combines action with intelligence (both the brain and spy types) while blending in facts that only an insider would know (eg FBI agents don’t wear their guns in the office so as not to scare the civilian female secretaries) along with revelations of life in the extraordinary environment that was Russia then and sometimes still is Russia today (eg the danger of being killed by falling icicles in the streets of St Petersburg).
The book has been checked for accuracy by submariners and FBI agents. A sequel, Mission: Seattle, is presently being written.