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Red cover

2 (16.7%)

New cover

7 (58.3%)

Neither

2 (16.7%)

Both

1 (8.3%)

Total Members Voted: 12

[Ryan A. Span]

Hello everyone,

We at Gryphonwood are currently considering a re-release of Seabird with a brand new cover design, and to help with that, we'd like to ask you all to give your opinion!

The competition is between the old red cover and the new parchment-coloured one. Our question to you is, which one do you prefer? You can give your opinion known by posting to this topic and/or by using the poll at the top. Please let us know what you think!

Regards,
Ryan

[TWERvin]

Honestly, I never really cared much for the original cover.

Terry

[Ryan A. Span]

Honestly, I never really cared much for the original cover.

Terry

Me neither. I can't even imagine what it looks like printed.

Regards,
Ryan

[Johne Cook]

I much prefer the new cover. Looks slick, professional!

[cathikin]

I was okay with the old cover, but I must admit I like the new one better. I think it might get more attention.

[jmreinbold]

The new cover looks quite good. However, I did like the "rich" colors of the original cover. Also, I'm not sure a single feather -- it looks like a quill pen -- is representative of the Seabird story. Could you fit a whole seabird on there?! 

[demaris]

Even though I think the new cover is crisp and neat with an attractive tannish color, I still prefer the red cover.  The colors are deep and rich and the image of young Cara with her sword is well done.  I agree with JMR that just one feather doesn't quite add up to a whole bird!

[Ryan A. Span]

I think for Gryphonwood and, from a practical standpoint, for Sherry's own writing career, a professional and well-crafted appearance is more of an issue than the richness of the colours.

I've seen a print copy of Seabird and to be honest it doesn't look good. If I saw it in a bookshop, the design and quality of the current cover -- drawn image rather obviously superimposed on a flat single colour, with pixellated text, and a dialogue excerpt on the back cover(!) -- would quite literally put me off buying it. It is, for lack of a better word, amateurish. A vast majority of people will feel the same way, because a cover is what sells the book to people who haven't already read it. As far as I can see those who like the red cover seem to only be established fans.

There's also the consideration that the Gryphonwood logo and branding has been completely redesigned and all our old covers need replacing anyway. May as well do it now and improve the public perception of Seabird at the same time.

Regards,
Ryan

[CapriceHokstad]

I chose "neither". The first cover had a great title font, with the water-swirl in the sword and the letters. It also had good, rich color in the background. HOWEVER, that pixelated image of Cara looked really, REALLY bad, in my opinion, and negated all the positives.

The second cover looks more professional, I'll give you that, BUT you lost all that was actually GOOD in the first cover to replace it with mediocre and generic.
The parchment background looks fine, not super-fantastic, but professional and pleasing, to be sure. The font is plainer, and arguably less eye-catching, but still acceptable.

But I think you've really got to stop wasting time worrying about those small things and do something with the central image. If you cannot come up with a good image of Cara, then at least choose something better in its place than a feather! Keep that flashy sword. Or why not a well-rendered drawing of Cara's necklace? What about a nice purple-leafed tree landscape? Surely there is something that better represents the story than a single feather!

The new cover reminds me of the generic covers offered to vanity-published authors who don't want to pay extra for a customization. Look! We have these free covers! There's the outer-space starfield image (which we all know represents every imaginable sci-fi novel there could be, right?) and there's the sunset silhouette of two lovers (which represents every possible romance title) and then there's a feather (which is a catch-all for everything else because the feather can also be interpreted as a quill and therefore represents all writing). Does Gryphonwood really want to be in that category?

If there is no possibility of a third choice, then the new one is a definite improvement on the first, but I'd hate to waste an opportunity to do it a lot better.

[Ansric]

I'll mostly agree with Caprice, though I don't think the original cover had that much going for it. The major problem was that it depicted something that doesn't even make sense until you're most of the way through the story. (I initially thought it showed a slightly open doorway, not a sword...)

On the other hand, the single feather is too generic. The obvious image would be of the seabird necklace; alternatively, something self-explanatory such as one of the fight scenes might do, though that can also be generic.

On the other other hand (for those of us who are unusually gifted), the new cover is better than the old one, as Caprice said: professionally generic versus amateurishly original and a bit confusing.

[gryphonwood]

First of all, I want to say a big "thank you" to everyone who has taken the time to share her or his thoughts. I've made a point to stay out of the debate. I will, however, throw in a few related points.

1- The purpose of a book cover is not to "reflect the story." (This comes not from me, but from a friend who has been a successful professional cover artist in the spec-fic genre for a very long time, and has even won a Hugo Award. Nothing sets him off like this particular objection.) There are a number of reasons which I won't go into, but foremost is, the person who has not read the book has no idea if the cover reflects the book until he or she has finished reading it. Suffice it to say, the purpose of the book cover is to entice the potential reader to pick up the book (or click on the link), and read the synopsis and blurbs. The synopsis, blurbs, previews, and reviews serve to reflect the story.


2- Yes, the cover is somewhat generic, but that's actually fairly common in fantasy today. The cover of The Silver Serpent is simply parchment with a fantasy-esque font, and it's our best-selling spec fic title. As for the proposed title, I'm quite confident that the overall quality is head-and-shoulders above what you'll find with a vanity press, though the point is well-taken.

3- The discussions have illustrated the problems inherent with a custom cover, especially with this particular novel. We must put ourselves in the mindset of a reader who knows nothing about this book, and think about the suggestions we've discussed. A silver necklace, though certainly connected to one element of the plot, might suggest romance rather than Tolkienesque fantasy. If we go with a seabird, does the artist paint it according to Sherry's vision- an iridescent osprey with an owl's head?  What does the unsuspecting reader think of that? Does such an image fit with the entirety of the novel?  On Sherry's blog, others have suggested a beach scene with a sword, necklace, and seabird. Might not that cover suggest historical romance more than fantasy?

While all of the suggestions are certainly connected to the plot of the story, do any of them even hint at the depth and epic scale of Seabird? I am not suggesting that the new cover captures the scope of the novel, only that it is a clean, crisp cover that might entice a reader to take a closer look, which is what we are looking for.

Again, thank you to everyone who has taken part, and will continue to take part, in this discussion.

Dave

[TWERvin]

Possibly if the feather were simply that...a feather, instead of a quill.

Terry

[gryphonwood]

I understand your point, Terry. Actually, a quill and parchment that happened to resemble a gull/seabird feather was what we wanted. Scrolls are very important in Seabird- The Scroll Chamber, Halprin being a member of The Order of the Scroll, a character being addressed as "honored one of the Scroll." Also, the prologue ends with Nortiis writing his account of the evil sorcerer and the loss of the seabird necklace.