Space Opera Fans discussion

I have been working on a new cover for my novel Echo: Part One.
What are your thoughts?

Original:


New concept:

I like it!

I prefer the old one. The new one's too busy.

No preference but

Original makes me think space exploration, possibly military, plot driven SF.

New makes me think military adventure, probably character driven, SF.

L J wrote: "No preference but

Original makes me think space exploration, possibly military, plot driven SF.

New makes me think military adventure, probably character driven, SF."

That was insightful. Even though the Novel is character-driven people seem to prefer the original design so far. Maybe the original cover but with the name and title inversion?

Michael wrote: "L J wrote: "No preference but

Original makes me think space exploration, possibly military, plot driven SF.

New makes me think military adventure, probably character driven, SF."

That was insigh..."

People on cover make me think character driven. If no people then I'd say stick with original as it is more eye catching and SF looking.

The original is a visual representation of something that happens in the Novel. Finding the right image of stars for the background was an interesting challenge because I can't go there and snap a photo in person. Thankfully I found a good image of the witch-head nebula and Rigel. (The bright star in the center on the original cover, located under the spiky circle)

Adding the characters to the cover seemed like the next logical step because the Novel is character-driven, but I do like the sound of eye-catching, and Sci-fi looking.

They say a book's cover needs to make a good first impression.

I would also prefer the original cover. Inversion of name and title might work for better, since there is more space towards the bottom.

The original cover makes it feel like an epic, vast plot, and the new concept makes it feel like a character driven narrow plot.

Maybe this?

Michael wrote: "Maybe this?

"

That's looking cool.

Michael wrote: "Maybe this?

"

i like that.

i also liked the one with people. only i would prefer it only had one person on the cover instead of 2.

I really like the 2nd cover!/please tell me who your artist is so I can hire them for my book!

Geister wrote: "I really like the 2nd cover!/please tell me who your artist is so I can hire them for my book!"

I do my own cover art.

Here are the cover concepts for the second Novel, Echo: Part Two.
Thank you for the input so far. Looking forward to hearing your suggestions on this one.

The Original:


Variation 1: A new character model with the same size and angle.


Variation 2: The new character model with angle adjusted, and increased size; still redshifted.


Variation 3: The same new character model but at the largest size with more color and detail.

I am attempting to convey a sense of loss, fading away, threat, and fear with the cover of Echo: Part Two. My goal is to provide a visual recreation of one of the emotional scenes in the Novel. With that said, I have included a few more elements and hardened the contrast so nothing gets lost in the image. It has a more comic-like appearance, than the previous attempts, but is less of an eye strain.

Version 4:

Michael wrote: "I am attempting to convey a sense of loss, fading away, threat, and fear with the cover of Echo: Part Two. My goal is to provide a visual recreation of one of the emotional scenes in the Novel. Wit..."

Looking cool...

I like the abstractness of the image here, that it does not overly emphasize the physical appearance of the character. Kinda reminds me of the Murderbot covers.

Michael wrote: "I am attempting to convey a sense of loss, fading away, threat, and fear with the cover of Echo: Part Two. My goal is to provide a visual recreation of one of the emotional scenes in the Novel. Wit..."

oooo i REALLY like this one. this one would make me put it on my tbr list without even reading the blurb.

The updated covers are now live.
Thank you for the advice and assistance; I am pleased with the results.

these look great!!!

By the way, if you run into this situation again, there's a service called Pickfu where you can poll a group of people chosen by the company about a question, and they choose what they like and give an explanation for why.

I am in no way associated with Pickfu and get nothing for this post. But I used their service once for a book title and found it helpful. My problem was, the results came out 50/50! But, that still told me something.