IARG cover issue

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I'm trying to decide if I really want to use the current cover I have for "Rosemary".

Pros: It is professionally done, it looks nice...the characterizations are just. About. There.
Cons: The model for Kristi is Differnet from the character description in the text and the cover makes it look like a romance novel...which it isn't.

Would it be better to use the following picture (or one like it, of the same model) than the current version?

Current cover
0B60B89F-9A14-4B30-A315-F0911F015718-229-0000002B22FE27A5.jpeg

"Person who Kristi is sort of based on but not exactly but she is ALMOST like the character..."
IMG_0079_0.JPG

I woulld like to think option 2 is a bit more realistic, less "romance novel-ish".
But, I'm still new at this...

Comments

Covers

often don't do a good job of representing what's inside. They generally aren't designed to do that. They are designed to grab the readers attention enough to at least read the blurb. The first cover looks far more professional. The second eats up the cover space with a face and not one that will make readers stop and look. I'd look at the first cover every time and probably 90% of readers would do the same. Of course some folks might get the idea that it's a sequel to Rosemary's Baby so the title might be more of a problem than the cover art.

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Covers

Daphne Xu's picture

Covers often badly represent what's in the story. A few novels from a very long series of pulp fiction magazine stories were reprinted about 40 years after they were first written. It took me a while, but I finally noticed that the cover for the fifth novel featured a scene from the sixth, while the cover for the sixth novel featured something from the fifth.

But then, generically, the covers fit the novels.

-- Daphne Xu

-- Try saying freefloating three times rapidly.

What's the point of a picture?

I have often used pictures in my stories, but to be honest, I always use the Quick Cuts to choose what I read, so I never look at another author's pictures, until I have actually decided to start reading, by which time the picture gets scant attention. No doubt, some readers do scroll down the Home page to select their stories, and I think the existing picture is much more likely to attract readers than the second. So what if it's not accurate. No one expects it to be.

I have sometimes found as an author that choosing a picture helps me to visualise the character or scene, so it forms part of the creative process. Clearly, that is not the situation in your case.

To be honest, I wouldn't worry too much about it. You already have a picture that does the job; there seems no point in changing it to something which will not work as well.

Some of my covers

Patricia Marie Allen's picture

I've done my own covers. Here are a few. If you like them, I'd be glad to work with you to come up with what you want.
My Cousin's Clothes cover by Phaitoon.jpg

Michelle's Summer of Discovery.jpg

A TV's Dream.jpg

Hugs
Patricia

Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt

I may take you up on the

Aylesea Malcolm's picture

I may take you up on the offer for MooneShadows as the current cover I have appears to have a copyright

Second cover is a real person

The first cover has real people, of course, but they look and feel like models posing. The second cover is of someone you might meet anywhere or perhaps already know. That gives it an immediacy, a strength, I don't see in the first one. Its informality helps. ~ JBB

I wonder if

there's a way, perhaps with professional design help if necessary, to preserve that intriguing expression she has. It invites the viewer to wonder what she's thinking. Even to think she knows something the viewer doesn't. If that's consistent with your story it's sure something I'd want to keep if at all possible. Maybe some cropping to make her face an element of the cover rather than the whole thing? It doesn't bother me that the top of her head is cropped out, but perhaps it is distracting to some.

Re: in any case

Wouldn't photo editing by someone with experience in doing that be able to remove the blurriness?