How are these Bookcovers/Synopsis?

Cookiez_N_Potionz

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Disclaimer: The art is Ai


 

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autumnsugar

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Disclaimer: The art is Ai


Personally I'm not a fan of AI art...
 

pangmida

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Hey! I'll give my very amateurish opinion, so you can take it or leave it. :)

First of all, it's obviously an AI cover as you said, and I won't hold that against webnovel authors since not everyone has the time to learn art or money to commission an artist just for a fun hobby (unless you wish to go commercial, then that's where I'd recommend real art). Although, many people do get turned off by an obviously AI cover, so just be aware of that. Sometimes you can't help it. Maybe find a better model or something that gives better results? I'm not familiar with that, so you can do your own research. Many books on SH have pretty AI covers, so you can ask those authors as well.

Now, I'd say I like the cover for Maverick more because it's slightly more dynamic than Soulbound. The one in Soulbound just looks like it came from the story game Episode, and there's not much going on besides two girls standing next to each other. No interesting pose, no context besides their fantasy armors, just... them. The background is cool though. Reminds me of Olympus gods watching two heroes duel in the stadium (stadium? Forgot the term). Other than that, it reminds me of those Flash dressup games I used to play.

With Maverick, you have interesting character designs (love Collin's design—vitiligo is beautiful), and from how they're posed, you can tell they're possibly in a romantic relationship. That's great. The couple in Soulbound has little chemistry. They could've passed as just friends or less. Also, not sure if it was intentional, but both books' character pairs look pretty similar in design haha, at least in hairstyles. Collin and Ariya (I think?), Helena and Daphne(?) look alike respectively. It's cute though!

In terms of synopsis, I honestly still think Maverick does it better, not just because it's longer. Soulbound is just so... vague. It starts with an intriguing quote, then it describes the two girls as:
16 year-old Ariya HollowBright & 15 year-old Daphne Jonas are star-crossed lovers. One is reluctant while the other is playful.
Star-crossed, to me, usually implies tragedy inbound, or at least lots of hardship preventing them from being together—originated from Romeo and Juliet. That provides an interesting setup, though I find it rather telling than showing. The second sentence... eh. "One is reluctant, one is playful" doesn't tell me much. I assume you want to establish their different personalities, so I would like some expansion on that.

The next part giving a brief introduction to their background:
Ariya only loved her family's bakery & archery, until Daphne moves into town. For the past 5 months, unfamiliar dreams have plagued Daphne without explanation and meeting Ariya wasn't in her love horoscope.
This is cute! We can tell that neither of them expected to meet and fall for each other. I'd like something less vague than "unfamiliar dreams" though. What kind of dreams?

Finally, it ends with:
When the truth is revealed about their past Ariya & Daphne must participate in a game, the 12 Labors Of Hercules.

Can they claim victory or will they be torn apart for all eternity?
Now that is rather abrupt. 12 Labors of Hercules sounds really interesting. But... we get nothing on that. We just jumped to this game being name-dropped, and all of a sudden they might be "torn apart for all eternity." That's rather melodramatic isn't it, for two teenage girls that we know thing about. What's at stake? What makes this game so dangerous? There are some details you can elaborate on without spoiling the story itself.

Moving on to the synopsis for Maverick. Like I said, I think this story's synopsis is comparatively better. It starts off with an intriguing intro:
5 Systems.
5 Royal Families.
Greetings, Champion!
That's pretty cool, you immediately can assume it's a LitRPG/system story. And there's possibly a game/tournament (similar to Soulbound?) based on "Greetings, Champion!" Maybe the system itself is talking to us? Or a judge? Generally speaking you'd want to avoid putting numbers in a book, instead switch it to the written version "five." At least... that's what I was taught in English class, but I could be wrong.

This next part that introduces the MC Collin was done well, in my opinion:
17 year-old, Collin Rex is a football player with a heart of gold. But his easygoing life is flipped upside-down when his older siblings fall into a mysterious coma. With no more tricks in their playbook Collin's folks decide to move back to their hometown to help him cope with the emotional shock.
See? This told us about the MC's character much more than the Soulbound synopsis. You get a general description of him as a good guy "heart of gold," has an "easygoing life," and hooks us with the problem "his older siblings fall into a mysterious coma." I'm not sure what "tricks in their playbook" means, though. Were Collin's folks messing with him or something...? If you just meant they had no other ways to solve this coma, you can just say "with no other ideas" or something.

And then the meat of the synopsis:
At his new school he bumps into a girl named Helena and realize they're childhood friends. Soon, Collin begins to remember things and then one day he accidentally obtains something called: The Knight System.

But it wasn't an accident...

9 years ago he was chosen to become a Maverick, a peacemaker between the mortal and supernatural communities.
This is a good hook and ending to the synopsis, I'd say! Seems like he lost his memories somehow, and it turns out he plays a really important role as a Maverick? I like that. Helena, I presume is the succubus girl in the cover, also seems important. Although this suffers from a similar problem as Soulbound, which is being too vague and giving zero elaboration to what should be important: Knight System and Maverick.

Anyways, these are just my thoughts as a passerby. Take everything I say with a grain of salt, as my critical eye is not quite developed. :)
 

Cookiez_N_Potionz

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Hey! I'll give my very amateurish opinion, so you can take it or leave it. :)

First of all, it's obviously an AI cover as you said, and I won't hold that against webnovel authors since not everyone has the time to learn art or money to commission an artist just for a fun hobby (unless you wish to go commercial, then that's where I'd recommend real art). Although, many people do get turned off by an obviously AI cover, so just be aware of that. Sometimes you can't help it. Maybe find a better model or something that gives better results? I'm not familiar with that, so you can do your own research. Many books on SH have pretty AI covers, so you can ask those authors as well.

Now, I'd say I like the cover for Maverick more because it's slightly more dynamic than Soulbound. The one in Soulbound just looks like it came from the story game Episode, and there's not much going on besides two girls standing next to each other. No interesting pose, no context besides their fantasy armors, just... them. The background is cool though. Reminds me of Olympus gods watching two heroes duel in the stadium (stadium? Forgot the term). Other than that, it reminds me of those Flash dressup games I used to play.

With Maverick, you have interesting character designs (love Collin's design—vitiligo is beautiful), and from how they're posed, you can tell they're possibly in a romantic relationship. That's great. The couple in Soulbound has little chemistry. They could've passed as just friends or less. Also, not sure if it was intentional, but both books' character pairs look pretty similar in design haha, at least in hairstyles. Collin and Ariya (I think?), Helena and Daphne(?) look alike respectively. It's cute though!

In terms of synopsis, I honestly still think Maverick does it better, not just because it's longer. Soulbound is just so... vague. It starts with an intriguing quote, then it describes the two girls as:

Star-crossed, to me, usually implies tragedy inbound, or at least lots of hardship preventing them from being together—originated from Romeo and Juliet. That provides an interesting setup, though I find it rather telling than showing. The second sentence... eh. "One is reluctant, one is playful" doesn't tell me much. I assume you want to establish their different personalities, so I would like some expansion on that.

The next part giving a brief introduction to their background:

This is cute! We can tell that neither of them expected to meet and fall for each other. I'd like something less vague than "unfamiliar dreams" though. What kind of dreams?

Finally, it ends with:

Now that is rather abrupt. 12 Labors of Hercules sounds really interesting. But... we get nothing on that. We just jumped to this game being name-dropped, and all of a sudden they might be "torn apart for all eternity." That's rather melodramatic isn't it, for two teenage girls that we know thing about. What's at stake? What makes this game so dangerous? There are some details you can elaborate on without spoiling the story itself.

Moving on to the synopsis for Maverick. Like I said, I think this story's synopsis is comparatively better. It starts off with an intriguing intro:

That's pretty cool, you immediately can assume it's a LitRPG/system story. And there's possibly a game/tournament (similar to Soulbound?) based on "Greetings, Champion!" Maybe the system itself is talking to us? Or a judge? Generally speaking you'd want to avoid putting numbers in a book, instead switch it to the written version "five." At least... that's what I was taught in English class, but I could be wrong.

This next part that introduces the MC Collin was done well, in my opinion:

See? This told us about the MC's character much more than the Soulbound synopsis. You get a general description of him as a good guy "heart of gold," has an "easygoing life," and hooks us with the problem "his older siblings fall into a mysterious coma." I'm not sure what "tricks in their playbook" means, though. Were Collin's folks messing with him or something...? If you just meant they had no other ways to solve this coma, you can just say "with no other ideas" or something.

And then the meat of the synopsis:

This is a good hook and ending to the synopsis, I'd say! Seems like he lost his memories somehow, and it turns out he plays a really important role as a Maverick? I like that. Helena, I presume is the succubus girl in the cover, also seems important. Although this suffers from a similar problem as Soulbound, which is being too vague and giving zero elaboration to what should be important: Knight System and Maverick.

Anyways, these are just my thoughts as a passerby. Take everything I say with a grain of salt, as my critical eye is not quite developed. :)

Thank you, Pangmida ❤️
Personally I'm not a fan of AI art...

I understand.

Hey, isn't your pix from that anime: The Summer Hikaru Died?
 

A-Random-Writer

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Hey could you look at mine? I was thinking about changing it but I haven't decided. The story is linked.

 

autumnsugar

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Yes my pfp is from TSHD! Also I understand drawing is hard and commissions are expensive but like other commentors said AI covers tend to turn readers away, personally when I see and AI cover I automatically assume the writing is also AI, or heavily AI assisted. I always thing human art looks much better and less bland even if it's not very good, but if you decide to just stick with an AI cover in the end that's up to you.
 

A-Random-Writer

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Yes my pfp is from TSHD! Also I understand drawing is hard and commissions are expensive but like other commentors said AI covers tend to turn readers away, personally when I see and AI cover I automatically assume the writing is also AI, or heavily AI assisted. I always thing human art looks much better and less bland even if it's not very good, but if you decide to just stick with an AI cover in the end that's up to you.
So would I be better off keeping it with the AI cover or taking the cover off and it be the base scribble hub cover?
 

autumnsugar

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So would I be better off keeping it with the AI cover or taking the cover off and it be the base scribble hub cover?
I would actually recommend that you find some fair use / copyright free clipart or something and try to design a cover that way, using Canva is a good way to do this. Just be wary that there is some AI stuff on there. That's how I designed the cover for my novel, though I'm planning on replacing it with my own art pretty soon.
 

Eldoria

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AI covers tend to turn readers away
Sorry, I disagree. Your opinion only represents anti-AI readers, not readers in general.

Go to RR and see how many novels labeled as AI-assisted have hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of readers. Also, go to Amazon and see how many AI-generated books are selling.

If you claim your opinion is general to readers, then the phenomenon I mentioned should never have occurred.

Readers generally tend to care more about whether fiction entertains them. Casual readers rarely become authors, and not all readers care about the creative process of writing.

If your fiction lacks engagement, evaluate whether it's entertaining and relatable to readers. Put yourself in the reader's shoes, not the author's, trying to gauge their preferences.
 
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Macha

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If your fiction lacks engagement, evaluate whether it's entertaining and relatable to readers. Put yourself in the reader's shoes, not the author's, trying to gauge their preferences.
Or you can just be patient and wait for the readers to come. Don't expect instant engagement. If you are nobody, your story will be invisible to most readers they won't consider clicking on it before it have like 100 chapters.
 

autumnsugar

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Sorry, I disagree. Your opinion only represents anti-AI readers, not readers in general.

Go to RR and see how many novels labeled as AI-assisted have hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of readers. Also, go to Amazon and see how many AI-generated books are selling.

If you claim your opinion is general to readers, then the phenomenon I mentioned should never have occurred.

Readers generally tend to care more about whether fiction entertains them. Casual readers rarely become authors, and not all readers care about the creative process of writing.

If your fiction lacks engagement, evaluate whether it's entertaining and relatable to readers. Put yourself in the reader's shoes, not the author's, trying to gauge their preferences.
I'm not going to proselytize any further about my stance on AI, like I said OP is free to use an AI cover if they want.

I'm just offering them my opinion as a author and reader since they asked for feedback.

I'll revise my original statement: AI covers can turn some readers away
 
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