Is my cover holding me back?

[Jianzheng1w]

I'm writing a character centric dystopian hard scifi.

I currently use a black/gray/drab anime character cover that I feel fits well, but I was told that dystopian hard scifi won't be taken seriously if it has anime in the cover. Photorealism or abstract symbology only.

Since I can't do photorealism well, abstract symbology is it. But then that implies "concept centric info dump" which is not what I'm going for. Or if I do spacecraft, astronomical objects, etc then that implies tech centrism.

Any ideas?

 

[Little-Moon]

It would probably help tremendously if you post a image of your cover to be able to give an opinion or any kind of proper feedback.
There are certain anime styles that get taken seriously in the sci-fi genre...in general but it's not the Standart.

 

[Author_Riceball]

I'm writing a character centric dystopian hard scifi.

I currently use a black/gray/drab anime character cover that I feel fits well, but I was told that dystopian hard scifi won't be taken seriously if it has anime in the cover. Photorealism or abstract symbology only.

Since I can't do photorealism well, abstract symbology is it. But then that implies "concept centric info dump" which is not what I'm going for. Or if I do spacecraft, astronomical objects, etc then that implies tech centrism.

Any ideas?

Post your cover

 

[Hush25]

I'm writing a character centric dystopian hard scifi.
Photorealism or abstract symbology only.

Since I can't do photorealism well, abstract symbology is it. But then that implies "concept centric info dump" which is not what I'm going for. Or if I do spacecraft, astronomical objects, etc then that implies tech centrism.

Any ideas?

I did a quick search of dystopian covers for scifi and pulled from my own collection of dystopian fiction. Covers vary from symbolism to drawings and everything in between. I think the trouble is that however apropos you think your cover is, it might need more colour to make it stand out. Here are some examples...

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Nudes or it didn't happen

 

[empalgepuk]

Post the actual cover first. Please upload that to imgur and provide link.

 

[Golden_Hyde]

but I was told that dystopian hard scifi won't be taken seriously if it has anime in the cover.

who told you that?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I'm writing a character centric dystopian hard scifi.

I currently use a black/gray/drab anime character cover that I feel fits well, but I was told that dystopian hard scifi won't be taken seriously if it has anime in the cover. Photorealism or abstract symbology only.

I suspect this varies between online communities. May be more true at, say, SpaceBattles or Royal Road than here - and some sites like Honeyfeed would probably prefer the anime style.

Since I can't do photorealism well, abstract symbology is it. But then that implies "concept centric info dump" which is not what I'm going for. Or if I do spacecraft, astronomical objects, etc then that implies tech centrism.

Any ideas?

I would do a search for "Copyright Free Art" with a specific theme, collect a few images that felt "right," combine them, and call it a day.
For an example, that's how I did the cover for
True Blue | Scribble Hub
(though I also did a quick search of pulp novels and found that there were three types of covers for the "hard boiled detective" stories - one showing a sexy woman in "scandalous" (for the era) clothing and either imperiled or holding a gun on someone, a headshot of a character who is probably the MC, or a collection of items (gun, noose, candlestick... like we don't have a Clue already?)...

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

I reccomend using AI for book covers.

Just generate one that fits

And not just slapping random AI generated image for book cover, but find AI that specifically generate book cover.

If youre a successful author, using AI can garner controversies.

But you're just strating out and in desperate need for cover so that you can get quick interest as fast as possible.

AI is good for those kind of short term benefits.

These covers are miles better than no cover.
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For example, I'm using one with the prompt :
"Chinese men with red chinese traditional garb looking into the sky. Chinese traditional Buildings behind. Book title is Providence of Immortal"

The prompt isn't based on any real story. I'm just making shit up with the character, outfit, and buildings.

After a few tries, I got this :

Link : https://icoloring.ai/book-cover-generator

You get 10 tries with that site. Enough to nail down temporary cover so that you wont lose put against the stories with worse/no cover.

I use the 3:4 ratio with the style "Digital illustration".

The default one is "Cartoon", which is kinda not fitting for me because it produces results like these :

 

[Sylver]

I'm writing a character centric dystopian hard scifi.

I currently use a black/gray/drab anime character cover that I feel fits well, but I was told that dystopian hard scifi won't be taken seriously if it has anime in the cover. Photorealism or abstract symbology only.

Since I can't do photorealism well, abstract symbology is it. But then that implies "concept centric info dump" which is not what I'm going for. Or if I do spacecraft, astronomical objects, etc then that implies tech centrism.

Any ideas?

No I don't think it is.

Covers are important for sure but not the dictating force behind gaining views and readers. One of last night's trending novels for example has no cover art, just the default template, yet it has way more favorites and readers then my story does. I would guess over 1000 readers and if memory serves me well, over 2000 favorites/hearts.

Now to be fair, it was a litrpg with the Girls Love tag lol. So the tags and of course the content of the story contributes as well.