Thoughts on my story cover and title?

[WasatchWind]

Basically, I just want some thoughts on my story's cover and title. I know that this is one of the biggest things that determines if people read my story. I am not in a position at the current time to make a more professional cover, and I am not requesting a cover.

Personally, I like the simplicity of the cover, though I'm unsure how I feel about the title.

Story Synopsis:
For more than eighty years, two groups have been locked in a stalemate war. There is the industrial country of Hablin, skirting the coast of the Aliya sea, built up in places where large tidal plains do not reach. On the other side of the conflict is the merfolk - a fractured sea, once a great empire, but now mere city states, warring with themselves as much as the humans.

In the thick of this conflict, a boy named Irian is a scale farmer. He takes captured merfolk and removes their colorful scales for use in jewelry, and other items for the nation's elite. Like other citizens of his country, he has little compassion for the "gills" who fight against them. His work supports not only his family, but also what he considers a thriving social life.

Then one day, his fellow apprentice scale farmer, Tarn, buckles under the guilt of his occupation. And in a single instant, Irian's life changes forever.

 

[CadmarLegend]

Basically, I just want some thoughts on my story's cover and title. I know that this is one of the biggest things that determines if people read my story. I am not in a position at the current time to make a more professional cover, and I am not requesting a cover.

Personally, I like the simplicity of the cover, though I'm unsure how I feel about the title.

View attachment 6904
Story Synopsis:
In the nation of Havla, merfolk are imprisoned, and their scales removed to make fine jewelry. Victims of a larger war between the country and merfolk in the nearby Aliya sea, these merfolk suffer in confined pools, sometimes for years.

A young scale farmer named Irian works one of these farms with his fellow apprentice Tarn. Irian enjoys his high paying job, but Tarn has doubts. When Tarn decides to take action, it will change Irian's life forever.

The title is simple. Pretty good. The cover, too.

But, "Rip Current" just looks a lot like "R.I.P. Current"....

 

[Deleted member 45782]

*works on
Cover kinda looks blurry but nice. Maybe title not too big - like shrink it just a bit so it doesn't look like its taking up the whole center area of the cover.

 

[CadmarLegend]

*works on
Cover kinda looks blurry but nice. Maybe title not too big - like shrink it just a bit so it doesn't look like its taking up the whole center area of the cover.

Or put it like

Rip
` Current

Also, a Author's name is needed.

 

[WasatchWind]

*works on
Cover kinda looks blurry but nice. Maybe title not too big - like shrink it just a bit so it doesn't look like its taking up the whole center area of the cover.

More the advice I'm looking for is if I should change the title and cover to something else. Maybe I'm placing too much stock in this and need to work more on my synopsis.

 

[CadmarLegend]

More the advice I'm looking for is if I should change the title and cover to something else. Maybe I'm placing too much stock in this and need to work more on my synopsis.

The synopsis is pretty good. Lures the reader in. (before destroying them). But yeah, as I said,

Or put it like

Rip
` Current

Also, a Author's name is needed.

Do this.

 

[Deleted member 45782]

Your synopsis is nice. Title well, you can try see if something more fantasy like then perhaps? But don't jumble it all onto one like what @CadmarLegend says.

Cover looks nice too.

 

[WasatchWind]

The synopsis is pretty good. Lures the reader in. (before destroying them). But yeah, as I said,

Do this.

I'm not putting my name in, will that really affect someone's choice to read it?

Your synopsis is nice. Title well, you can try see if something more fantasy like then perhaps? But don't jumble it all onto one like what @CadmarLegend says.

Cover looks nice too.

Basically I'm just mad that my story isn't doing better and I'm trying to pin it on something. Is updating once a week to slow? Do I need to advertise how often I update?

 

[Deleted member 45782]

I'm not putting my name in, will that really affect someone's choice to read it?

Maybe. Not sure. But I would do it to make it look more nicer and more like a book cover anyways.

Basically I'm just mad that my story isn't doing better and I'm trying to pin it on something. Is updating once a week to slow? Do I need to advertise how often I update?

That I'm not sure. You might wanna seek out the other threads on here talking about what time is best to post and stuff. The other thing is your story is unique in that its not isekai, smut, etc. so it may take some time before you see a divergence of those tropes to story archetypes like yours.

But this is just i speculate on forum from other comments. I don't read much nowadays, not even on SH.

 

[Hathnuz]

I'm not putting my name in, will that really affect someone's choice to read it?

Basically I'm just mad that my story isn't doing better and I'm trying to pin it on something. Is updating once a week to slow? Do I need to advertise how often I update?

Here's my analysis:

1. Your title isn't that interesting, unfortunately. Doesn't have to be eye-catching, but...
2. Your synopsis suffers the same problem. It is a proper one for sure, but it screams your average hero's journey stories which aren't popular here. Telling your world's history right off the bat also isn't a good idea in webnovel format.
3. You only have 3 chapters currently. Most people prefer many chapters, so they can binge read it. There are exceptions, of course, but only because they nailed those two points above and one other important element.

I could be wrong here, so take my analysis with a grain of salt. Your cover is ok since it doesn't matter anyway. Also, I don't think tags affect the potential readers that much though they could help with your story's visibility.

And yes, updating once per week is too slow. 2-7 times per week is the recommended range imo.

 

[WasatchWind]

Here's my analysis:

1. Your title isn't that interesting, unfortunately. Doesn't have to be eye-catching, but...
2. Your synopsis suffers the same problem. It is a proper one for sure, but it screams your average hero's journey stories which aren't popular here. Telling your world's history right off the bat also isn't a good idea in webnovel format.
3. You only have 3 chapters currently. Most people prefer many chapters, so they can binge read it. There are exceptions, of course, but only because they nailed those two points above and one other important element.

I could be wrong here, so take my analysis with a grain of salt. Your cover is ok since it doesn't matter anyway. Also, I don't think tags affect the potential readers that much though they could help with your story's visibility.

And yes, updating once per week is too slow. 2-7 times per week is the recommended range imo.

Do you have any suggestions on my title and synopsis to make it better? And do you think that it would be better to upload more chapters now and go on a hiatus, or to maintain the slow update schedule so that I have more time to write new chapters? (I have seventeen chapters).

 

[Ai-chan]

Basically, I just want some thoughts on my story's cover and title. I know that this is one of the biggest things that determines if people read my story. I am not in a position at the current time to make a more professional cover, and I am not requesting a cover.

Personally, I like the simplicity of the cover, though I'm unsure how I feel about the title.

View attachment 6904
Story Synopsis:
In the nation of Havla, merfolk are imprisoned, and their scales removed to make fine jewelry. Victims of a larger war between the country and merfolk in the nearby Aliya sea, these merfolk suffer in confined pools, sometimes for years.

A young scale farmer named Irian works one of these farms with his fellow apprentice Tarn. Irian enjoys his high paying job, but Tarn has doubts. When Tarn decides to take action, it will change Irian's life forever.

Ai-chan doesn't want to sound... like... rude... but... is that it? Ai-chan means for the cover.

Ai-chan knows this is going to sound rude especially since others already said it looks nice, but Ai-chan is shaking Ai-chan's head right now.

Here are the problems:
1. The image is so low definition, it looks like you screenshotted someone else's work and slap your title on it. Ai-chan doesn't care that you take someone else's image and use it without credit, but this is so low definition, you could've just grabbed something better off google. Now, Ai-chan is aware that this image could be royalty-free image, but if you want to make it this big, you gotta have higher definition.
2. The single title. Ai-chan frankly has no idea how to say this in a way that wouldn't offend you. But this is extremely lazy work. Not only is there only that single title, it is off-center.
3. No author name. Sure, there are some other authors on this site without author name on the cover, but those work, this does not. Half of your image is empty space, and this empty space is very blurry. If you have added your author name on the lower part, the cover wouldn't look this sad and lonely.

Ai-chan thinks the biggest problem with the cover is the fact that you're emphasizing the wrong thing. By putting only that one title, you mean to emphasize that title, but there is nothing special about that title. There is no special font or style that makes it stand out or make people think, "Woah! This dude must've spent a long time making the title!" Since the title is nothing special, what else to look at? Of course, the image. But the image is blurry. So what's the point?

Ai-chan has never cried looking at someone's self-made cover, but Ai-chan is crying now. And since Ai-chan cried so much, Ai-chan decided to do something about it.

Use any of it if you want. If you don't want to use it, that's fine too. Ai-chan is just doing this so that Ai-chan will stop crying.

This was the image used for the background. It is royalty-free and free from attribution. Yes, the arm was photoshopped in.

 

[Reisinling]

Basically, I just want some thoughts on my story's cover and title. I know that this is one of the biggest things that determines if people read my story. I am not in a position at the current time to make a more professional cover, and I am not requesting a cover.

Personally, I like the simplicity of the cover, though I'm unsure how I feel about the title.


Story Synopsis:
In the nation of Havla, merfolk are imprisoned, and their scales removed to make fine jewelry. Victims of a larger war between the country and merfolk in the nearby Aliya sea, these merfolk suffer in confined pools, sometimes for years.

A young scale farmer named Irian works one of these farms with his fellow apprentice Tarn. Irian enjoys his high paying job, but Tarn has doubts. When Tarn decides to take action, it will change Irian's life forever.

It seems that nice background + text covers do badly on this site. Personally, even if it doesn't completly fit.. i would suggest getting a waifulabs cover with mermaid girl or something. Seriously. Also, it's pixelated.

If you never did this type of stuff before, I suggest downloading inkscape. Those 3 tutorials should cover all you need to know
How to center stuff:

How to export to png:

Text and font:

If you insist on photos, I would suggest for example this one:

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

Woman by ocean sunset – Download this photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

unsplash.com

(unsplash photos are free to use in general)
or this one

Photo by Nsey Benajah on Unsplash

woh are you – Download this photo by Nsey Benajah on Unsplash

unsplash.com

Just crop the photo to be filled with a pretty lady/lady silhouette.

Also, the second paragraph is bad, it's as if an AI wrote it. Maybe go with something lighter, like a sentence about meeting between MC and some nice mermaid (if that's the type of story), and then try twisting it? So irian saw a beautiful mermaid for the first time... pity he had to tear off their scales.

 

[WasatchWind]

It seems that nice background + text covers do badly on this site. Personally, even if it doesn't completly fit.. i would suggest getting a waifulabs cover with mermaid girl or something. Seriously. Also, it's pixelated.

If you never did this type of stuff before, I suggest downloading inkscape. Those 3 tutorials should cover all you need to know
How to center stuff:

How to export to png:

Text and font:

If you insist on photos, I would suggest for example this one:

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

Woman by ocean sunset – Download this photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

unsplash.com

(unsplash photos are free to use in general)
or this one

Photo by Nsey Benajah on Unsplash

woh are you – Download this photo by Nsey Benajah on Unsplash

unsplash.com

Just crop the photo to be filled with a pretty lady/lady silhouette.

Also, the second paragraph is bad, it's as if an AI wrote it. Maybe go with something lighter, like a sentence about meeting between MC and some nice mermaid (if that's the type of story), and then try twisting it? So irian saw a beautiful mermaid for the first time... pity he had to tear off their scales.

No, it isn't a romance - it's high fantasy.

I don't know what people want in my cover, but I'm not plastering some scantily clad anime girl because that's what people want.

Not only do I consider that disingenuous, it is not what my story is. It is western fantasy, no isekai, no harems, no smut.

Ai-chan doesn't want to sound... like... rude... but... is that it? Ai-chan means for the cover.

Ai-chan knows this is going to sound rude especially since others already said it looks nice, but Ai-chan is shaking Ai-chan's head right now.

Here are the problems:
1. The image is so low definition, it looks like you screenshotted someone else's work and slap your title on it. Ai-chan doesn't care that you take someone else's image and use it without credit, but this is so low definition, you could've just grabbed something better off google. Now, Ai-chan is aware that this image could be royalty-free image, but if you want to make it this big, you gotta have higher definition.
2. The single title. Ai-chan frankly has no idea how to say this in a way that wouldn't offend you. But this is extremely lazy work. Not only is there only that single title, it is off-center.
3. No author name. Sure, there are some other authors on this site without author name on the cover, but those work, this does not. Half of your image is empty space, and this empty space is very blurry. If you have added your author name on the lower part, the cover wouldn't look this sad and lonely.

Ai-chan thinks the biggest problem with the cover is the fact that you're emphasizing the wrong thing. By putting only that one title, you mean to emphasize that title, but there is nothing special about that title. There is no special font or style that makes it stand out or make people think, "Woah! This dude must've spent a long time making the title!" Since the title is nothing special, what else to look at? Of course, the image. But the image is blurry. So what's the point?

Ai-chan has never cried looking at someone's self-made cover, but Ai-chan is crying now. And since Ai-chan cried so much, Ai-chan decided to do something about it.

Use any of it if you want. If you don't want to use it, that's fine too. Ai-chan is just doing this so that Ai-chan will stop crying.

This was the image used for the background. It is royalty-free and free from attribution. Yes, the arm was photoshopped in.

I appreciate your advice - I'm sorry to say that this kind of cover isn't exactly what I'm interested in for my cover. If I ever am able to get this story published traditionally, I intend to have the cover be of an underwater scene with one of the characters.

As for now though, any stock picture I can find of merfolk look far too fake, or make it seem like a dark fantasy or horror story - it is not that.

I don't know what to change the title to. I'm going to have consult with some of my readers.


My synopsis I wrote up there is very bad, I'll have to post my actual synopsis here.

For more than eighty years, two groups have been locked in a stalemate war. There is the industrial country of Hablin, skirting the coast of the Aliya sea, built up in places where large tidal plains do not reach. On the other side of the conflict is the merfolk - a fractured sea, once a great empire, but now mere city states, warring with themselves as much as the humans.
In the thick of this conflict, a boy named Irian is a scale farmer. He takes captured merfolk and removes their colorful scales for use in jewelry, and other items for the nation's elite. Like other citizens of his country, he has little compassion for the "gills" who fight against them. His work supports not only his family, but also what he considers a thriving social life.
Then one day, his fellow apprentice scale farmer, Tarn, buckles under the guilt of his occupation. And in a single instant, Irian's life changes forever.

 

[Hathnuz]

About your title, in my opinion, it should describe the essence or a word/phrase that is unique to the story. Something like:

• Life as a Merfolk Skinner turned Hero
• Legend of Merfolk Farmer
• Ripping off Merfolk's scales for living until they caught me red-handed! Now I must become their hero!? (My first tryhard attempt at light novel titles lol)

Those are just examples, and I completely understand if you find them bad. Maybe you can use other words other than Merfolk. About your synopsis, well here goes nothing:

Irian is your ordinary guy who does ordinary job: skins merfolk scales and sell them for living. One day, he and his fellow apprentice, Tarn, were caught under the conflict between Humans versus Merfolk and got kidnapped by the enemy! Will they survive the encounter? Follow their journey to become the most unhoped hero for the humanity.

I hope I understand your story correctly (I'm just guessing based on your tags). It's a little bit spoilery, but I think it's necessary since you need to tell your premise to the audience. You don't have to use my synopsis above, thou I hope you get my point.

And do you think that it would be better to upload more chapters now and go on a hiatus, or to maintain the slow update schedule so that I have more time to write new chapters? (I have seventeen chapters).

The latter is better, in my experience.

 

[WasatchWind]

About your title, in my opinion, it should describe the essence or a word/phrase that is unique to the story. Something like:

• Life as a Merfolk Skinner turned Hero
• Legend of Merfolk Farmer
• Ripping off Merfolk's scales for living until they caught me red-handed! Now I must become their hero!? (My first tryhard attempt at light novel titles lol)

Those are just examples, and I completely understand if you find them bad. Maybe you can use other words other than Merfolk. About your synopsis, well here goes nothing:


I hope I understand your story correctly (I'm just guessing based on your tags). It's a little bit spoilery, but I think it's necessary since you need to tell your premise to the audience. You don't have to use my synopsis above, thou I hope you get my point.


The latter is better, in my experience.

I'll be honest... I really, really dislike those kinds of titles. They feel extremely lazy and uncreative to me, and I see them on tons of stories here. They describe exactly what the story is, and I feel like that's kind of boring.

I've been talking in a discord with some other fantasy writers, and I've just come to a bitter conclusion. No one on online writing sites is interesting in reading traditional fantasy. They want anime inspired, litrpg, genderbending, harems, power fantasy, and all of that. They do not want attempts at real novels.

It is becoming clear to me that I should divert my attention from trying to become successful on these sites, to actually finishing my draft, getting it edited and critiqued by more thorough readers, and working on getting it traditionally published, as these sites clearly don't offer much in the way of monetary support, and amazon is a bust.

 

[Hathnuz]

I'll be honest... I really, really dislike those kinds of titles. They feel extremely lazy and uncreative to me, and I see them on tons of stories here. They describe exactly what the story is, and I feel like that's kind of boring.

I've been talking in a discord with some other fantasy writers, and I've just come to a bitter conclusion. No one on online writing sites is interesting in reading traditional fantasy. They want anime inspired, litrpg, genderbending, harems, power fantasy, and all of that. They do not want attempts at real novels.

It is becoming clear to me that I should divert my attention from trying to become successful on these sites, to actually finishing my draft, getting it edited and critiqued by more thorough readers, and working on getting it traditionally published, as these sites clearly don't offer much in the way of monetary support, and amazon is a bust.

Well, those genres you mentioned are technically real novels too. They're just very appealing to webnovel readers. Maybe if people wanted to read trad fantasy, they could just browse kindle or go to bookstore.

So, you've decided to cling onto your value. I get that. Just don't blame the audience for not reading your story. That's all for me I guess. Welp, I guess an hour thinking those titles and synopsis have gone to waste.

 

[Deleted member 45782]

I think your title is okay actually. (Maybe it differs cause webnovels people might likely just look at title to find what they want to read instead of something that is more mysterious).

However your cover is a bit blurry. I have a few ocean pictures if you want. Not sure if it'll fit your cover though.
Add the author's title. Make it look nicer.

Usually I would put my name below the title or somewhere on the page (i did not include it in this image though)

 

[TheTrinary]

Yeah. The dangerous sounding name doesn't quite jive with the tropical looking beach.

I think the title is fine. Just use Ai's

 

[Deleted member 45782]

I'll be honest... I really, really dislike those kinds of titles. They feel extremely lazy and uncreative to me, and I see them on tons of stories here. They describe exactly what the story is, and I feel like that's kind of boring.

I've been talking in a discord with some other fantasy writers, and I've just come to a bitter conclusion. No one on online writing sites is interesting in reading traditional fantasy. They want anime inspired, litrpg, genderbending, harems, power fantasy, and all of that. They do not want attempts at real novels.

It is becoming clear to me that I should divert my attention from trying to become successful on these sites, to actually finishing my draft, getting it edited and critiqued by more thorough readers, and working on getting it traditionally published, as these sites clearly don't offer much in the way of monetary support, and amazon is a bust.

Well, those genres you mentioned are technically real novels too. They're just very appealing to webnovel readers. Maybe if people wanted to read trad fantasy, they could just browse kindle or go to bookstore.

So, you've decided to cling onto your value. I get that. Just don't blame the audience for not reading your story. That's all for me I guess. Welp, I guess an hour thinking those titles and synopsis have gone to waste.

I think it just a matter of personal taste. Hathnuz says its because that's how you'll reach webnovel readers specifically on this site.

Ofc, that may not mean everyone's particular taste is like that nor is it for every author but props to them for tryin to come up with titles for you. I think your title is good. Its good for a fantasy theme and it doesn't tell the whole story plot in one title. Part of the charm of reading a story is to find out more about what the story is about. Its just your title is too big font size and its all in one line so its better to put it on two separate lines.

Sir, here you go. Ik this site is not for everyone, and personally some story ideas i have may not fit here. But never know until try it out and finish it. I would suggest finish the story first and put it on a writing platform if you want reader feedback. Here is a site that gives you critique: https://www.scribophile.com/ Also, I heard people who do want to write stories and then later publish them...they may have some trouble with that because publishers don't want their already published stories somewhere on the internet, they want something not published before although you can push to see if they do take it. Ofc, this is just what I heard about others.

Good luck with your writing. Its probably unintentional, but just fyi, you may've come off a bit curt to those who are trying to help when you kinda of lash out at the platform you're trying to build yourself up on. But then again, you taste may differ from that of others here. You can try to make a full break at it before stopping midway or search up for some places. I think RR, though heard lot bad, also heard its very into fantasy stuff and the expect you to be expert writers so maybe they might have some critique for you there? I'm not sure.

But whatever it is, good luck with your writings WasatchWind. :)