Possible Book Covers - The Case of the Jade Dragon

While I have been working on writing "The Case of the Jade Dragon", I have also been active in two other areas. The first has been developing a following and an interest in the Jonas Watcher Detective series. There have been a lot of false starts and some that show promise and I will share in future posts. The second area of activity has been in developing a professional looking book cover. I have four possible options and I am looking for feedback.  Readers and writers are the best people to provide the kind of help I am looking for, so please share you thoughts.

I am using the CreateSpace book cover creator and providing my own images.

The first cover has an image I manipulated after purchasing the rights to use it. The author description is light for the moment and I will add to it later. The image is an artist's view of a street scene of China town in San Francisco. When you click on the image it should enlarge to give you a better view. this is "Cover 1". The blurb on the back is open to criticism. Also whatever biographical  information you think might be of interest would also be of help.





This is "Cover 2" - which has a film noir black and white image That I did some adaption to. I added fog and colored in the light. When you use CreateSpace you are limited in options of font and style. I am showing a single style choice, although there are a considerable number of options available. Commenting on my choice of style is also open to discussion. If you have used CreateSpace, by all means share.





"Cover 3" is a collage of different posters, so while it may be familiar, I have made it my own. While I do have a couple of favorites, I do need to hear  your thoughts. I chose the color because of  the book title, but I am very open to thoughts about my choices.








In "Cover 4" I wish I could have moved the title down and I would have liked to have included the phrase on the back cover on the front somehow. Well here are the four covers and after I publish I will give four of you signed copies of the third book in the Jonas Watcher series, "The Case of the Jade Dragon". You can now see the first three chapters of the book on my Goodreads Blog. You might take a look to see if you have a better thought for the image I should use. I am open to other suggestions.



Here is another cover. I read some of the responses and I found another cover style that might fit better than these. Please comment.

Gene Poschman

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Easy Part is Over

Image
The first five lessons of the Writers Master Class by James Patterson are pretty basic, except that you get his insight which is pretty valuable. If you have ever taken a writing class then these will be familiar to you. Rather than list the lessons for you I will simply provide the link to the Master Class Lessons 6 and 7 are about outlining and James Patterson provides his outline to "Honeymoon". One may argue that if you see one outline, you have seen them all, but one must remember this man has made a lot of money writing, so he may have some material worth studying. The Outline is fascinating, but more to the point is the outline development. His key mantra here is "tell the story". So here I sit looking at a book I am pretty much familiar with, the one I am writing, not his. I have a sort of outline, but after seeing the one he has for "Honeymoon" I can see that if I take the time to develop a really good outline then the book will be better.
Read more

When is an Outline Not an Outline?

Image
When it is a novel. And when is a novel not a novel? When it is an outline. We were all taught how to outline. You started with roman numerals, and subheadings were capital letters and the next subheading... Enough already, outlining is about telling a story. For me it is writing fiction, though it used to be about documentation. I need to tell a story, not build a structure. I write a chapter heading, I don't care for chapter numbers, but you do what makes it work for you. Then you tell a story. Jonas Watcher: The Case of the Jade Dragon. An Incident at Union Station Jonas sees a Chinese couple attacked outside the Train. He Grabs hi colt and exits his cabin for the corridor. He meets the conductor in the corridor who reminds him he needs to be back on the train in half an hour. He exits the train. No one to be seen. Jason searches and finds the couple and three attackers. (Be There) The last item, "Be There" in parenthesis is  from the "Writer
Read more

At A Book Signing

Image
It was my first book signing as an independent writer. In other words, there were no other writers there, just me. I had visions of a room filled with people holding sparkling conversations, drinking Champagne, and lining up to buy my book. It was right out of Castle or Murder She Wrote. The problem was it was noon on a Saturday in Hayward California. It was the Book Shop in Hayward on "B" Street, (give your local supportive bookstore a plug) and who the hell has heard of Gene Poschman. Let's face it I am not James Patterson or Stephen King. There was no line out the door of waiting fans to get the next book in the Jonas Watcher series. Carl, the Bookstore owner, set up a table for me prominently located so that each and every patron could see that I was there on display. "See the Local Author" should have been displayed above my head with some reference to feeding or not feeding me. I may recommend that to Carl the next time I go for a book signing. Yes, th
Read more