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US Cover Art For “Nights of Villjamur”

Here we go. I think this is good to go. (Found here first.) I can no longer look at covers without thinking things like “How will this look as a thumbnail on Amazon?” and “Will it catch my eye from the corner of the bookstore?” and so on. Thoughts?

Screen shot 2009-12-19 at 09.20.25

Keyword related posts:

  1. “Nights of Villjamur” UK Paperback Cover
  2. Two Reviews of “Nights of Villjamur”
  3. Nights of Villjamur
18
Dec 2009
AUTHOR Mark Newton
CATEGORY

my books

COMMENTS 12 Comments
  • Simon

    Blackadder series 1 opening credits . . .

    Sorry, Mark doesn’t do it for me.

    Doesn’t, feathery snowflake thingies in sky notwithstanding, say fantasy to me (which may be the point).

    That said, the bold geometric shapes and the colour contrast will make it stand out on the shelves and in thumbnail

  • http://blog.markcnewton.com Mark C Newton

    Didn’t you know this was based on Blackadder? ;)

    I think – think – they wanted to nudge this towards potential mainstream readers. But yeah, I think you’re right about colour and shape. Tough to tell where this sits in with the US market, too. Any US readers have any comparison covers?

  • http://www.petervbrett.com Peter V. Brett

    I bet that guy’s feet are REALLY cold.

    My feet are cold just looking at him.

  • Graham

    I really like it! A good compromise between distant snowy hardback visage and the need for glossy QP photorealistic commercialism. Also imagining the poor chap trudging through snow past eternally repeating turrets! “Snow, turrets, more turrets, FML” and so forth. The symbol behind the words is nicely done, and it has a pleasingly bright false-sunny-ness late morning gonna get bitch cold soon feel. Not to mention a good mix of light and dark to contrast adjacent paperbacks of either shade, thus fitting nicely on table 1 side 1!

  • http://blog.markcnewton.com Mark C Newton

    Hey, Peter – yeah, he probably wants in on that city, too, which won’t help his mood.

    Graham! Glad you like it. With those words, I wish I had you working in the marketing department!

  • Sam Beaven

    It’s okay, but it doesn’t scream ‘dying earth’ to me in the same way the uk covers do. Still, there’s a sense of isolation which fits the book well. And cold. Very much cold.

  • Chris Reason

    My initial thoughts were along the current seasonal lines of ‘Good King Wenceslas’, could the figure be a poor man gathering winter fuel? Although evoking a cold wintery feeling the jacket image doesn’t really do justice to what’s inside the book.

  • http://www.nextread.co.uk gav (nextread.co.uk)

    The more I think about it the more I like the concept behind it. The snow is a big part of the story.

    I’m always concerned about seeing a single chracter on a multi-character book but that’s not the point is it. Readers just have to pick it up and think that it’s something they want to read.

    And I’d hope it does that and it looks mostly like contents – outsider comes tot the walls of Fortress City of Villjamur through the snow and chaos ensues.

  • http://blog.markcnewton.com Mark C Newton

    Hey Chris – ha, yeah, I can see that. I guess there’s that element of Christmas in the design. I wonder how people will react to that in the summer months?

    Gav – I guess this is at least a character cover which doesn’t annoy people. :) Yeah, the concept is good – you can see what they’re doing, and I suspect it works (for me at least) in that it’s striking. Once they’ve picked the book up, it’s up to the writing to convince them…

  • http://darkwolfsfantasyreviews.blogspot.com Mihai (Dark Wolf)

    I don’t know if is because the first edition of the novel is the one I read or because the UK hardcover catches the best my image of Villjamur, snow covered city, multilayered and with a dark atmosphere, but I have to admit that one works perfectly for me. This one has an atmosphere that is too light and relaxed. Of course, as I said before I relate to the cover from the perspective of a novel I already read, so I am very subjective.

  • http://enjai-pearson.livejournal.com/ Neil P

    Is it me, or is this a panned out shot from the uk paperback cover?

  • http://writerdevon.blogspot.com Trey

    I’m from the US. I’ve read a lot about this book, and I eagerly await its publication on this side of the ocean.

    I personally quite like the cover. It’s got a castle, so I know I’m reading fantasy, but it really stands out from all the dark, “bloke-in-a-cloak” covers pervading the market these days. It promises something unique, which I hear from the reviews is true. All in all, it works, although in different ways from a typical fantasy cover.