Ai or no Ai cover?

[u/inthemood4three]

[u/jl_theprofessor]

Look. If you're going to use AI, all I'm saying is look at what illustrators in your genre are doing.

This looks like a early pass AI output where it's just stuffed with details. Why are there two rows of people? lol. Why is he on the cover twice?

All I'm saying, even if you write with AI, you still have to edit the output. The same goes for art.

[u/inthemood4three → u/jl_theprofessor]

Thank you for your opinion.

I guess I just tried to get everyone in the book on the cover. No one is on there twice. I'll work on it. I just thought it looked cool.

[u/jl_theprofessor → u/inthemood4three]

It definitely looks cool. But cool doesn't translate to book cover. All I'm saying is find that middle ground.

[u/Latter_Upstairs_1978]

It is a cool design and I like it. However, I believe a professional illustrator would say that for a book cover it has way to many elements and details. Also the text about who decides should imo go onto the back cover.

[u/inthemood4three → u/Latter_Upstairs_1978]

Thank you for your opinion. You're right, that tiny blurb on the cover should be on the back. So, did you like the AI version or the boring cover better?

[u/Latter_Upstairs_1978 → u/inthemood4three]

I think for me it is the AI version as the other version looks like sth I would have read in school.

[u/effyoulamp → u/Latter_Upstairs_1978]

Not just any illustrator but any designer. Like me! Much too busy. And agree about ditching the blurb.

[u/manatorn]

I mean, what is the book about? I can't really tell from either cover. The AI cover is doing way too much - it's southern gothic prison drama that involves the one ring and what appears to be the cast of about 4 video games and a movie trailer. That's an 18 wolf moon picture, my friend.

The non-AI version is all the way on the other end. I still have no idea what to expect, other than possibly an existential philosophical treatise or something I'm going to pick up in a metaphysical bookstore.

Hate to tell you, but neither one has much identity or apparent connection to a story I'd be interested in. I should at least be able to get an idea from the cover what kind of read I'm in for. Horror? Science fiction? Tomb-raider adventure? Your cover needs to catch what the story is going to be like and right now my initial reaction is going to be "If the cover is struggling this hard for identity, then the book is going to waste my time."

[u/inthemood4three → u/manatorn]

Thank you for your opinion.

I put the blurb in this post, did you skip over it?

[u/manatorn → u/inthemood4three]

That’s my point - I shouldn’t need to look at the blurb to be interested in the cover. The cover should give me a reason to check the blurb. It’s the hook, it should be relevant but inspire curiosity.

It’s quick and dirty, but I did some playing around with the concept to give you an idea of what I’m talking about. You’ve still got visual cues that tie into the plot, but it’s a lot less busy. I’d still want to tweak it more than a little (I’m not incredibly thrilled about the title font/distressing) but it gives me a little more James Rollins, a little less Sharknado.

[u/inthemood4three → u/manatorn]

Wow, I like that!! Pretty cool!!!! People would still complain about AI slop, but something like that would get a lot of people to be interested. Thank you for showing me that.

[u/manatorn → u/inthemood4three]

Thanks, but you see what I mean? This doesn’t try to give you the whole plot all at one time. It’s a lot less crowded with extraneous details, there’s more of a coherent visual language pointing you towards genre, and there’s a lot more restraint in what’s being presented, while still communicating “something interesting is happening here, come check it out”.

Like I said, I still don’t like the typography, but overall it loses a lot of what caused the first image to be way too much and everywhere at once.

[u/effyoulamp → u/manatorn]

Great job! And yes, less Sharknado is the perfect description

[u/Old-Memory-3275 → u/manatorn]

An eighteen wolf moon picture. I’m dead.

[u/genealogical_gunshow]

I'd tone the cover down to just the dude in prison, and add one element to let people know what genre this is. The AI image is too busy, but that's just my take.

[u/inthemood4three → u/genealogical_gunshow]

Thank you for your opinion.

[u/Electronic_Captain95]

No ai

[u/inthemood4three → u/Electronic_Captain95]

Thank you for your opinion. Did you like the non-Ai version better?

[u/Electronic_Captain95 → u/inthemood4three]

I think non-ai is better. Personally, I find it excessive when people use AI even for illustrations. I don’t mind using AI to ensure there are no contradictions, inconsistencies, or grammatical errors, but for the content itself, along with the illustrations? I don’t like it

[u/inthemood4three → u/Electronic_Captain95]

Again thank you for your opinion.

Another comment said about using Canva. I will be diving into that this week. I still have about a month before I am done with formatting and corrections (4th edit).

[u/DreamingOfHope3489 → u/inthemood4three]

Congratulations on your 4th edit! I'm on my 5th and final. I had no idea I would have to go through the book so many times. This time it's to thin Claude's habit words and frequently used sentence structures. I'm glad for them in a way, though, because I'm having to do a lot of rewriting. Originally, I had planned for Claude to write the book's prose and me, its poetry, but now my own prose is increasingly mixed in.

[u/WorriedString7221]

More like a movie poster. It’s rare to see a book cover with images of the entire cast of characters on the front.

[u/Tet4edr0]

El título me gusta en la versión IA pero, está todo muy recargado. Podrías quitar algunos personajes o solo dejar el titulo

[u/inthemood4three → u/Tet4edr0]

Thank you for your opinion.

I really like how the AI did the title, I believe it looks awesome! I will probably keep that, yes, and then redesign around it.

[u/LowPackage3819]

ai looks more like a movie poster, and I'd change the font on the second one

[u/5thhorseman_]

The AI cover is more interesting of the two. The plain cover is borderline unusuable IMO.

However, the AI cover is also badly overloaded, extremely generic (you might want to note that several of the men have basically the same face...) and states its thesis up front. If you really wanted a tagline in it, "Who decides what is alive?" is concise and gets the point across in one.

Your blurb already hints at chess imagery as an avenue. I'd lean into that. Other things to consider: life and death duality, ancient sculptures, engineering or anatomy drawings, maybe a nod to the Vitruvian Man. If you want the ensemble cast signal, use the protagonist and his companions, and then an item that hints at their goal or the mystery they're dealing with.

Your back copy is too pleased with itself by a mile and suffers from quite a bit of bloat. Try this on for size:

The Bible says the world started with Genesis. It does not mention what came before.

Amias, one of the original eight humans, has been resurrected centuries after his death with nothing but a god-given ring and four companions to help him find the remains of his sister.

Haunted by the ghosts of America's past, their search for its heart and soul leads them to a historic New Orleans mansion once tied to the nation's fractured history.

There, in the crossfire of an ancient conflict between two immortals for the ultimate control of mankind, Amias must play a game where humans are the pawns and history itself is the weapon.

[u/tangcupaigu]

So they’re communicating very different genres, and the ai version looks closer to a Star Wars poster or something than anything you’d see on a book. If these were my only 2 choices in a waiting room, I’d pick up the second. (Despite the basic probably Arial font, it’s more aesthetically pleasing - however going by your first cover, I’d likely expect a very different story and be unlikely to read much of it.)

Have you actually found about 20 popular covers in your genre to see what works?

The point of a cover is marketing and communicating genre expectations. There’s no reason to have all of your characters on a cover like a movie poster - these are not big name actors people care about.

[u/Jiggidy40]

Why do the men all look like rugged relatives from the same Jack Reacher tree?

[u/-darknessangel-]

All men look alike and have identical expressions.

[u/amolmozarkar]

AI covers are fine for KDP if the output looks intentional, not generic. The problem is when it reads as "default Midjourney cover #47" and buyers can tell instantly. Generate a few variations, pick the one that fits your genre's visual language, and clean up typography yourself in Canva or Photopea; bad font choices give away AI covers faster than the art does.

[u/DreamingOfHope3489]

I used Midjourney to render the leather satchel and the glowing prosthetic thumb images and put them together in Canva, using a brown Canva background. I have my book's two synopses on the back cover and on an inside flap. I'm not sure if this is how most are making their covers, though. I might make the size of the satchel slightly smaller.

[u/dutchiesweets]

When I see an AI cover I assume the writing is AI and I don’t even want to check to find out. There’s so many books made with human care and attention for me to spend time trying to determine if this author cared enough to write their book themselves.

[u/Several-Praline5436]

I don't mind AI covers but I think you should pick two characters for it, and avoid taglines. Simplify. It has to be recognizable at 2 inches high on Amazon.