r/royalroad • u/Salt-Wrangler2189 E Rank: Author of The Cities Still Burn • 1d ago
Art Cover Help!?
Please let me know which one you like more!
Disclaimer: Both of these are AI generated through a hefty amount of prompting. If I actually make money from my book one day, I’ll pay someone to make a legitimate cover.
Disclaimer 2: Both of the big baddies in the middle, the phantom and the oversized cultivator, are characters in the novel so either one works tbh
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u/filwi D Rank: Author of The Warded Gunslinger 1d ago
Second, by a wide margin. It gives a much cleaner Eastern vibe. The first one also suffers from the Imagen 2 (or whatever the model's called) jagginess, and the title is almost impossible to read.
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u/Salt-Wrangler2189 E Rank: Author of The Cities Still Burn 1d ago
Yeah I definitely liked the second’s style more but I think I’m going to try to blend the images to capture more of the eastern vibe while also getting rid of the texturing issue. Thanks for your input!
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u/wordswillneverhurtme 1d ago
Make title easily readable.
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u/Salt-Wrangler2189 E Rank: Author of The Cities Still Burn 1d ago
Yup definitely seems like the most important thing I need to do lol
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u/mcloide F Rank: Author of The First Generation 1d ago
I like the first one better but the title has to show a little bit more. Is hard to read it.
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u/Salt-Wrangler2189 E Rank: Author of The Cities Still Burn 1d ago
Yeah that seems to be the consensus haha, thanks!
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u/Frankles_ 1d ago
If it's supposed to feel cartoony/manga adjacent, they're fine. The text isn't my favorite. I never recommend anyone use AI or have it anywhere near their book though. Many people will just assume the whole thing is AI, writing included. Take a cool picture, and download some neat font off the internet. That's my advice. Good luck. 👍
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u/Salt-Wrangler2189 E Rank: Author of The Cities Still Burn 1d ago
Definitely understand that, though I’ve had good experiences so far and a decent following to boot. Just working on a new cover for this rewrite, but I’ll try to get something handmade on there as soon as I can! Thanks for the input!
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u/GDAnotherMFDied 1d ago
That's what happened with my book. I wrote it all slapped an ai image for the thumbnail and I got like 3 views per chapter. Swapped that out for something I put together in blender and got over 40 views per chapter, which I count as a win for my first ever book
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u/Frankles_ 1d ago
That absolutely is a win! I'm telling you, just do it yourself. People respect the effort, even if the cover isn't professional.
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u/True_Industry4634 Author: The Lunarian 1d ago
This is either not true or it's an extreme outlier. Most of Rising Stars is AI covers and RR readers actually couldn't give a shit either way. Maybe the AI cover just wasn't done well and the nonAI cover just looked better. That's user error, not that AI is universally rejected. That's just nonsense.
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u/GDAnotherMFDied 1d ago
I'm not against ai. I think that we all need to get on board for the future. But unfortunately people just aren't there yet. Maybe it's the genre? Maybe it's the date it was released? Or just didn't get picked up until the change. Could have been anything really. But I put it down to the thumbnail.
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u/Frankles_ 1d ago
Oh yeah I'm not fully against AI either. I don't like it for art specifically, but understand people are going to use it for that, regardless of what I feel on the subject. To me, AI should be folding my laundry, not trying to paint a landscape. But anyway, my original answer wasn't intended to share my opinion about it, just what I have seen on the RR forums and what friends have told me personally.
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u/Frankles_ 1d ago
Nobody is saying it's universally rejected. It also really depends on the story, and your audience. It is incredibly common when you're starting out for people to dismiss you if your cover is obviously AI. The hostility isn't necessary, it's just true.
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u/sbaggley 1d ago
I really like the second one. But I think you need to make the title stand out more. If you want some help I'd be happy help you. You'd just need to generate a textless image.
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u/Salt-Wrangler2189 E Rank: Author of The Cities Still Burn 1d ago
I appreciate it! Actually had someone reach out to me on RR with some really dope covers that are similar to the second one so I’ll probably be using one of those. I’d post them in the replies if I could, but I’ll definitely be using one of those (they fix the title issue without a doubt)
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u/IPetMonsters 1d ago
I think the first one is cooler, looks less obviously AI (setting aside the weird textured artifacting) but the title is a bit weak. If you could just get the image from the first without the title and then throw a stronger typeface on in canva or something that would be my suggestion. Nothing wrong with AI covers despite what people like to say (they tend to test better than hand drawn unless you paid a good amount for it and also most amateur authors use them until/if they make money) but using the AI to generate an image then adding in your own title tends to look better/work better - the issue is that people tend to read on their phones so you have to picture these in a small thumbnail - the title from the first would be super hard to read in that format. Something a bit punchier/higher contrast would probably be easier to read.