Dystopia Land discussion

Today I received the draft cover design for A Perilous Journey, book three of my The Invisible College trilogy.

The background theme is consistent with books one and two: They Do Things Differently Here and Dust and Shadows.

The differences are in the predominant colour and the front cover insert. I expected my publisher to chooses a red theme to hint at the drama to come with the conclusion of the trilogy, but the choice of the crimson exceeded my expectations and is quite different from anything else on the shelves.

I believe the front cover insert works well too, with a combination of a Breughel engraving and a small section from a John Martin painting, both of which bear relevance to the storyline. The colouring of the engraving is striking too. Placed together, the trilogy will look amazingly attractive and eye-catching, on both bookshop and readers' shelves.

I am delighted with the design and hope my readers will be too.

What do you think? I'd love to hear.

Hi,

it's quite colorful but looking at the bigger version of the picture I like the detail and I think it actually works well. I think for you it would be good to see it printed out as then designs look quite different, but I think it is loud and bold and surprisingly not over the top.
The font face could have been more consistent but they are similar enough and not something most people would notice, but you should keep them the same over the whole series.
I have when fonts and designs are changed midseries

Thanks for your comment Ellie. I am impressed that you took the trouble to compare the cover with those of the first two books in the trilogy.
I think that, given that the titles of books two and three are shorter than that of book one it makes sense to make the best use of the space to allow the title to stand out more on bookshop shelves.
One of the good things about working with a small independent publisher is that I have had significant input to the cover design. I may run a giveaway later in the year, offering a prize for correct identification of the three images used in the design.
Thank you for your interest and positive feedback.

I like the color and agree it will pop on the shelves, while the color is much different I think the design is still the essentially very similar.

You are welcome :)