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Laura R. Hepworth's avatar

An interesting read! I think a lot of indieauthors don't realize the importance of conventions and just think 'it's my book, I'll do the cover how I want to' and then they wonder why their book isn't selling well. Bucking conventions and even cover trends is fine, but to do it well you still need to be informed by them and not simply ignoring them. It's a 'know the rules to break the rules' scenario. Subversion of 'rules' is a huge part of art and design, but it requires an exceptional level of understanding of those 'rules' in order to pull it off.

On the topic of the interior design, I specifically chose Affinity Publisher for doing my last book's typesetting and design so that I could play in the weeds! I wanted to get fancier with my interior design than the programs that most indies use are able to do and so picked what was the closest comparable to the industry standard I could find. (I have issues with Adobe, so didn't want to commit to InDesign if there was a good way around it).

I do wish KDP wouldn't print that KDP barcode on the interior page though! Alas, I don't think that will ever change as I'm sure there's a reason for it. It just annoys me to see it.

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Shane Bzdok's avatar

I was finally able to get to this piece. Solid crit, Nathaniel. It's definitely a good-looking cover, and I can't get enough of the scuffs, scratches, and pen marks. The quote mark thing, though...it's a big peeve of mine so it really stands out to me. But it's also a very common mistake. Very small ding on a great cover.

Fun read overall. Keep putting this stuff out there. These crits provide a lot of learnings for anyone looking to self-publish.

And thank you for the Midnight Vault cover callout. Appreciate the mention and the kind words, friend.

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