So how about this? It’s the final proof cover for my upcoming new release Dead Heat. I think it captures the tone and the setting quite well. It is primarily a horror with a massive dose of humour thrown in including pop culture references and satire on the zombie genre.
I’ve also written a blurb so tell me what you think. Is it enticing? Does it make you want to buy it?
Corporate team building days can be fun and when three friends: Jim, Mike and Tony are told this year’s event would be the Dead Heat zombie race, where they would be chased by aspiring actors of mixed talent pretending to be zombies, they thought it would be a laugh and worth it for a day out of the office.But this day off soon turns sour as nobody – not even the organisers – realise that real zombies have gate-crashed the party and it’s not the after-event barbecue and free beer they’re after.Unable to tell the difference between the hammy acting of amateur thesps and real rotting corpses looking to snack on human flesh after hundreds of years of slumber, the three friends must escape the island and definitely, definitely not end up killing any actors on the way.You’ll laugh at the pop culture references, you’ll scream “it’s a real zombie, you idiot!” and you’ll be on the edge of your seat as middle management executives really wish they’d never left the cubicle.
I’ve put myself under pressure now to get it finished, edited and uploaded by early March. If anybody with a Good Reads or Amazon account fancies reviewing and rating it, .
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Cover looks great mate and the blurb is good too, looking forward to reading it 🙂
Thanks Tom! Hopefully after this is out of the way I can move back to the Romans vs Aliens and come up with a decent title for it.
Based on the Blurb you can sign me up for reviews etc…
But I have to say I’m not a huge fan of the cover for the following (they’re just niggles) reasons:
1) It’s too bright and busy (especially the zombie numbers which are very flat and all horizontal rather than looking pinned to each zombies).
2) The zombies are front lit, but the moon is behind them and their Shadows extend forwards – screams bad Photoshop composition
3) everything is in focus which makes it look very flat, the background (and rearmost zombies) should be deemphasised by blurring.
4) the slashed H in heat looks too much like a K for my dyslexia to parse properly.
5) the slashes to the banner are just wrong, the banner couldn’t actually hang like that…
I know these are just niggles and most people would never notice and this is why I can’t use artists and have to do covers myself, but I thought I should share… 🙂
Thanks for your feedback, CJ. I can’t draw a straight line myself, and this cost me only a small fee on odesk. I may play with filters before uploading so it isn’t so “loud”, so thanks for your feedback!
If you have the psd/gimp file I could take a pass at it if you like… I’m in graphic mode at the moment making covers for each story so I could easily slot it in…
That’ll be most kind, thank you. He’s sent me a JPG but I will ask if he has either a PSD or GIMP file.
Really? Hmm, that’s not very good…
It also makes me think I should start freelance cover designing… 🙂
He has a PSD file which he will send me and will forward on. I’ll let you know in the email how much I paid and whether that will be worth you doing it 🙂
I will also send you an email review copy
Love the blurb! Book sounds hilarious 🙂
Thanks! I think the blurb has captured the tone quite nicely. I even laugh at my own jokes reading it back though so I’m hoping it appeals to others.