Devil in the Wind – cover choices

/ Frank Prem

Well, it didn’t take long.

The folk who are designing the cover for Devil in the Wind have provided me with two options that are now my shortlist.  See the spiel below.

Devil in the Wind – Cover selection

The next poetry collection to be put into book format (around May 2019) consists of poems that capture the voices of the Black Saturday bushfires that Victoria experienced ten years ago, as I heard them.

We are commemorating the anniversary of those terrible days right now, as I write.

Savage wildfires are, sadly, becoming a feature of too many countries around the world. In Victoria, already a decade later, I believe we are still experiencing a form of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The poetry collection that I have in the works as my own commemoration of Black Saturday is to be called Devil in the Wind, and I am at the stage in its development where I have two principal cover designs – pictures and words – that need to be considered and sorted.

I would be grateful for your assistance. Comments on the images, and the the text and the layout will all be appreciated. I’m interested in your thoughts on what might be the most effective representation to put before the public.

Are you interested in being an early reader/reviewer for Devil in the Wind?

I’m planning to make available some free e-book copies of the collection as Advanced Reading Copies (ARCs).

There’s no obligation, but my hope is that readers will be prepared to let me know what they think and will consider leaving an honest online review of the book at Amazon or Goodreads.

My thank you will be randomly select two ARC readers to receive an inscribed copy of the paperback.

Thanks for your help.

Cover option #1

Cover option #2

45 thoughts on “Devil in the Wind – cover choices”

  1. Frank I went and looked at both covers but couldn’t find where to make a comment about preference. I like the first one (the one at the top) with the dark edge at the top and bottom. You already have me on the list to do an early read I think? If not, please put me on the list 🙂

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  2. I can’t comment on that page either, Frank. I like both covers. The first gives a sense of the scale, and the black at the bottom at the bottom hints at the desolation left after the fire as well framing the words nicely. But the second gives a feel for what it was like to be in the centre of that hell. Having said that I have a slight preference for the first.

    Just a minor query. Do you need the second lot of text after the title? Could you just have the words:
    Black Saturday …

    I’m not sure that the fires need to be placed in a geographical context on the cover. That could be done on the back cover. Australians will know immediately the reference to Black Saturday. International readers may be put off if they know upfront that the book is about an Australian firestorm event. But they may be intrigued enough about the non-specific Black Saturday to want to read the blurb on the back, and then willing to read the book/poems.

    Anyway, those are just my thoughts. Cheers. Tracy.

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  3. Hard choice Frank! My choice though is the first one. KB

    On Fri, Feb 8, 2019 at 12:36 PM Frank Prem Poetry wrote:

    > Frank Prem posted: “Well, it didn’t take long. The folk who are designing > the cover for Devil in the Wind have provided me with two options that are > now my shortlist. If you’d like to take a look and offer comments, please > visit them here.” >

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  5. I vote for the first one; it gives a broader picture of the devastation, plus I like the dark top. The writing stands out more against it. The second cover gives a person no idea of the area affected, though the words do.

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  9. I like the dark one, but that’s because when you’re in the middle of a fire, the top and bottom of the world feels very black with smoke and fear, and the second one is too close, way too close for comfort.

    The dark one also shows up the characters with more clarity.

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  10. I’d swap the words around, I think the words of the second book suit the first picture better. The image is wider, shows more and goes with the words. However I’m not convinced those are exactly the right words. Kind of like all the right words are there but they need something else.

    I like the image of the second one but think the “wind” is better represented in the first because you can see the fire path and almost follow what it’s doing. (I can almost see it moving, although maybe I’ve seen too many Black Saturday videos.)

    If you want help fault finding the issue with the other site give me a yell over the weekend I’ll see if I can help.

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    • Brilliant. The #1 image came about following your last lot of comments on the early drat, so you’re right in this cover game!

      I’d love to have a yack about what’s going on at the other site. It’s behaving really badly – has from day dot, so I probably set it up poorly to begin with.

      I’ll give you a hoy when I get a chance and we can play tag a bit, perhaps.

      I hate having a flawed page. Undermines my confidence.

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      • Glad I helped, it was interesting seeing the first drafts and how they changed.

        These sites can be unforgiving with only a simple error. With a bit of luck it’s something simple and traceable, there is often a few breadcrumbs left to trace somewhere is the error codes.

        No worries, non working webpages bug me too, I’m sure I’ve spent more time over the years bug searching than I have building. I don’t think I’m doing much this weekend except catching up on sleep so send me an email with whatever you think will help.

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  11. I like them both but I think the second conveys the feeling of total terror. I love the line ‘ when the emptiness started to roar’ . I can well imagine individuals and communities can never recover fully from such an event.l

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    • Janet, that was the kind of thing a lot of the survivors spoke of. That roaring and the raw power of the event.

      One poem speaks of trees being corkscrewed out of the ground by the force of what was passing through.

      Thanks for your comments. I’ve got them.

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  13. I do prefer the second one. I agree it feels closer, and therefor more urgent, more frightening. That said, I’d like it more if the wording wasn’t offset to the left. I think it’s better centralised, although I realise this is probably to balance the tree on the right. Even so, I think it might be better in the centre.

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  17. Hi Frank, I love the first one. It’s such a strong cover image with better contrast for the text and image colours. I like both blurbs, I’m maybe leaning toward the second one a tiny bit more because I love the ‘whole world burning’ (well, of course I don’t love that, I wish it didn’t, but you get what I mean, it’s very strong imagery). But as I said, my preference there is slight, so either would still be effective. I think this book is going to be an amazing success Frank and it looks GORGEOUS!

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    • 🙂 You’ve brightened my day, Charmaine. I so hope this one comes out right, for such a lot of reasons.

      Anyway, will have 2 in hand when I get up to the Retreat this time. I said last year I’d only come back if I could show some real progress.

      LMAO at me!

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