Here’s an excerpt:
“The Jack of Souls is a tribute to the Trickster, an exhilarating and funny and larger-than-life paean to the ones who might not be the strongest or bravest, but can out-think, outlast, or outplay their musclebound foes. It’s a lightning-paced roller coaster world built of humor, bravery, brains, and excellent writing. The villains are unequivocally evil. The heroes are flawed, hexed, unlucky, or just plain old. And sometimes they smell really bad.”
Read the full REVIEW AND INTERVIEW here.
Barb Taub is author of the Null City series. Click here to read her recent India travel log.
Since I may be looking to create covers for my own epic fantasy novels, I am curious what sort of cover the top sellers use, and which my friends prefer. To make the choice easy and define the conversation, I’ve identified four main categories in top-selling fantasy novels:
1: The Definitive Character Close-up
2: The Open-ended Character Silhouette / Back View 
3: Otherworldly Landscape w/ Optional Foreground Figure
4: The Fantasy Icon
And below I’ve assembled a collection of thumbnails for each category. (Most of these I gleaned from Amazon’s top 30 epic fantasies — the ones with the “Look Inside” graphic. Those without the graphic are from B & N and Kobo.)
1 – DEFINITIVE CHARACTER SHOT (single figure, close-up to medium shot)
PROS & CONS
+ clear, definitive view of character
+ simple and uncluttered (good for thumbnail)
+ can include action and dramatic hooks
– leaves little of character’s appearance to imagination
– defines race*
*I suspect covers that don’t define the race of the main character–that leave race ambiguous–may appeal to a wider readership.
2) OPEN-ENDED CHARACTER SILHOUETTE OR BACK VIEW (medium shot)
PROS & CONS
+ some setting, fairly simple, high contrast good for thumbnail
+ leaves character appearance and race to imagination
+ can have action and dramatic hooks
– absence of face / fewer details of appearance may provide fewer emotional hooks
3) OTHERWORLDLY LANDSCAPE (long shot, optional lonely figure(s) in foreground)
PROS & CONS
+ inspires dreams of fantasy setting, defines nothing of character appearance
– provides no emotional hook via characters, action or drama
4) ICON COVER (thematic emblem only )
PROS & CONS
+ defines nothing of character appearance or even setting — the true black box cover
– provides no emotional hook via characters, action, drama, or setting
HAVE THOUGHTS ON THIS?
Leave a comment below! : )
