Ep. 165: Genre & Minimalist Covers

Here are two covers of two of my novels which may or may not be good. However, your project here is to determine if you like both, one, or neither and why. The first thing I noticed was the dimensions are not exact. Books need to be taller than they are wide and both appear to be too wide.

Here is something to consider. The purple V on The Year Without Days refers to the book being the fifth book in a pentology. The horizontal purple Roman 1 (one) on Botchan’s Bartender implies that it is the first book in the same pentology.

The little red dot is a reference to the fact that both books are part of my Japan Pentology: five books all some how related to Japan. Either the characters are Japanese (as in Botchan’s Bartender where all the characters are Japanese) or the location is in Japan (such as book two: The Nuns of Nañao. The characters in that book are Russians, mostly, but it takes place in the Soviet Union, the US, and Japan (Yokohama, mostly.)

Then there’s the added Japanese in Botchan’s Bartender which, translated, means The Murder of Botchan, or Botchan’s Murder. There are at least two murders in the novel and perhaps Botchan - a Japanese term now meaning a little spoiled rich kid or a kid who is trying to look grown up - a junior high school kid in a suit, for example. Originally it was from Natsume Soseki’s novel Botchan. 

The point of the red dot from the Japanese flag and the Japanese on some of the novels including Giapan - ジパン is to show that the books are part of that Japan Pentology. Hopefully they might be easier to market. If I could figure out the genre. Later, I’ll give you all a synopsis and you can clue me into to the synposis. Although Botchan’s Bartender is part mystery/detective.

I also see that I need a black border to separate the whiteness of the book cover from the whiteness of the page. Or maybe a darker cover - off-white paper? But the point is to keep it as minimal as possible.

We shall see.