Book Cover Questions

I write literary/upmarket fiction of guilt, grace, and redemption.

Title: And Grace Will Lead Me Home

The story pitch: What if protecting your future meant exposing your darkest secret? A high school valedictorian set for success carries a secret that will sabotage his dreams unless he admits the truth.

I recently requested Covers 100 and later Get Covers (for a second option) to do covers.

COVERS 100

I bought a promo with Covers 100 for $50. Here’s the first rendition:

The title looked too frilly. The image looked busy and didn’t look like west-central Illinois with mountains. The river looked more like a lake. Some of it looks photographic and parts look painted. Overall, it looks too much like Inspirational fiction.

After going back and forth (which they have been very accommodating), here is the latest version)

The tile is better but the town on the left looks more European and than the midwest. The guy looks superimposed.

Now they are suggesting AI.

This sample they sent is much better and matching what I was thinking, but the members of an FB group where I look for target readers are vocally against all use of AI. I also eventually lost one subscriber after I used AI to make promotional videos. I don’t know how my other subscribers feel about AI art.

Overall, I’ve been disappointed with the stock-photo-compilation approach to covers. The samples they show on their website are much nicer (I don’t know how long it took them to get those results).

So I thought I’d try another company at the same time.

GET COVERS

I bought the electronic and print package for $35.

Here is their first attempt.

It’s more cohesive as a whole. It still is not west-central Illinois. And the river is a bit narrow for the Mississippi River. And the silhouette also feels superimposed but not as jarring as in Covers 100. I sort of like the impressionistic approach.

Would a Sans Serif font work better here? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Here’s the back-cover copy if the print is too small to read in the image above and if that helps making suggestions:

In 1979, eighteen-year-old Jonah Weston is ready to leave Nod, Illinois. the Mississippi River town he has always called home He's the class valedictorian. Georgetown University Is waiting. And until recently, his relationship with Lisa seems to be going somewhere.

For the first time, Jonah sees a future beyond the river.

Eight years earlier, a childhood game of Truth or Consequence ended with

"Backwards" Betsy Covey drowning in the Mississippi. Jonah and his friend.

Mark Winston, lied about what happened-and their lie sent an innocent man to prison.

Now the past is coming back.

Betsy's parents, divorced since her death, are suddenly sitting together in church. Graduation is scheduled at the very park where Betsy drowned. And Ernie, the man Jonah helped send to prison, has returned to town.

Jonah expects bitterness Instead, Ernie offers compassion.

Then a jealous classmate discovers fragments of the truth, aiming to throw Jonah off balance emotionally and grab the class honor for himself.

As graduation draws closer, Jonah's carefully constructed life begins to unravel. His friendship with Mark is deteriorating. His relationship with Lisa is slipping away. And the secret he’s carried since childhood is becoming impossible to hide.

Soon Jonah will have to decide what matters more: the future he has planned—or the truth he's spent eight years running from.

Sometimes coming home means facing the place where everything went wrong.

And sometimes grace is waiting there.

Any thoughts or suggestions?