Other world languages and cover neon lights

Calliea

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Um, the topic is probably confusing :D Apologies.

Question is rather simple though. I'm designing the cover for my fantasy novel, it's set in a different world so obviously they don't speak English there. On the cover there's a neon light above a shop. It says something. Question is - do I write it in English or some gibberish signs?

On one hand it could be a 'translation' like all of the actual text. On the other it's a visual representation so it could be literal 'snapshot' of how it looks like there.

I don't think there's wrong or right here, no, but I'd like to know which option is simply better :)

Thanks!
 

Dryad

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I find the non-English--in fact, non-Earth language lettering--visual much more of an interesting idea for an eye-catching cover.
 

benbenberi

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Either non-Earth lettering, or something more graphic (like a picture or symbol representing the business - a shoe for a shoestore, a steaming cup for a café, a graphic logo of some sort, etc.)

If the language not being English is not explicitly established in your story (if, for instance, the subject of language never actually comes up), you're probably safe with English-language signage. A reader who can infer from it being fantasy-land that they're speaking fantasy-language can also translate the cover pic, and a reader who doesn't notice won't care.
 

Jacob_Wallace

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Only use alien writing if you have an actual system. Don't just draw random squiggles or type random letters.
 

Brightdreamer

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I second the suggestion for a symbol/design. Otherwise, I think you're overthinking it a bit; don't invent a written language just so you have something to fiddle with on the cover when most readers won't care if it's written in English. (Remember, most of the people who see your cover have not read your book yet. Do you want them to be confused, or enticed? Gibberish, even neon gibberish, might turn me off, unless the lettering was aesthetically appealing or evocative - elegant alien swoops and angles, or gritty and oppressive hard edges to set the tone, all of which can be done in English with a good font choice.)

In other words, K. I. S. S.

JMHO...
 

Once!

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I'm not sure about this one. I would need to see the actual cover, but if I think of shops with neon signs I am getting a lot of signals to tell me I'm still on Earth. I don't immediately think alien planet or sci fi.

What's more - for me at least, a shop with a neon sign is mostly American. And I'm thinking hotel or diner. Probably in the fifties or sixties.

And I'm still not thinking alien planet.

On a different tack, technology like the internet and 3D printers may mean that we don't have shops for much longer. So would an alien race have shops? Maybe. Maybe not.

A less primitive species than homo sapiens may have shops, but probably not neon signs. A more advanced species may not have shops, and they may consider neon signs to be a clumsy piece of tech.

I'm back to fifties diner again.
 

Roxxsmom

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I remember seeing this approach used the cover of at least a couple of SF books that were set in alien star systems. The cover showed the protagonist (an alien) outside what looks like the airlock of a ship, and there's something that looks like alien writing on the wall behind her.

Kind of a cool touch.
 

LAgrunion

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If I see a book cover with signs in English or any Earth language I recognize, I'm going to assume the novel is about a world that is ours.

If it's a gibberish, alien looking language, I'll assume it's a fantasy or alien world. I think a gibberish language would look pretty cool on the cover. It'd make your book stand out.
 

Calliea

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Ye, it's not sci-fi, it's fantasy, not happening on Earth. My main concern with gibberish is that it kinda says nothing, while writing whatever thing in English using the latin alphabet can actually tell something to whomever looks at the cover (nothing important obviously, I mean more like show how the city looks like, or give a name that will then reappear in the novel for a mental image, only flavor stuff).

I'm asking, because I personally prefer English, but I also see faults in this approach - exactly what people here said. It's not happening on Earth, and I don't want to mislead people into thinking that :)

It kinda reminds me of the Sims :D (mostly cause I've been playing it last week). They have this sim-language and when I look at a shop with the sim-name printed on it, I can't read it and I don't know what shop it is until the game interface tells me :p It's both immersion, and lack of it. And I don't get the t-shirt jokes. I was surprised when years ago I played TES:Oblivion (medievalesque fantasy setting, totally different world), and there were shop plaques with English names of the shops, other than that completely stylized. Every game before never had writing and only showed names via the interface.

But now I'm rambling, so I'm gonna go now :D
 

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Ye, it's not sci-fi, it's fantasy, not happening on Earth. My main concern with gibberish is that it kinda says nothing, while writing whatever thing in English using the latin alphabet can actually tell something to whomever looks at the cover (nothing important obviously, I mean more like show how the city looks like, or give a name that will then reappear in the novel for a mental image, only flavor stuff).

I'm asking, because I personally prefer English, but I also see faults in this approach - exactly what people here said. It's not happening on Earth, and I don't want to mislead people into thinking that :)

It kinda reminds me of the Sims :D (mostly cause I've been playing it last week). They have this sim-language and when I look at a shop with the sim-name printed on it, I can't read it and I don't know what shop it is until the game interface tells me :p It's both immersion, and lack of it. And I don't get the t-shirt jokes. I was surprised when years ago I played TES:Oblivion (medievalesque fantasy setting, totally different world), and there were shop plaques with English names of the shops, other than that completely stylized. Every game before never had writing and only showed names via the interface.

But now I'm rambling, so I'm gonna go now :D

Well, TES:Morrowind had banners and such written in dædric(that particular one reading Tel Mora), which was cool.

Personally, I think you should go with the squiggles. Squiggles are cool, why else to people get tattoos that allegedly say "love" in Chinese?
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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One thing -- if you make up an alien alphabet, don't make it too visually complex. The idea of a technological species still using something at the level of hieroglyphs is just something I've always found jarring.
 

Calliea

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One thing -- if you make up an alien alphabet, don't make it too visually complex. The idea of a technological species still using something at the level of hieroglyphs is just something I've always found jarring.

Again, it's not sci-fi, so I'm safe on that front :)
 

NRoach

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Again, it's not sci-fi, so I'm safe on that front :)

Well, maybe not. Pre-industrial societies having particularly complicated writing systems doesn't make all that much sense either, look at Vietnam. One of the main reasons they adopted the Latin alphabet instead of keeping the Chinese not-really-an-alphabet (and honestly, it was probably more their using the Chinese language) was that it was just so damn hard to get the peasants literate.

Off topic, but the more you know...