Echoing most everyone else about preferring the final covers. A lot of the alternate versions feel very "self-published," especially The Refugee Ocean. For me,

Echoing most everyone else about preferring the final covers. A lot of the alternate versions feel very "self-published," especially The Refugee Ocean. For me, a lot of the unused designs have some issues with scale and balance in the context of a book cover. When sitting on an endcap or on a display table in the airport, the imagery should support the copy in its starring role. Even the iconic Twilight covers, which had strong images, had a very distinct text treatment for the title that helped brand the book series.