Spotting Blacks and unused Cover

Another cover rough design that was promptly put aside by the director, as it didn't have all the elements requested. I'm not a great designer, being self-taught, but I thought this one was better designed than the current version I am working on, especially the placement of black in the design. There is a whole art to putting black to where it will work the best,(called "spotting blacks" in the comic book trade) as described in this blog post:

Spotting Blacks part One

I'm still discovering how much I don't know about art.

By the way, this font is Machiavelli and it's not good for something that has to be reduced to 2 inches by one inch, it was just handy for placemarking.