How to Make Vampires and Bears Look Far More British

It is STILL TOO HOT!  I don’t approve!  Bleyech.  On the plus side, at least I don’t live in 1963, because from what I can tell from watching Mad Men, that would be horrible.  Well, maybe the fashions would be fun, but otherwise: oppressive and dreadful!  (For instance, poor Sal!)  Much more fun to watch from a distance instead.  🙂

Have I told you all about my vampire romantic comedy/murder mystery that’s coming out next month?  I am SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS BOOK that I can’t even handle it, so I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say about it as the pub date approaches.  But for now, I wanted to share something exciting with you — the British cover!

Yup, it’s getting published in the UK (hooray!) and they’re putting a whole different cover on it.  Here’s the American cover:

Isn’t that fascinating?  They’re so totally different…I think one of them looks more scary and the other looks more romantic, but as for which represents the book better, you’ll have to read it and decide for yourself! 

This happens pretty often, actually; in addition to changing spelling (i.e., adding the letter "u" to a bunch of words), British publishers also figure that British readers have different visual preferences from American readers (or possibly they just didn’t like the first cover, and are too polite to say so).  ;-) 

Those of you who’ve seen my slide show presentation have heard me talk about this before, particularly regarding my first novel, This Must Be Love:

The one on the left is the US cover; the one on the right is the UK cover.  I think it’s interesting because the US version seems to be focusing on the Shakespearean aspect more, whereas the UK one wants to make sure you know it’s set in a modern-day high school.  But I think they’re both adorable!

And for our final exhibit — the US Seekers covers versus the British Seekers covers!:

What do you think?  Unlike the first two examples, these both seem thematically very similar to me.  But the British versions are somehow sparklier (although they have no actual special effects — like foil or anything — on the covers), and the bears look more like cubs on the UK books, I think.  Then again, the American Seekers look matches the Warriors design, so Erin Hunter fans can tell that they’re related from across the store.

Interestingly, when Warriors was first picked up to be published in the UK, they changed the cover of the first book to this:

And then later to this, which is closer to the US version, but with some significant changes:

Is it weird to say that does actually look more British to me?  :-)  It also looks younger than the US cover, though, and considering how dark these books get, I’m not sure that’s the right choice.  But as far as I can tell from my extensive research at Amazon UK, they’re now using the same covers as the US for all the Warriors series from The New Prophecy on.  Who knows why, but isn’t that curious?  

Oh, and of course there are the different US vs. UK covers for the Harry Potter books.  With those I can tell you I prefer the UK versions (at least from book 3 on), although that’s partly because the books themselves are a smaller size, so they’re easier to carry around and the smaller font doesn’t make you feel like you’re flying through the book too fast to appreciate it.  (Hey, I’m a book person, I’m allowed to have weird stubborn opinions!)  😉

The moral of the story for me, anyway, is that I’m glad I’m not a cover designer…I don’t have any visual skills at all!  I can tell you what I like and don’t like (I LOVE the covers of The Hunger Games, Meg Cabot’s books, and The Luxe, for instance), but that’s about the extent of my abilities.   

All right, I’d better go to sleep so I can be all creative and productive tomorrow (or so I can be ready for shiny new seasons of Top Chef and Project Runway starting this week!…er, which is a lot like being creative and productive…).  ;-)  Stay cool!  September will be here soon…and then we can all complain about how much we miss the summer.  :-) 

Quote of the Day:  "Little Red Ridinghood was my first love.  I felt that if I could have married Little Red Ridinghood, I should have known perfect bliss."  — Charles Dickens