COVERING UP........
I mentioned earlier that I thought the Swedish cover of Den Roden Vargen was far superior to the UK cover with a JP blurb that was more likely to put off some readers. Liza Marklund has not been given the publicity in the UK the quality of her books deserve. Paradise was published in paperback here for some reason with a cover depicting a snowy New York street scene.
Could they not find a photo of Stockholm with snow?
I then had a look at the books of the Dutch crime writer Esther Verhoef, and found the UK covers were very different from those published in the Netherlands.
Do publishers believe that British women, who of course make up the vast majority of crime fiction readers, won't buy a book with a woman portrayed on the cover?
posted by Uriah Robinson at 2:18 AM
5 Comments:
i agree the UK covers are vastly inferior in both cases, whereas the "home country" covers are actually enticing. I hope you enjoy Close Up, it's a bit "different" from our usual fare....
Norman - Isn't it interesting how publishers make those decisions about what covers are likely to sell.. And sometimes, they're so wrong! They do that in the U.S., too. At times I've read books in spite of the covers, not because of them...
Thanks Maxine and Margot.
I have a follow up post on this subject coming up later. It seems someone at Quercus may have agreed with me.
I hadn't realised how inappropriate the Paradise cover was! Prime Time is not much better - the action takes place at Midsummer but the cover shows a washed out Nordic landscape, even though it is set in a real castle, Yxtaholm Slott (http://www.yxtaholmsslott.se/) and the TV show at the centre of the plot just might have set creative jiuices flowing if the designer had actually read the book.
I didn't like "Close-Up," as I hate reading anything from the sociopath/murderer's mind. I had to skip those parts.
I don't mind a woman being on the cover of a book as long as she isn't being tied up, tortured or murdered in a gory fashion. Those covers keep me away from books.
And I agree that with many other books, I read them in spite of the covers.
I just like good fonts, designs and colors.
Sweden in the snow would be a fine cover, especially with some trees around.
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