Yes, the art of book design in the United States has come a long long way in the last ten years, with a few designers, like Chip Kidd, and a handful of comic book artists, attaining something of a cult status. But check out the striking difference between the English version of Howard Jacobson’s No More Mr. Nice Guy, and the American version.
Here’s what American readers are getting come September:
Snooze.
And here, ladies and gentlemen, is what U.K. readers were given in 1998:
Now you're talking!
Granted, naked noseless women are far more attention-grabbing than a business man prostrate on a rococo queen-size bed, so tuckered out from making money (or making his money make money) that, to quote Capote, it was “as if sleep were a weapon that had struck him from behind.”
But content aside, there is an obvious and often disparity in artistry, here.
What do you think? Is this about the Brits just being better? Or is this about willingness to take risks? Have you come across wildly different covers for different editions of books you love?
Hell yes! Book covers in the UK and Europe are generally better designed than here in the States. I had to redo a book cover to WHY NEW YORKERS SMOKE (a collection of imaginative stories about anxiety and New Yorkers post 9/11) from one showing a photo of the Flatiron Building juxtaposed with jet planes in a clear blue sky to one that showed an ashtray with the title of the book scratched out of cigarette ashes. A head book buyer at one of the big chains precipitated the subtle to literal change when they voiced a duh expression for the original cover.
As someone pointed out earlier, it’s the people that hold the keys to the gate (book buyers at the big chains and libraries) that’s wagging the dog in the land of the free. One cannot deviate too far from the typically expected covers for certain books, especially genres like science fiction and fantasy, without strong pressure from conservative marketing forces. This does not seem to be the case abroad.
I never looked twice at the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik until I saw it in a UK bookstore. They took a very different approach to cover design. The US covers, to me, say generic fantasy epic…with dragons! The UK cover says carefully constructed period piece with dragons. It was a more artistic interpretation on the novel and it probably broadened the book’s appeal.
These two designs are more than a decade apart. They reflect a trend that uses photos over illustration and well-digested movie concepts over interpretation.
As someone who was once given leering grief about the cover on my copy of “Love in the Time of Cholera” (which may have featured a Rousseau painting of a naked lady in the jungle… hard to recall), I have to say I’d be loath to carry the UK cover of “No More Mister Nice Guy” with me on public transportation…
And as for U.S. cover design, check out what Pamela Dorman Books did with the cover of “The Blind Contessa’s New Machine” last year. Just beautiful: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780670021895/carey-wallace/blind-contessas-new-machine
That said, I do tend to go on about cover art.. (see below).
http://marymcdonald.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/marys-bad-mark…ding-cover-art/
If your goal is just artistic cover, sure, the naked lady is fine. But I wouldn’t buy this book and since I feel the goal is to sell what is inside – the top cover, man on the bed, is better. I would open that book and breeze through. I wouldn’t touch the naked lady one as it says either or both “pornish book” or “for guys.” Bottom line, art is fine as long as it supports the selling of the book. If it works against that, it’s not better, it’s far worse.
I absolutely agree M.e., I wouldn’t even bother picking up the U.K. version for the same reason’s you stated. The title, along with the nude cover implies abuse toward women. My thoughts didn’t go there with the man on the bed.
Perhaps there’s a good reason the U.S. and U.K. don’t agree, I don’t care for the ‘no boundaries’ attitude.
BIG thumbs down for me.
I think publishers in the US are more afraid of upsetting people (librarians in particular) than UK publishers are. There’s a self constraint that means that designers often don’t submit more edgy treatments because they’ll be shot down. However, I don’t think US publishing houses give their readership enough credit – people (again, librarians in particular) are a lot less conservative than they think.
Essentially the US would rather publish with an uninspired and inoffensive cover than something which someone (anyone) may have a problem with. Look at the difference between the UK/US editions of Stieg Larsson’s trilogy.
Some changes just seem a bit bonkers: Terry Pratchett’s Nation springs to mind. No idea why this had such a different look and feel in the US. Of course, different publishing houses have different house styles but there’s often a cover change even when a book is published by the same company in both markets.
And all of this is, of course, a complete generalization.
Wait a second, why would anyone be worried about not offending librarians? It’s not like they’re any more (or less) prudish than the rest of us, right? And besides, don’t most libraries still strip off all the book covers and replace them with those ugly, one-colored “library bindings”? So there goes that theory…
Not so – most libraries simply attach a clear, protective covering to the jacket. The book’s cover art remains as-is.
Actually no. I think the US design/art is a lot better. But that’s just me.
Yes, in this example the UK version is much better, but if you are going title a post “Are U.K. Book Designers Better?” then it might be best to include more than one example. I could point out many options that are the reverse, in which the US version is a much better cover. There are amazing book designers in the US and the UK and around the world. There are some cultural differences that don’t really allow certain designs to work across the pond. So, I think the title of your post is rather controversial and could have been a little more in depth if you are seriously trying to stir things up.
Hi Charles, I agree that more would have been better, and do plan a more extensive look at this in the near future. I’d been sitting on these two covers for weeks and decided to just put it out there in the hopes of starting the conversation… thanks for your input.