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Terry Pratchett - Going Postal (Review)

Discussion in 'Booktalk' started by Taluntain, Nov 22, 2004.

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  1. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    That's not exactly true. Even those that have different cover layouts in US/UK are usually only slightly changed, e.g. in the US cover has the author and title strips larger and art smaller, and vice versa in the UK. But the art is usually the same (or similar) on both covers. And you also have to keep in mind that unless the book was released simultaneously on all continents, you're also dealing with different editions which usually have different art on purpose to distinguish the editions.

    But here we are talking about Discworld books which, even after numerous re-releases, have kept the original covers unchanged in the UK. All of them were changed in the US, however.

    There's just one problem with that theory. No American I know likes the US covers of Discworld books.

    Not really. The US covers of books originally released in the US are usually better than the UK ones. Discworld is an exception where it's exactly the other way around.

    No, it's not, just most of them. But this is mostly due to many different editions across continents, not purposeful changing of the covers as with the UK/US Discworld books.
     
    Taluntain, Mar 13, 2005
    #21

  2. Iago Gems: 24/31
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    I think the book-cover is one of the most important parts of a book. Every publisher has usually a uniqe style of cover art for all its books from one genre. And this style is by a big degree geared towards the visual-tastes of the people that are expected to buy the book. And of course a uniqe brand of originality.

    In cases were the publisher expects that a book will sell in his market, he will make a huge effort to get the best cover suited to his market. And this requires, in the case of books in English published in North-America and in the United Kingdom without a great time interval inbetween, that the author will have to sit with different artists and chose different covers for the different continents according to the respective visual-guidelines of the Publishers. That's a huge additional effort and I don't think they do that without thorough marketing considerations.

    That said, the covers for Terry Pratchett books are the same as the British ones in the German and French versions. And they are good. No need to change them ever.

    On the other hand, I have a presumption. If the cover is the same as the American cover, it's an awful translation. In this cases, the cheapest means were used and the translation shows. And I have some books in mind that had the American cover and were awfully translated.

    Well, most American covers I know make it too me quite evident, why they absolutely have to be changed. But they all seem to have some strange theme in common. They all seem quite alike. But I am not able to provide a coherent description. They just follow all some strange underlying design.

    I'd love to see some reasoning of a publisher of the considerations that drove them to make such awful decisions. Non the less, I am certain that their reasioning is sound, even if I am not able to endure the looks of it.
     
    Iago, Mar 13, 2005
    #22
  3. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Actually, could be a pretty simple answer: the contract with the artist only allows the use of his art in the US/Europe, or with a certain edition or publisher and so on. Still, this doesn't really answer the question of why some covers (e.g. Discworld) are so radically different in Europe vs. the US. You'd think they'd want to at least use something similar if not the same art. It could also be that the US publisher doesn't want to pay royalties to the UK artists for the use of their covers, because they can get them made cheap in the US (which, considering how awful they are, I suspect is the case).

    The problem with Discworld is even more acute because the Kirby/Kidby covers really help you to get into the mood of the book and portray the main character(s), whereas the US ones are so disgustingly generic or focused on a single object they contribute nothing whatsoever to the text.

    Also, I think I remember reading an interview with Pratchett once when he was asked about the dreadful US covers and he said he had no say whatsoever there, that HC picked the covers themselves without consulting him.
     
    Taluntain, Mar 13, 2005
    #23

  4. Edithe Gems: 1/31
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    The change in the covers in different countries also depends on the publishing house. I know Harper Collins keep the same covers for the majority of their books, and the puffin books change theirs covers almost seasonally, also I can be the edition the book store has, stores like Amazon might have a faster turn over of stock compared to a small book shop.
     
    Edithe, Dec 19, 2005
    #24
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