Anna Staniszewski

I’m back from my trip and filled with memories and images from the places I visited in Poland and the Czech Republic. Once the jet lag wears off, I may even try to use some of them in my writing. But what stands out in my mind at the moment is something that people often comment on but is still worth mentioning: the different ways that books are marketed here as opposed to in Europe. When I visited a few bookstores on my trip, I was interested to see which books I knew and which familiar ones had a different appearance. Here are a couple notable examples.

A subtle but still striking difference was the cover of Terry Pratchett’s Nation. Here is the US cover:

This makes it look like a survival-in-the-wild story, while the European cover:

implies a bit of magic and intrigue. I must say that I prefer the European cover; the American one just doesn’t spark my curiosity as much.

Secondly, The Book Thief has an interesting (if somewhat vague) American cover:

The European version I saw (I believe the most recent of several editions) was interesting but gave a completely different feel:

This cover almost implies something playful instead of the more somber tone I tend to associate with the story. I don’t know if I have a preference, but the two covers certainly make me think about the expectations that packaging can set up for a story.

Finally, on a slightly different note, I was entertained to see Lois Lowry’s The Willoughbys had the exact same cover (which is a great one) but with a completely different title:

I can understand that using the name of a family might not work as well in a different language, but the Polish title, which might be translated as  “The Nefarious Plot,” is an interesting alternative. I think it certainly gets across the mood of the story while drawing on the subtitle of the English version, but it also gives a slightly different feel to the book since the title more specifically tells you what the story is going to be about. I wouldn’t say it gives all that much away, but it still might make a reader approach the book a little bit differently.