Cover comparison: The Silent Sea | 6th March 2010, 11:51

The Silent Sea is a forthcoming (next week) release in Clive Cussler's Oregon Files series. Above you can see the US cover on the left, and the UK cover on the right. I've often wondered about why the publishers really find it necessary to release the books with different covers, so thought I'd have a go at comparing the two. It's particularly Cussler I've noticed this with in the past, but clearly it's true of a lot of novels. With these, the actual inside of the books seems to be the same - the cover page on the interior of the UK editions has a title font that matches the US cover font at least. So I assume that the book itself is just imported without the cover - this make a little sense, as the book itself is unlikely to be damaged in transit whereas the paper dust-jacket is. But if it was just about printing dust-jackets locally the same design could easily be used. The UK Cussler covers have also had change to the font a couple of years ago, from a serif font to the current soft and blocky sans-serif version seen above, and they are re-releasing the paperbacks in the new style. But that's just a note for background. From a quick inspection there seems to be little point to issuing these covers differently apart from the need to match the existing brands in each country - but given that the UK brand has recently changed I think this can be discounted, as it would have been just as easy for the UK editions to have been rebranded to match the US versions... therefore the only real need must be for marketing purposes. Not being in the US, I'm not really qualified to comment on how they perceive Cussler, but the impression I get in the UK is that his writing is seen as a less than serious thriller series. Reflecting this, the UK cover looks to me less serious - the US cover makes it look like a harrowing tale - the colour of the sea seems much more realistic than the colour of the sky in the UK version - and the detail of the ship and the fish around it are more realistic. The UK image is more stylised, and doesn't suggest to me that it is meant to reflect an actual scene from the novel, but instead is more of a poster suggesting the content. The US image of a shipwreck suggests a sense of mystery, perhaps of treasure hunt, whereas the UK edition's depiction of a ship afloat suggests an adventure. Again this reflects the UK view that Cussler writes romps rather than serious tales. The text chosen for the covers is interesting. As seems to be the norm now, the author's name is the largest thing - although I like to think that Clive Cussler is now just a brand (much like Tom Clancy) and the actual work was done by Du Brul. The second author's name is equally shrunk in both although actually seems more prominent in the US version, where it is in a different colour from Cussler and much more prominent than the 'with'. To my eyes, the title is more prominent in the UK version, where the white colour makes it stand out more than the yellow of the US, which feels very out of place to me. It's also interesting that the 'The' is separated from the title in the US but is presented as more a part of the title in the UK version. I'm not sure what conclusion to draw from this though. "A N/novel of/from the Oregon Files" - the final line of the text contains some interesting differences. I'm intrigued as to why Novel needs a capital in the US version - although I have noticed in some brief research into the differences between covers that US versions tend to go out of their way to tell you they are 'A Novel' on the cover in a way that UK editions do not feel the need to. I don't know why - is there some confusion in US bookshops or among readers that can't tell the difference between fiction and reality? And the of/from change really baffles me - from seems to make far more sense... it's not a novel of the files. Finally the US version feels the need to highlight the previous success of it's author - the cynic in me says this is because US readers won't read something unless they are sold it as being really good, and this is the US way of judging a book. Actually, I'm fairly surprised that the UK edition doesn't carry a similar line - they used to say something like "This is the guy I read ~ Tom Clancy". I hate when they use the same quote over and over again though - it makes it sound like no one else has ever said anything good about it. Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series is another victim of this, where every novel's cover compares the series to Lord of the Rings (stupid, as I didn't like LOTR). Overall, to my UK eyes, the US version looks like a novel from the 60s or 70s, of the type that you find in libraries wrapped in plastic covers and last taken out in 1998. The font is incredibly dated - the UK version realised it's font was dated and changed it to the very modern look seen above. I think the UK version looks much nicer and am really glad that it is the edition that will grace my bookshelves in a couple of weeks - modern and exciting.

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