Last week I shared my UK cover for KILLING FEAR, which comes out in the UK and Australia in March of 2008.
Today I also received foreign covers for others books–specifically, THE PREY and THE HUNT in German and Japanese. I thought it might be fun to look at the different focus of foreign covers.
For example, Germany focuses heavily on the suspense and the Spanish translation focuses heavily on the romance. France is very “romantic suspense.” But for the “art” of cover art, I think Japan wins hands down. There’s something subtly sexy about the Japanese covers that I absolutely love.
THE PREY: German
THE PREY: French
THE PREY: Spanish
THE PREY: Japanese
THE HUNT: German
THE HUNT: French
THE HUNT: Spanish
THE HUNT: Japanese
If you’re spending some time procrastinating, you should go to one of the foreign amazon sites (UK, German, Japan, among others) and peruse the foreign covers. It’s very interesting how there are different feelings in different countries, all for the same story.
When I move and have my own office, I’m going to get some folding screens, you know, the kind that can be used to separate rooms that are like 4 or 5 feet high. I’m not going to have a lot of wall space because the one windowless wall I’m having bookshelves built across, so I need a place to hang my cover art. I have a thing for cover art. I love it. I have my six covers framed on the wall above my desk at home, and those will get the limited wall space. But the foreign covers will be fun, I think, and add something colorful and hopefully inspirational to my pending office.
I’ll have somewhat of a view–rolling hills and lots of green (brown in the summer, I’m sure!) but there is also a small pond below the house and a covered bridge. I hope I don’t stare out the window too much . . .
When I worked in the Legislature, I was in a cubicle. I had a window, but it was covered with screens and there wasn’t much of anything to see on the outside–it simply looked into other windows. For inspiration there, I had pictures of my kids, political posters and memorabilia, and a screen saver that gave me a new picture every ten seconds. The pictures I chose were diverse, from nature shots to interesting faces of strangers. Whatever I could get online through the web service that provided the screen saver slide show. I had hundreds of pictures . . . all gone when I quit my old job. (Not that I’m complaining!)
What’s the view from your office? What gives you inspiration inside it?