Speaking of foreign bookcovers, here’s Welcome to Temptation in Spain. She’s thin, but she’s not bony. Of course, she’s not Sophie, either, except for the red dress. I wish I could find the French Canadian version of WTT. It had the red dress, too. A red chiffon prom dress with a poufy skirt. Sophie was wearing it, climbing out of a dumpster. It was a gorgeous cover, but there was a lot of Huh? there.
This one is really beautiful, too. Wonder what people think when they open it and it’s about a small town in Ohio where nobody tangos?
[Comments are continued on the next post: “Another Country Heard From.”)
It’s not Sophie, but the cover is gorgeous. Almost makes me want to get a tatoo on my lower back. Almost.
I LOVE the picture! And the story is so good, they won’t care that folks don’t tango đ
I just tried amazon.ca and they had a used copy of it (no pic on the site). I tried to order it, but it won’t ship outside of Canada. Anyone in Canada want to receive a shipment for me? đ
Well, the cover does seem to indicate ‘Devil’s candy’ (isn’t that what Phin thought the first time he saw Sophie and that was before the red dress made an appearance)
Wow — Am I forgetting a rather large tatoo? Ala Kushiel’s Dart?? But it is a really pretty cover. Did you ever get one with a water tower on it? If so, I’d like to see that one.
I think its the blood dripping off the rose that makes me think this ought to be a cover for a vampire novel.
Alright, I think I’m getting that cover art doesn’t have to match the story. Huh? Who’d a thunk?
Although, that said, the body type is exactly as I pictured Sophie, tall, thin, pale, just lovely. But the sparkley, down to there, red dress, and the rose? Not so much. It seems too omminous and carnal. The title is good though, I just want to walk around saying, “Ten-ta-ci-own” in a really bad Penelope Cruz, Flonase bee impersonation.
Like JulieB, I immediately thought of Kushiel’s Chosen.
Uh, wasn’t there some mention of Sophie being rounder and more ivory-shaded?
To me, this looks like the cover for a dark, erotic thriller. The heroine being stalked by a creepy psycho who leaves roses at his crime scenes. She’s “saved” by the broody, rebellious detective who chafes at his bosses because they want him to sit this case out.
“They” think he’s getting too involved, since the psycho killed his college-aged cousin years ago and now he’s getting involved with the psycho’s next target.
This DOES NOT look like the cover to a funny, sexy, laugh-out-loud romance about small towns, phallic water towers, and the short film that breaks through all the secrets.
Andi said, “The title is good though, I just want to walk around saying, âTen-ta-ci-ownâ in a really bad Penelope Cruz, Flonase bee impersonation.”
Is it bad that I did do it?
My husband and I are completely obsessed with the Flonase bee (played by Antonio Banderas, btw).
I think Flonase Bee would be over the moon about that cover… although you’re right, it’s not very Dempsey, is it? More like something Clea would wear.
Or maybe they made Clea a brunette.
It didn’t say ‘tango’ to me. More ‘dress someone would wear for a night on the town’. Also, I wonder if that rose is the equivalent symbolically of the cherry. I’d never heard of the phrase about popping the cherry until I read Welcome to Temptation, but I have come across a rose (particularly a white one) as a symbol of virginity, and red would therefore be non-virginal. If it is about loss of virginity that might also explain the drop of blood falling from the rose in this picture.
Cary said: ‘To me, this looks like the cover for a dark, erotic thriller.’
Well, arguably that’s what Welcome to Temptation is. It’s got murder/attempted murders, pornography and seduction. Small-town Ohio seems pretty exotic to me, because I’m in Europe, and I thought Temptation had a claustrophobic, hot-house sort of atmosphere. So it works for me. Might not work for people who’ve actually been in small-town America, but it is a cover designed for Spanish readers, not American ones.
Doesn’t one tango when one has a night on the town? It’s been so long, I can’t recall. It’s a gorgeous cover, but I think it looks strange to those of us who have been in small town Ohio, because there aren’t many occasions to wear such a gown there. But then, I lived in Amish country, so maybe it was different.
Also, the book is a LOT about the support and demands of family (pathological and somewhat less pathological), so an isolated person turning her back doesn’t quite seem to fit.
But- very handsome, and I like the interpretation of the rose with the drop of blood.
Covers are definitely different in different countries. The German covers used to look like porn; now they’re very bright with a heart graphic on them. The British covers never made sense to me except the one they put on Welcome To Temptation the first time, the old Jantzen ad of the leaping girl. I have a poster of it hanging it my house. It’s so carefree and it really feels like the book to me.
Its sales were lousy. Sigh.
Well, it’s very graphic, in the designy sense.
Nice color scheme.
Oh, here I go:
Where is her butt cleavage, and why is her head invisible?
But, as you say, this is for Spain.
Still, in a designy graphical way it is very, very beautiful.
Foreign covers/titles crack me up. My fave, I think, was one from…Poland? The Czech Republic? showing the couple standing on a balcony in what sure looks like Venice. Then the next one in the series, the couple is lollygagging amidst big, leafy palm trees. Serious jungle ambiance.
Both stories took place in Atlanta. Go figure.
Oh, and my Welsh Corgi from one my RDIs has morphed into a Sharpei, a Basset and a Beagle on the cover, depending on the country.
I do like that Tentacion cover, though. It doesn’t evoke small town Ohio, heaven knows, but it’s very striking. And I’ve always said I’ll take a striking cover over a correct cover, anyday.
One learns to roll with the punches in this biz.
It’s beautiful and very striking.
Here is a copy of the French Canadian cover:
http://www.flammarion.qc.ca/ficheProduit.asp?strPrevSection=titrefilm&CatalogueID=27
It’s beautiful but, yeah, Huh??
What, in heaven’s name, is Sophie escaping from in that picture? That cover looks like it belongs to one of those new teenage girl/superspy novels that are all the rage in the tween set!
No porn anymore. Here’s the link to the German cover of WTT:
http://www.amazon.de/Die-Naschkatzen-Jennifer-Crusie/dp/3442448964/ref=pd_sbs_b_4/302-4767631-5254433?ie=UTF8&qid=1177449777&sr=1-4
and it’s really good. I think. What I don’t like is the translation which means sweet-toothed cats. Sounds like they found the title first and read the book later. But that happened to Marian Keyes’ novel “Anybody out there?” too – in German it’s called “Strawberry Moon”.
Ah, yes, there it is. She’s climbing out of a dumpster in an alley. It’s really a gorgeous cover. I don’t know where they got the dumpster, the alley, the dress, or the blonde, but otherwise, great cover.
Titles are marketing the way the cover is marketing. They know what sells. I try not to translate the titles. It’s better that way.
Oh, and I liked that German cover with the two cherries, too. Very striking. It was all the pink hearts that followed. But I am grateful to Germany and they know how to sell books, so yea for them.
Sweet-toothed cats kinda makes sense. Maybe it’s just me.
The Spanish cover is very striking, I would buy that book. I’ve always thought the hard cover cover art was really good. The Quebecois cover doesn’t make any sense. I still want to see a good old, phallic water tower cover.
This is so not fair. Why does the UK cover for Bet Me not make me want to buy shoes but the cover of Faking It makes me want to eat cupcakes.
The dumpster makes sense to me, the Dempseys being “from the wrong side of the tracks” throughout their childhood, similar to white trash. Sophie’s climbing out of the dumpster metaphorically when she becomes determined to make something of herself, acceptable to the town of Temptation.
I am from the result of American public schools where we are taught to read into EVERYTHING.
Oh, My Goodness!
I just got the dumpster thing:
in a lot of places the dumpster is called
Dempsey Dumpster.
It’s an east coast thing, maybe.
I really don’t know what that picture touched in me but it made me feel sick. Where is her head? She has a purple tinge.
Nice. Sexy cover. Would have been even better with a head. I’d definitely pick it up and have a look see. Like the German cover, but I still like the U.S. cover best, I like to rub my thumb over the bite in the apple, it’s very sensual. I like the play off the word temptation, and that one bite.
Okay, I looked at the German cover, and clicked on the “hearts that followed”, but I can’t tell what book that’s from. Anyone care to hazard a guess?
On the real book cover, you can see that she’s leaning her head forward, into the darkness. I used a low resolution jpg so it would be fastloading. She doesn’t look headless on the real thing. Much.
There’s a subtext of bondage to the cover, so that may be what squicked you out, Wendy.
They put hearts on several of them so I’m not sure what that one it.
This looks more like those sexy vampire romances flooding the shelves right now. Imagine it with a little fang embedded in the back…
Actually, I’m commenting down here to see if anyone has the list of Dusty songs in TEMPTATION. I wanted to download them for an upcoming long plane trip, and my copy of the book is already packed. It doesn’t seem to be up on the jennycrusie.com site. Anyone?
Aren’t the cover artists ever required to actually read the book or at least a synopsis?
Nope.
I love the cover. My foreign exchange students LOVE romance, all romance. Our school library doesn’t shelf an awful lot of it other than inspirational, so they love the bookshelf in my classroom. đ
JackieToo: Not just no, but half the time the cover art is a photo from a stock database. It gets really entertaining when different publishers use the same one. Check out In Her Shoes vs. Best Fetish Erotica.
Here’s the link to the German Don’t look Down version. Even the title is quite good, because it refers to those boards in the movies they use to mark the scenes, and it also means ‘shut up, darling’.
http://www.amazon.de/Klappe-Liebling-Jennifer-Crusie/dp/3442463289/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/302-4767631-5254433?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177482230&sr=8-1
This is “Fast Women”, translated “Love at the second kiss”:
http://www.amazon.de/Liebe-auf-den-zweiten-Kuss/dp/3442554721/ref=sr_1_2/302-4767631-5254433?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177482446&sr=1-2
And this is “Bet me” (Love and other coincidences):
http://www.amazon.de/Liebe-andere-Zuf%C3%A4lle-Jennifer-Crusie/dp/3442458374/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b/302-4767631-5254433?ie=UTF8&qid=1177482446&sr=1-2
And finally, “Spring Cleaning” a.k.a. Crazy for You:
http://www.amazon.de/Fr%C3%BChjahrsputz-Jennifer-Crusie/dp/3442554519/ref=sr_1_7/302-4767631-5254433?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177482631&sr=1-7
They are nice-looking covers but in a way interchangeable because they don’t have much to do with the content. But heck, if they sell, they must be doing it right.
Oooh, that’s the first time I’ve seen the Crazy for You cover. I like it.
The thing is, they’ve obviously got a cover look going with the pink hearts, and they’re selling well over there, so go pink hearts, that’s what I say.
Wow. I like the cover. Wow. I like lots of the covers. Very cool to see what other countries do and what sells well in different places.
I still don’t buy books based on cover. But I must say, that is a great cover. I think I have to say, she has the sexiest back I’ve ever seen.
I guess the hearts are the cherries for us.
What I’ve noticed each cover for a popular writer looks similiar. From the font they use for the authors name and for the type of colors the text is.
Jenny said:
“The thing is, theyâve obviously got a cover look going with the pink hearts, and theyâre selling well over there, so go pink hearts, thatâs what I say.”
And Stressed-out-Cherry said:
“I guess the hearts are the cherries for us.”
I was going to ask if all romances, or at least all romances from that particular publisher had hearts on the cover as a code, in the same way we were talking about a code for rape-plots in romance a few days back. But then I realized that colognegrrl would probably have mentioned that if that were the case. Thanks everyone for posting all the covers. It’s really fun to see.
Kim: she doesn’t have one for WTT on the site (and i don’t have the book on me now), but she has FI’s songlist: http://www.jennycrusie.com/trivia/songs.php
i love the heart on the German DLD. not so much for the story, i just think the heart’s great.
sexy back, definitely. i’ll have to show my friend the rose because she was thinking of getting Kushiel’s flower as a tattoo but this one is prettier- to me, at least.
And another thought from me. Louisa asked ‘Where is her butt cleavage’ and R Canuk said that “the cover does seem to indicate âDevilâs candyâ”. Put those two things together, and does that rather curly-stemmed rose begin to look like a tail? The Devil’s tail usually gets depicted with a sort of triangle on the end, and here there’s a rose, but it’s not that dissimilar, and the colour’s right.
You know what? I think that isn’t even a tattoo. I think it’s a silk slip with embroidery and that’s why we don’t see the spine, the butt cleavage, etc. It’s too smooth. Look up to the mid back to the letters you can see some tiny little bumps around them, kind of like elasticized silk or something. I can’t quite make them out even with glasses on. Heh. It’s still pretty though, and sexy, and I wouldn’t say no if someone offered it to me as my cover.
I don’t think she is wearing a slip. A slip would not be possible with that dress. What it looks like to me is that they have taken a transfer or some kind of applique and just set it on her skin for the purposes of the picture, the same with the name and that is why there is an outline around both the rose and the name. Just my opinion.
It’s not a slip. It’s photoshop magic.
Laura V. wrote: Well, arguably thatâs what Welcome to Temptation is. Itâs got murder/attempted murders, pornography and seduction. Small-town Ohio seems pretty exotic to me, because Iâm in Europe, and I thought Temptation had a claustrophobic, hot-house sort of atmosphere. So it works for me. Might not work for people whoâve actually been in small-town America, but it is a cover designed for Spanish readers, not American ones.
(-: I grew up in small-town America (pop. 4000) and I feel like you’ve just pulled my brain out through my ears, given it a good shake, and popped it back in. OF COURSE it’d be exotic and hot-housey for anyone outside North America. Look at how we go on about Tuscany and all the little Italian and French villages — while the natives are probably thinking we’re absolutely nuts.
I will be smiling for the rest of the day, imagining Broken Bow as my mysterious home town. (-: Thanks for the imagery!
Here’s to small town America. I agree Micki – great imagery! I too am smiling.
About the cover – they probably took the picture, then fixed it up, added, deleted, made different. Things like photoshop are incredible. My DH is a photographer (sort of, it’s a hobby) and he’s cleaned up a few pictures and then for fun he’s kind of done some weird stuff to them. For fun he got rid of my hips. I looked horrible. I love my hips. Now I need to fall in love with my back.
I see the dotted lines not only around the tattoo but also around the straps on the shoulders. I’m guessing some PhotoShop or somesuch stuff on a lot of the picture.
Okay, maybe a stupid question, but why are the covers different in various countries….Everyone knows what a McDonalds looks like, and I personally love the “Bet Me” cover, so why does it have to be different?
And although I like the WTT erotica (haha)cover, it’s not the book! I’m from Ohio and that cover and Ohio do Not match, but if it looked like Ohio, maybe no one would buy it. hmmmm. I still think it’s soooo not Sophie, even if it is a really sexy cover. Sorry Jenny. I DO think cover artists should read AT LEAST a synopsis of the book they are designing for. Just MHO.
Gotta run…
Siberia – as far as I know, the publisher in another country just buys the rights to the manuscript, not to the cover art. Then they do their translation and fit it into their program. Some of Jenny’s books have at least 3 different covers in Germany (if you really want to research this, you can go to amazon.de and type in ‘Crusie’ but I guess you don’t).
Some of my books have had three different covers in this country.
I’m looking at the actual book, and I can’t see the dotted lines, so I’m putting up a link to the full jpg on the next blog. Go there to talk about it, please.