Comments on: UK Readers Haven’t Swallowed Nora Roberts Kool Aid, Yet.

By: April

April — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:32:15 +0000

I will never understand the “to do” that is made of changing book covers and titles between the UK and US markets.

The Brits do it for us as well. The Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman was changed to The Golden Compass. Why? I can’t say that I’d be less likely to buy a book titled The Northern Lights than I would be to buy a book titled The Golden Compass. Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone was changed for the U.S. market to Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone. What difference does it make? It’s Harry Potter either way.

BTW–I’ve just stumbled on to this site today. Great site!

By: Willa

Willa — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:56:00 +0000

I’m in the U.K and have also been reading Nora for years. I much prefer the U.S covers – for the most part they do seem to actually represent something about the storyline, or at least it seems that way to me. The U.K versions are bland imo. For the Circle trilogy we had butterflies on the covers . . for the reissue of Three Sisters Island we had flowers! If at all possible I buy the U.S version – and sometimes you get the really neat step backs that we never get here in the U.K. Yes – I can get excited over that!!

By: Suze

Suze — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:49:03 +0000

Shmuck is kind of a puce color, I think. Somewhere between pukey puce and a muted chartreuse, maybe. ;)

Eek! Considering that puce is violent pink and chartreuse is violent green, I’d definitely call that a pukey colour. Gah. Still, that would kind of go with shmuck…

By: ec

ec — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:29:45 +0000

I think my Kool-Aid flavor should be cherry tart.

Good flavor for a romance author. Resonates with the genre.(“Hmmm… What says virginal, but with significant erotic potential?”)

;)

By: Caffey

Caffey — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:16:08 +0000

It would be nice if they just kept the covers the US had. I just see the cover not as a romance at all with these covers shown.

By: rose

rose — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:39:38 +0000

A cover has says a lot, first impressions and all that. For years I ignored Nora Robert books and others in this genre, because I was put off by the covers. The first printing of the Irish trilogy, “Jewels of the Sun” etc is a good example, I mean really. The covers have Improved immensely, and I am glad I got past my initial reluctance, because I would have missed a lot of wonderful stories. Flowers, butterflies, marshes, lonely little boats, cottages, castles,….turn off!

By: Gail

Gail — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:10:13 +0000

High Noon is about a female hostage negotiator. She tends to run TO–and do I remember a scene where she winds up at an incident in “date” clothes? It’s been a while since I read it–one of my faves. Need to read it again…

By: Meriam

Meriam — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:15:05 +0000

I’ve always found Roberts’ covers perfectly fine, perhaps a little bland. I quite like the second cover. It’s not great, but I prefer it to the first, which looks a little drippy. The second is more dynamic. Yes, she’s running, but that gives the impression of action, suspense, danger. (No idea what High Noon is about, I stopped reading Roberts a few years ago, but her single titles used to be romantic suspense, right?)

I basically second Tumperkin. Also, Roberts is very popular in libraries. Her latest novels are always bought and regularly issued.

The American speak never bothered me. But then, I grew up on American TV.

By: Tumperkin

Tumperkin — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:33:19 +0000

I find the issues of US covers v UK covers a very interesting one (but also a fraught one because certain comments might be unintentionally taken as a comment on ‘Americans’ or ‘Brits’).

It’s difficult to reach any hard and fast conclusions because many of the romances I buy are not readily available in the UK – I get the US editions from Amazon or in a small ’specialist’ romance section in my local Waterstones (most Waterstones shops don’t have any romance section – just a few leading romance authors under general fiction). My feeling is that whilst romance is very popular in the UK, it is not as popular as in the US and the same degree of choice is not available in bookshops here as in the average US bookshop.

In the rare cases where the books I choose are available in both UK and US editions, the covers are almost always different and the UK versions will never feature mantitty etc. (e.g. compare and contrast Loretta Chase covers – I seem to recall that Mr Impossible had a mantitty cover in the US and a ‘tasteful’ regency-striped and cameo-silhouette cover in the UK). It’s not just mantitty however. Lavish typefaces will usually be replaced by something more restrained (for example, the US editions of Mary Balogh’s Slightly series feature bold, colourful, high-gloss typefaces whereas the UK ones feature period paintings and restrained colours).

The notable exception to this is Mills & Boon/Harlequin who for some reason usually (though not always) use the same photos but with different backgrounds.

Interestingly, in the many discussions in the blogosphere about covers, there is always a comment along the lines of ‘but mantitty sells’. I suspect this is indeed true of the (much bigger) US market but possibly not of the UK covers. (They used to put me off hugely but I’ve gotten over that. Still I prefer an alternative if it’s available).

Another interesting line is the UK erotic line of Black Lace. They have some very subtle covers (given the contents of the books in question) but also some very up-front ones and they’re squarely aimed at a youthful audience.

By: Merry

Merry — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:30:08 +0000

I’m in the UK and I’ve been reading Nora’s books for years (initially in her J.D.Robb incarnation) and it was the US covers that first grabbed my attention and made me want to find out what the book was about. If I didn’t already like her books, I probably wouldn’t pick them up based on the covers we get in the UK, as they’re a bit boring. (And being a librarian I like to have ’sets’ of books, so I prefer it if the covers match as well. Although, that’s probably quite sad.)

It’s not just romance that gets this treatment though. Fantasy, Urban Fantasy the covers change from US to UK. Kim Harrison, L.E. Modesitt JR. have also had (totally unecessary) cover changes. There’s one author (fantasy, name escapes me) whose books were given different covers here and, they split one of them into two and gave them different titles. It was only moving between the US/UK versions that I realised that they were the same book.

I find it annoying (and unnecessary) to have the different covers, especially as – being online so much – if it’s a US book to begin with, that’s the cover I’ll have seen first, and that’s the cover that will have drawn my attention and made me want to read the blurb.

I don’t have any problem with the language in Nora’s books, but then the majority of my reading stems from the US anyway (fantsy, horror & science fiction first, then romance) so I’m used to it. I certainly wouldn’t want US books to be ‘anglicised’ (nor for UK books to ‘americanised’. They should be read as they’re written. If I don’t understand something I’ll look it up or ask; if I’m really into the story, I’ll probably get the gist of a word I’m unfamiliar with anyway.
Just my 2p!

By: Jen Black

Jen Black — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:17:18 +0000

I suppose the other thing is that Ms Robert’s stories are all* set in America, or with American heroes and heroines. And why not? The lady is American. But for a UK audience it is good to read her stories in among a whole lot of UK authors, but not as a total diet or even one a week. A little goes a long way. I like them, and I’ve recommended them to friends, (who also liked them!)but they’ll still be low on our list of favourite authors because they…it is hard to put a finger on why, but I think it is because the writing is so different. I tried the *MacGregor stories and didn’t take to them as they seemed not like the Scotland I know, and I’ve read the *Irish trilogy, which was better; but how about an English setting, and an English heroine? That might make the difference.

By: Marianne McA

Marianne McA — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:01:06 +0000

Having too much time on my hands, I looked through the Amazon best sellers lists. Nora has 7 books in the US 100 bestsellers list for Romance, 3 of which are written as J.D. Robb. She has 6 books in the UK Romance 100 bestsellers, but all of those are written as Roberts – they may count her J.D. Robb books into some other list.
Which does suggest the books already sell fairly well.

(Seems really rude to be talking about this in Ms. Roberts virtual presence: like speculating on what someone earns. Sorry – I don’t mean it that way.)

I can’t say I remember any covers particularly well – but I’m not a hugely visual person. I would wonder, however, if the focus group is right: to me Nora is one of the authors that need no introduction – you don’t think ‘that’s a nice cover, I’ll look at that book’, you think ‘there’s a new Nora Roberts’ – same as ‘there’s the new Pratchett’.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:44:38 +0000

Here's a good English <--> American site. Or you could always post your 'US language/slang' questions here.

By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:40:22 +0000

Jayne – I remember you suggesting E Young and I much preferred her British books to the American translations. I was actually thinking about the “egg carton dinosaur” this morning.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:37:29 +0000

I remember the first time I read UK author Elizabeth Young. It was almost like a different language at times and if it hadn’t've been for an English friend acting as a dictionary (what does ——ing for England mean?), I’d have missed a lot of the humor. I ended up making sure to import all my Liz Young books via amazon.co.uk to be sure I got the full flavor of British Chick Lit.

By: Jill Myles

Jill Myles — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:24:10 +0000

Shmuck is kind of a puce color, I think. Somewhere between pukey puce and a muted chartreuse, maybe. ;)

By: Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:52:02 +0000

I think my Kool-Aid flavor should be cherry tart. We need that little bite.

I think the new cover look is more modern, and she’s pretty. I confess to knowing nothing about the Brit market. I’ve often wondered why they change the covers from the US–but figure the Brit publishers DO know something about the Brit market.

By: Jen Black

Jen Black — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:02:21 +0000

I read Nora Roberts here in the UK and thought I’d comment. The covers I see are totally forgettable but I don’t know if they’re the American covers, UK ones or a mixture. As for popularity – it may be that her use of US English defeats some UK readers. She writes in what I (for want of a better term!) call modern, shorthand american and often it leaves me wondering what she means. I thought I’d picked up a lot from reading Yahoo groups, but still I am defeated by some of her phrases. That means the UK readers who do not have American contacts are going to be even more baffled!

By: Laura Vivanco

Laura Vivanco — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:53:11 +0000

Wonder what the sale stats are? She’s certainly always got several books in my local bookshop, both as herself and as J.D.Robb. She’s also one of the very few authors they have in their Polish section. Sales can’t be dreadful. I tried to find some statistics on Nora's books in the UK and the full details of what I found are on this thread (see my comment posted at 12.35pm). The short answer is that she doesn’t appear at all on the Guardian‘s list of 100 bestselling books in the UK for 2006 or 2007 but Josephine Cox and Danielle Steel do appear on both those lists.

By: Rosario

Rosario — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:29:42 +0000

Ditto what Marianne says, there’s quite a few of hers at both my local library and bookstore… even almost a full shelf of In Deaths in the latter (which I spent some time ordering chronollogically… I’m pathetic, LOL!).

But yeah, the covers don’t make much sense to me. They don’t seem to worry at all about them reflecting the tone of the book. The single titles feel like women’s fiction, and the trilogies are the worst kind of generic. Has anyone seen the cover of Blood Brothers?

(Trying to insert an image here, but it’s not working. Just go here:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0749938439.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg )

In what world do pretty pebbles mean scary horror?