Different Covers, Different Countries

This month we’ve been posting on covers – designing, blurbs and critiques. Today I thought I’d look at covers from different countries.

At RWA I attended a workshop on covers by an author from England. Her focus was the difference in covers in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and some European countries as compared to those in the US. She said that in comparison the UK covers are more subtle – no bare-chested, sexy men.

In the UK they usually didn’t show actual people, or if they did it didn’t usually show their head. Or they use very small images. The reason is that people use their own imagination when reading a book and fill in how they see the person. The colors are usually softer; blues, pinks, pale yellows, not bright, vibrant covers. Lots of scenery backgrounds; lakes, meadows, hills.

My book ‘Targeted’ had recently been released and I thought it might not sell in other countries because of the design. So I had a second cover designed for the UK, Australia and New Zealand. I’m not sure it made a difference.

What about your covers? Do you cover designs affect your sales in other countries besides the US and Canada?