A tale of two covers

If you're a regular reader, you saw the Canadian cover of Sex, Bombs and Burgers here last week. It is, of course, considerably different from the cover that will be used in Australia and New Zealand, which I first put up here in early December.





So which one is better? Well, from what I've heard from friends and colleagues, it seems like there's a slight preference for the Australian one. Most of the people I've heard from seem to like the direct approach that it takes. Some people, however, really didn't like the robot.

I like both covers - for different reasons. Let's start with the Australian cover, designed by my publisher there, Allen & Unwin. For as long as I've been working on this book, this is the sort of cover I've always pictured in my brain. It's pretty simple: there's a gal on it with a bomb and a burger. That pretty much sums it up. But it gets a little cleverer (if that's a word). The girl is a robot, which implies the technology theme of the book, and it avoids being exploitative, which a girl in a bikini could have been.

The text, meanwhile, is large, stark and noticeable. I also like the feminine touch of pink - which is the colour of the entire back cover. Overall, I think it's a book that will get noticed amid a sea of other books on the shelves, which is the whole point of a cover.

Which is why I also like the Canadian cover, designed by Penguin. It's considerably more minimalistic, and it doesn't really depict anything in relation to sex or burgers (although someone noticed that the bomb is the same shape as both - holy Freud, Batman!). But it certainly is vibrant and will definitely stand out. Again, that's kind of the whole point of a cover.

Whichever your preference, ultimately it comes down to the same issue we had with the title. While I, and just about everyone I know, liked Bombs, Boobs and Burgers better than Sex, Bombs and Burgers, we did of course have the benefit of knowing the original title. The general book-buying public will be oblivious to the original, so Sex, Bombs and Burgers may be the most awesome-sounding book they've ever heard of. Same goes for the cover - most Canadians who buy this book will never see the Australian version and vice versa (unless they come to this blog), so whether one is better than the other doesn't really matter.

Oh, one other thing that I've been asked a lot - do I have any say over the cover? Well, contractually the publishers can do whatever they want with the design of the book, but naturally they don't want to alienate their author with a cover that he or she loathes. Ultimately, it comes down to coming up with a compromise that everyone can live with.