Cover Comparison: Rebel Queen / The Last Queen of India

Here we have the same book but the marketing could not be more different, not only in the cover design but they even have different titles. The US edition uses bright reds and yellows while the UK edition uses more subdued cool tones like blues and purples. The US edition has a body shot while the UK edition has a close up head shot. Even the font types are radically different, with a bold, straight font for US and a loopy script for the UK. Who did it better? They're both beautiful but I'd go with the UK edition.

 

Cover Comparison: The Last Queen

I had to go with this title for the next cover comparison because I came across an edition which had a truly atrocious cover (shown right).

Is it the way the woman blends in with the background? Or her ridiculous pose (that is difficult to make out to begin with)? Or is it how busy all the elements make it an assault on the eyes? The blown out white contrasting with jet black sky? The random pattern at the top thrown in to make it all the more busy?

Thankfully, this cover was only used once in 2006 and then the book was reissued with some much better covers by another publisher:

     

Cover Comparisons: After the War is Over

It looks like the publisher changed the cover before it was released. The "red" cover is the original, but they changed it to the "blue" one before releasing it. Which one do you like better? Were they right to change it? I have to go with blue since it's my favorite color. But also, the background image fills the negative space a bit more.

 

Cover Comparisons: The Fair Fight

I always find it interesting to compare the different covers produced for the same book so I thought it might make a good blog feature. I decided to start with The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman because the covers for the US and UK releases (shown respectively below) were radically different approaches. Which do you like better? Personally, I'd go for the US cover (the first one).