Thursday, 5 November 2009

This Damned Necklace Won't Stay On

When one arm of a publishing concern hasn't been paying close enough attention to another...


 
The photos are by Martin Scott-Jupp (and this is no criticism of his work, which I really like). And here she is again!



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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is bad. They couldn't find another woman, with another necklace? Hellooo... IStockPhoto.com anyone?

6 November 2009 at 01:16
Derek said...

I guess publishers are saving money by not buying exclusive rights. The second Penguin is a different shot. But the third one (Random House) looks like the same shot with colors changed and a pattern applied to the blouse.

6 November 2009 at 08:47
Unknown said...

the pattern isn't very well applied either. On the left it spills over slightly. (Why it needed a pattern I don't know?)

7 November 2009 at 07:18
Anonymous said...

One was published in the UK, the other in Australia. It's not about being lazy or saving money, it's about finding the right image. The designers don't have time to trawl through all the books that are published either by their own publishing house or others. They are often working on anything up to 20 books each at a time and use the most appropriate images they can find in a specified time frame and to a specified budget. The decisions are often outside their hands as committees ultimately make the final decision about the images used on a cover.

8 November 2009 at 19:32
JRSM said...

Do you work for Penguin? I know what you're talking about--it's just that two in-print books in the one series having effectively the same cover seems a bit feeble for such a high-level imprint.

9 November 2009 at 13:32
Arwen said...

The first book was published in 2001 in the old Penguin Modern Classic format (silver band down the bottom)in the UK, whereas the second book is yet to be published (in Australia only) and reflects the new PMC design. Feels like there's enough of a gap in years, not to mention an update of the imprint design and different countries, for the use of a similar image to be unimportant. The third image is almost certainly the same as the first image but has been retouched, plus, it comes from a US book that wasn't published in the UK or Australia.

And couldn't agree more with Anonymous who writes that the choice of an image has nothing to do with laziness on the part of the designer or publisher - it's about finding the right image to capture the feel of the book and sell it to the intended market. (Clearly Martin Scott-Jupp's photos are quite a success in capturing a certain mood...) Despite the first two books being published under the same imprint and by what is technically the same publishing house, there's about 17,000km and different company structures separating Penguin UK and Penguin Australia.

23 November 2009 at 15:25

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