Cover for Japanese Edition
I don’t speak Japanese. I don’t read Japanese. I live 7,000 miles from Tokyo, and I’ve never even been to Japan - although I would love, love, love to visit that amazing land one day. (Nalini, you are so lucky!) So it blows my mind to know that my Coffeehouse Mysteries have gotten there before me! They are now being published in Japan by Random House/Kodansha.
My publisher recently sent me the Japanese editon of the book, and I thought it would be fun to post the Japanese version of the On What Grounds Coffeehouse Mystery cover. (Note the kitty drinking coffee!)
It’s always a bit of a shock to be reminded that books published in another country and/or in another language can have drastically different cover art, interior design, and even be a different size and shape.
Cover for American Edition
I think it’s adorable that the Japanese publisher put a kitty drinking coffee on the cover and continued the kitty motif with the interior design. But at the same time…it’s a little puzzling…There IS a coffeehouse cat in the book, but Java plays a very minor role in the story. This series certainly isn’t part of the cat-solves-mystery genre - not even close! Hence the scratching of my head over the cover design. It’s cute, don’t get me wrong. But the Japanese cover designer REALLY got into the kitty thing.
Japanese Title Page
Then I remembered the whole Hello Kitty movement, which is Japanese, so I’m guessing kitties are popular icons for young Japanese women, hence a cozy mystery series cover with a kitty drinking coffee would prove especially attractive to the Japanese target market.
Do you think I’m on the right track for this Japanese version of cover strategy? I’m totally guessing, so feel free to set me straight - or share your own foreign language edition anectodes!
In the end, I really don’t care what sort of cover is on my book. I’m really just thrilled and happy that it made it to Japan at all, even if I haven’t.
P.S. Hey, Nalini! Given your Japanese themed post, I have to ask…did you ever go to a coffeehouse in Japan? Was there a kitty drinking coffee there? And do you think this cover will fly in Tokyo?
Luv, Cleo Coyle
Author of the Coffeehouse Mystery series: #1 On What Grounds, #2 Through the Grinder, #3 Latte Trouble, #4 Murder Most Frothy, and coming in July 2007 #5 Decaffeinated Corpse…
Cleo, I think you’re probably right with the Hello Kitty idea…that was my first thought. I can ask a friend of mine who lives in Japan what he thinks and whether cats are ‘big’ over there right now.
Yazza
Comment by Yasmine — February 7, 2007 @ 12:03 pm
Thanks, Yazza!
I’ll stay tuned to see what your friend thinks. (I love the little bib around the kitty’s neck and the biscotti in its little paw!) I’m a cat person so it really is too cute. I also write children’s books, so it made me start thinking about creating a graphic novel of the entire story done with animals instead of people. Too surreal. If only I could draw…
Luv,
Cleo
Comment by Cleo — February 7, 2007 @ 1:06 pm
No on the coffeehouse Cleo but Hello Kitty sure is hot! And I can tell you that the title has “Cohee” in it (guess what it means
)
Comment by Nalini Singh — February 13, 2007 @ 2:25 am
Oh and I was once lucky enough to spend time with some of my editors in Japan and they told me the cover has to be pickupable by the shy, so these covers may go over better with women than anything that looks too masculine (guns, blood…). Just my thoughts!
Comment by Nalini Singh — February 13, 2007 @ 2:28 am