I'm currently reading a book called How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran. It is described as "Part memoir, part rant, Caitlin Moran answers questions that every woman is asking." Essentially it's a comedic insight into modern day feminism. I'm still in the process of working through it, so I'm not quite yet sure if it will be life-changing, but so far I've really enjoyed reading Caitlin's take on what it means to be a feminist this day in age. Caitlin isn't afraid to share embarrassing stories from her adolescence and mixes it all in with her thoughts on topics like pornography, cosmetic enhancements, body weight, and sexism.
Since we are currently in the process of designing book covers, I want to compare some of the cover of How to Be a Woman including the American and UK editions:
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| First UK Version |
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| Current UK Version |
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| US Edition |
As you can see, the changes have been minor, but the predominant feature on the UK versions is Caitlin Moran's name. Even though in the first version her name is set below the title, since the title is light grey in a grey area, her name still seems to pop more. Then, in the second UK version (which is the copy I have), her name is gigantic and at the top. Moving to the US version, her name is much smaller, while the title is larger and positioned a the top. I think this has everything to do with the fact that she was fairly well known in the UK (broadcaster, TV critic and weekly columnist at The Times) so they wanted her name to be what caught the audience's attention. But when the book transferred to the United States, the publisher couldn't rely on the name to grab attention. Personally, I prefer the US cover because there is more contrast between the size of the elements on the page and even some breathing room around the title that works much better, although I'm not sure why they stuck with the desaturated photo, which feels very "Addams Family" to me.
