This post is really just my opinion on what can go wrong when a book gets published in Germany.

And believe me that happens more than you think. And yes, I’m aware of this just being the minority but it makes me angry nonetheless.

It’s a totally subjective post and I can only speak for German releases.
No idea how it works in other countries.

1. Inventing a new English Title for the German edition

Okay I’m not thinking about anything as hilarious as “The Playboy Sheikh’s Virgin Stable-Girl“and other wonderful Harlequin Presents creations but the things we get here in Germany are sometimes rather mind boggling. I can understand when an English book gets a German title cuz that’s what we all would expect but why would they change a English title into another English title and publish that in Germany?. I really love the US cover of “Stranger” and I think it was a great decision to keep it in for the German edition but why change it into this title: Callboys- Die Schönen der Nacht (transl.: The Beauties of the Night)? First the callboy color on the book look like DIY and in my opinion this title is kind of degrading the book. Second: who decided that German books always need these stupid subtitles? And last but not least, why do they always make the covers so blurry? It’s not like the Germans are prude with book covers. (example here. Just click when you are over 18- I warned you!)

2. Getting a confusing cover

Here we have the US cover of Taking Care of Business by Megan Hart & Lauren Dane on the left and on right the very confusing German counterpart. Yes you see it right: we have 2 girls in action on the German cover yet there is no girl action in this book. I won’t say that the cover isn’t good on the eyes but why do they put 2 girls on it? Did they even bother to read the book at all? I think they made like 10 pics of these 2 women and had to put them on some books cuz I found at least 2 other books with these girls on it on amazon.de. Even worse, A while back on twitter I heard that on the first cover for this book only Ms. Hart was mentioned as the author. Go German publishing. I really have no words for something stupid like that.

3. Getting a plain ugly cover

I so love the US cover of Red-Headed Stepchild but I can’t believe that someone thinks the German is anything near pretty. First: The font seems to be a Buffy look-a-like for the poor. And who thought putting something purple under it would be a wise idea? Second: Sabina’s tat looks gorgeous on the original. It totally fits the model- just perfect. An the German cover it looks like the tat was made by a six years old and a black marker. And the model looks strange but that is probably just me being too critical.

4. Making even more money on a foreign market

It’s my pleasure to show you on the right: Racheengel: Black Dagger #13 (trans.: Avenging Angel ) Yep the number is no typo that is the book that is up next in Germany. One really clever guy at Heyne Verlag decided to split the BDB books up in 2 for each English book. So we are currently at book 14 Blinder König (transl.: Blind King) which is part 2 of Lover Avenged. This way they can make even more money cuz one book is always around 8€ (=10$). That’s one of the reasons why I started reading in English.

5. Getting a bad translation

This is the worst that can happen to you. And the example I chose is also the one I’m most sorry for. I adore Ilona Andrews books and I can’t say often enough that you should read them. But I have to warn you: don’t read them in German. Ilona unfortunately got one of the worst translation I ever read. The book is not bad in German cuz after all it’s still an Ilona Andrews book, but if the translation would be better it would have been a bigger success in Germany.

So that’s my top 5 of bad things. What is yours? Any other stories you can share with us?

P.S. Blogger hates me again today so the layout is a bit….you can see what I mean!

About Susi

Susi is a geeky vegetarian from Gemany. She just finished university and now works as a civil engineer in steel construction. Besides her reading addiction she also knits like a maniac while listening to audiobooks. Susi also blogs at the Secret HEA Society.

• View all posts by Susi →
• Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook