Exactly my thought when I compared the covers. For much the same reasons as the ones you give.
Covers don't exist to represent the book, they exist to sell the book.
One might get a cover that represents the book, but that's because by happy chance the goals overlap. When they differ, selling always takes precedence.
So I can understand the US cover, even if it's not quite to my taste, and I suspect it will do its job well and make the book sell.
As for the UK cover, am I right in thinking - especially given they first came up with this design style for the Fuller Memorandum - that Orbit chose that design with an eye on the crossover market, selling it to crime readers as well as to sf readers?
]]>I realise this makes it appear I have little faith in human nature, but my lack of faith is backed by evidence; people already blatantly don't understand how the economics of ebooks work - "you don't have to print and distribute them, therefore they should be massively cheaper!" - and if they can't understand that there's no way they're going to understand a model that calls for them to pay for an ebook more than once.
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