Inspired by investigations into lexical choices in translation versus non-translation, this paper presents a rationale for studying the text on the back-covers of translated and non-translated books within a comparative framework. A cross-legitimation hypothesis was formulated to explain previous findings and was tested with the back-cover texts: translations seek to legitimize themselves on the market by referring to the norm (at the level of choice) assumed with non-translations and vice versa. We could not confirm the cross-legitimation hypothesis with the material we focused on in this study. However, this failure is discussed taking into account factors which may have restricted the operation of translativity in this context, namely the limited awareness of target recipients of the tension between domestic and source language culture norm assumed by the research, which may benefit future research into translativity and/or back-cover paratexts.