I was kind of curious about this. I’m in the middle of several good books right now and with some of them it’s easy to tell by the title what the book is about.
Example: Shark Trouble - Peter Benchley.. Pretty straight forward. It’s Benchley’s first non-fiction.
Universe in a Nutshell - Steven Hawking. - Decently straight forward if you know who Hawking is.
Titling these text’s was probably not that difficult. I’d assume there are several factors in good marketing that go into titling. I’m wondering if anyone knows the basics? Does the author have much say in the title? Can they give suggestions?
If your text is picked up by a large house like Random or Penguin or Simon & Schuster, how early would you know what your exact title is going to be? Thanks! I hope someone can help.
[sub]Antiquarian recently got a very good bite on his manuscript…I may need to know what to expect[/sub]
Well, not quite that bad, but the publisher often will change the title for reasons that have to do with marketing or other things. In my own case:
I wrote a novel. As I was doing so, it’s working title was “The Novel.”
Realizing that wouldn’t do, I thought for awhile and then came up with the title “Syron Song.”
The book was purchased.
Before publication, my editor realized that their publishing house had a book entitled “Siren Song,” and, in order to avoid confusion, my title needed to be changed. After some discussion, we decided on “Quarnian” (after the main character). I didn’t particularly like that, but stuck with it.
A month later, I got a call from my editor. The marketing department had spoken: the novel’s name was “Staroamer’s Fate.” I actually liked that better than “Quarnian” and was happy with it.
Most authors have their titles chosen in one of the three ways that happened to me.
When I wrote a sequel, I called it “the sequel,” but when it needed a real title, I went with “Syron Star.” When the book was finally published (see below), I realized the title didn’t work, so told my editor the new title was “Syron’s Fate” to parallel the first book.
The agent I am working with told me there is a very good chance the title of my book will change. She did not mention the fact that I may not have much say in the changes. What I am gathering from you Reality is that I will have no say in the changes. This doesn’t particularly bother me. If they pick it up I assume I’ll be happy enough.
Something similar happened to Joseph Heller with Catch-22. It was originally called ‘Catch-18’, but Leon Uris had a book out (or coming out) at the same time called Mila 18, so Heller’s publisher changed to number. (Uris was a better-known author at the time.)
Well, the publisher really SHOULD consult with you if a title-change is needed. Marketing should confer with your editor, who should phone you up, explain the problem, and ask if you’ve got any alternate titles in your bag of tricks.
The author’s name goes on the front of the book there. The title should not be arbitararily assigned by the publisher.
Ross Thomas’s 1989 novel was turned in to us under the title THE BLACK CANE, which we felt was kinda blah and uninspiring. A few minutes of transcontinental dialogue got us THE FOURTH DURANGO, which is much more fun and evocative.
Oxford University Press just went with the title I slapped on my book, subtitle and all. I tried to make it straightforward and a little intriguing, and I guess nobody objected.
There are millions of tales about titles being changed in the world of genre fiction based on some mystical notion about what the buying public will accept. Some of these occurred with the author’s knowledge, some not. Did they help sales? Did they hurt sales? There is no way for anybody to know.
Confusion with another title is perhaps a legitimate reason to change a title, although similarities happen regularly* and nobody knows whether they hurt either. Personally, I find Catch-22 a thousand times more mellifluous than Catch-18, but if it had been the other way around, who knows? In any case, I find it impossible to imagine that the book of such transcendent excellence would have sold fewer copies with a different title.
My own non-fiction books have had mostly the titles I gave them. In one case the title and subtitle were switched, after my editor requested it. In another case an “s” got dropped off a plural somewhere along the line and I was never able to get it changed back.
The recent case of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone being changed to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the U.S. audience is well known, but few people today remember that the original British title of Agatha Christie’s famous mystery Ten Little Indians was Ten Little Niggers after their equivalent version of the counting rhyme.
You would not believe the number of mysteries with the title of A Fine and Private Place from the Andrew Marvell line, “the grave’s a fine and private place/But none, I think, do there embrace.”
Sometimes coming up with a title is the hardest part. You want it to be irresistible and also give a good idea of what the book is about. I don’t know about other publishers, but at my imprint editors sometimes ask everyone (including the author) to brainstorm as many titles as possible until we finally come up with something everyone’s happy with. We wouldn’t give a book a title the author couldn’t accept, but we would certainly try to talk them around to our point of view. And we wouldn’t use a title marketing really hated because they do have a good idea of what titles will help sell a book, and a bad title can kill a book.
Could you please tell me, Alto, just how the marketing people know what titles will help sell a book or, for that matter, how they know a bad title can kill a book?
We’ve always had input into titles. There was one YA novel that Mr P and the elderly editor wanted to call a title which was strongly reminiscent of gay porn but I shouted that one down. Ended up with a title I think affected sales.
Most publishers will respect the wishes of an author to a certain extent. A couple of years ago I wrote a book and I wanted to rip off Dorothy Parker’s title, Enough Rope (for a mystery). I argued my case with my editor and she agreed to leave the title, as it was relevant and threads were woven into the book that related to the title. (Threads woven into Rope, heh-heh.) Then I needed to revise the book, and after 9/11 I just didn’t have the heart.
So I wrote a different book and gave it a different title. Meanwhile, amazon.com listed Enough Rope as coming out in May (2002), and every time I saw it it broke my heart and my editor kept telling me the publicity people would get it off and get my new title on (and the new release date, too).
However, this didn’t happen . . . until June of 2002 (or thereabouts) when bestseller Lawrence Block came out with an enormous book of short stories also titled Enough Rope, then they couldn’t change it fast enough!
My publisher has changed 2 out of 4 of my titles, and not the ones I thought would be changed. In one case, because my original title “didn’t match the cover.” They were right, the new title matched the cover much better, although it didn’t really match the book. (Although the cover did.)
