Beware of Working Titles
by Dan Poynter
Be careful what you make permanent. Working titles are dangerous. They can become too familiar to us while being misleading or meaningless to potential customers.
Choices, a Teen Woman's Journal for Self-awareness and Personal Planning was a hot seller and spawned a publishing company as a subsidiary for the Girls Club of Santa Barbara. The company thrived but soon found that Choices could not be used in schools unless there was a version for the boys. So the authors, Mindy Bingham, Sandy Stryker and Judy Edmonson, wrote a matching masculine edition.
Working titles ranged from Choices II, to Choices Too, and even Son of Choices. What sounded ridiculous or humorous in the beginning became familiar and sounded fairly good.
Finally the three female authors settled on Changes but found that men did not like the proposed title. After discussions with a number of men (including Mindy's father), they agreed to change the title to Challenges, a Teen Man's Journal for Self-awareness and Personal Planning. The female authors discovered that while many women want a change, most men do not like change. Men prefer challenges.
The title must be easy to remember and easy to say. It has to grab the attention of the potential buyer and it must project an image the buyer can relate to. Authors and publishers often argue over titles. Authors may be closer to the subject matter and publishers may be closer to the buyers.
Authors, as a rule, are poor judges of titles and often go for the cute or clever rather than the practical. ―― Nat Bodian, The Joy of Publishing
So far Choices has sold over one million copies and Challenges over a half million. They are used side-by-side in many schools.
A "working title" is for the manuscript, not necessarily for the book.
Click on this: next column
Writing periodicals:
Dan Poynter does not want you to die with a book still inside you. You have the ingredients and he has your recipe. Dan has written more than 100 books since 1969 including Writing Nonfiction and The Self-Publishing Manual. For more help on book writing, see http://ParaPub.com. © 2003
or
Book Publishing periodicals:
Dan Poynter, the Voice of Self-Publishing, has written more than 100 books since 1969 including Writing Nonfiction and The Self-Publishing Manual. Dan is a past vice-president of the Publishers Marketing Association. For more help on book publishing and promoting, see http://ParaPub.com. © 2003
or
Professional Speaking periodicals:
Dan Poynter has written more than 100 books since 1969 including Writing Nonfiction and The Self-Publishing Manual. He is past-chair of NSA's Writer-Publisher PEG and the founder of the PEG newsletter. For more help on book writing, publishing and promoting, see http://ParaPublishing.com. © 2003
|
|
|
Dan is an industry expert on publishing and travels
the world to spread the word. He is an inspiration to writers everywhere.
The Fox&Quill thanks him for providing this article from his website.
Be sure to check out the site for all sorts of great tips: |
