While doing research for a food author of ours (naturally this involved sampling the food...and the coffee...and the chocolate) on a new UWS establishment, my boss articulated a point about the proposals, queries, and titles wonderfully: The proposal is the microcosm of the book, the query is the microcosm of the proposal, and the title is the microcosm of the work itself. A good title is golden. An editor can walk into an editorial board meeting and have the attention of everyone in the room in just one line.
(A side note: I should mention that editors must pitch work to their offices--they don't simply have a pile of money to throw at any project they wish. Instead, they must have not only the rest of the editorial staff on board, but often the sales department, as well, before they can even make an offer.)
You should know this: we've agreed to take a look at work with ho-hum queries simply because of the title. My favorite title to date remains a (sensitive, charming, insightful) work by our author, Greg Wolfe: How to Make Love to a Plastic Cup: And Other Things I Learned While Trying to Knock Up My Wife. Hilarious, self-explanatory, intriguing, and brilliant to bring up at informal cocktail parties. The ideal title is all of the above.
What's your favorite book title? Comment below.
2 comments:
The plastic cup made me smile--is that a bad thing?
As far as titles are concerned, I always wondered about those 'for dummies' books. I don't consider myself a dummy, so why the heck would I want to walk around with a big black and yellow book announcing to the world that I am just that?
Not a bad thing at all! We were laughing hysterically as we read the work: it's wonderful, kind, insightful, sensitive--but the writer is just so funny.
I'm also split on the "For Dummies" books--I know why they did it, though: it's to create a recognizable brand. But I agree. Unless they can start coming up with titles like Nuclear Physics for Dummies, I'm not impressed.
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