Thursday, May 7, 2009

Title Love

Untouched at 60K! Woot, closing in on the last stretch. About 20K left, presumably. I'll have to see how it plays out- right now I'm really not sure. Could be right on the 80K mark, could be a lot more, could be more like 70K. We shall see.

So we all know that titles change. You think you have the perfect title? Maybe you do. But maybe the publisher hates it. Maybe the marketing team says it's no good. Maybe the agent wants to change it before you even go on submission. What if the title is absolutely perfect but another book was just released with the same title (gasp, the horror!) forcing you to come up with a new one?

Would you be okay with that?

I love my title, I think it captures the story perfectly. But I'm not married to it. I don't think I would voluntarily change it, but if I had to, and the new title worked, I would be okay with it.

Character names can also change. That one may hit a little harder for some. My four main characters' names I love. The other ones I'm ready to change at the slightest suggestion that they're not working. The mains' names... well, you'll have to be really convincing. I'm not married to them, but I am in a deeply committed relationship. I would consider dumping them if something better came along, but I would need a really good reason.

My questions are these: Are you married to your title or any character names? How would you feel about being asked to change them?

7 comments:

  1. I think I would be Ok with it! I'd be so dang happy just to be published! LOL

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  2. I could care less about the title.

    But some character names could be a deal breaker. Sometimes I name a character a name for a very specific reason. Unless the agent/editor had a decent reason for wanting to change that, I wouldn't.

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  3. I'm sure our title will be changed. We suck at titles. But it would be much more difficult to change character names, but if the editor felt strongly about it, I guess we'd probably have to listen. It would still suck though.

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  4. The names in my one geology-inspired book I'm pretty married too. They're each taken from geology terms, so changing them to "normal" names would totally kill the theme of the book. But usually...um...no, I'm actually always married to my names. Titles, no, but names, yes.

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  5. Names not so much. Titles, yes. My books almost don't work with the title I've given them, if that makes sense.

    Good questions. :)

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  6. I could never change the names of my characters, unless the powers that be had a very good reason. The titles wouldn't bother me as much, but I love my titles. I had thought about changing the title of my current WIP, but now I love it and won't change it until a publisher says, "change it."

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  7. I "love" my titles, if I have one. Sometimes I have several for one piece and would not want to change them. If changing my title would benefit, I'd do it. Characters? I wouldn't be as traumatized about this one.

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