{"id":8083,"date":"2019-07-18T07:14:47","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T11:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8083"},"modified":"2019-07-18T07:14:47","modified_gmt":"2019-07-18T11:14:47","slug":"prose-by-any-other-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8083","title":{"rendered":"Prose by Any Other Name"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"books,<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

With more than 4,500 new books published every day<\/em> in the U.S., the odds of\ncoming up with a unique title would seem to evaporate by the minute. No\nsurprise, then, that when you search for a book by title, you often have to\nscroll through a lot of misses to get your hit. Amazon had 10 books with the\nsame title as a short story collection I recently reviewed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suitability<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Emily\nTemple\u2019s<\/a> recent Literary Hub encomium on the naming of Iris Murdoch\u2019s The Sea, The Sea<\/em>, she says, notice first\n\u201cthe incantatory effect of the repetition, the rush of sibilance, the plain\npunch of those four syllables,\u201d not to mention, I\u2019d add, the evocation of the\nsea itself: sssssss . . . sssssssss. \u201cIt just sounds good, and any great title\nshould sound good,\u201d she says. Beyond that is the title\u2019s provenance, which goes\nback to Greek literature. While this distinguished patrimony may not resonate\nwith most of us, she says, \u201cIt\u2019s also, not for nothing, a band name.\u201d More\nnews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can think of any number of novels whose titles perfectly\nencapsulate their core: Rosemary\u2019s Baby<\/em>\n(Ira Levin) or, more recently, Below the\nFold<\/em> (Dick Belsky), and Where the\nCrawdads Sing<\/em> (Delia Owens). Way too many book titles provide no memory-jog\nabout their contents, as a scan of your own bookshelf will prove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distinctiveness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve reviewed almost 175 new crime\/thriller novels for\nCrimeFictionLover.com over the past four-plus years, and occasionally need to find\none on my list. Some titles recall the book immediately. Others leave me wondering,\ndid I read this??<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One strategy is to include the name of a person or place in\nthe title: A Gentleman in Moscow, Wolf\nHall, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine<\/em>. Such a title will be distinctive,\nbut since the prospective book buyer doesn\u2019t yet know who Eleanor Oliphant is,\nit may not be memorable. Lincoln in the\nBardo<\/em> works because you know who Lincoln is, even if, like me, you have to\nlook up \u201cthe bardo.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overfamiliarity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gone Girl <\/em>and the\ncover with the flying hair was suitable and distinctive. Not so the\u2014dozens? hundreds?\u2014of\ngirl-titles that followed. So many the effect was lost. At least AJ Finn,\nwhatever his other foibles, had a woman at his window. Similarly, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley<\/em> (with\na bullet-ridden dust-jacket), suitable, distinctive, even though we don\u2019t know\nhim yet, has now been followed by The 7\n1\/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle<\/em>. A little too similar for my taste, but both\ntitles contain a puzzle. Even a cat has only nine lives and one death. A little\nsnare for your memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memorability<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being suitable and distinctive are ways of making your book title memorable. Given that word of mouth is one of your most potent marketing tools, you want to make sure the title of your book springs to the tongues of your many fans. When their friends seek it out, you want them to find your<\/em> book, not twelve other people\u2019s. Those right few words on the cover are hard to come by, but worth every effort. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With more than 4,500 new books published every day in the U.S., the odds of coming up with a unique title would seem to evaporate by the minute. No surprise, then, that when you search for a book by title, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Prose by Any Other Name - choosing a title for your book is a challenge. What a title has to do for you.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[122,174,311,29],"tags":[1605],"class_list":["post-8083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book","category-first-draft-blog","category-novel","category-writing","tag-title"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/bookstore.jpg?fit=459%2C424&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-26n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8085,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8083\/revisions\/8085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}