Comments on: Accuracy in titling

By: Little Willow

Little Willow — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 19:33:32 +0000

I too love descriptive, accurate titles. Those that mislead will only disappoint those who read.

By: Regina Brooks

Regina Brooks — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:21:33 +0000

Ms. Glover, Im very excited to see your post. Marilyn Nelson would be very interested in contacting you and family members regarding the project. Please contact me at rbrooks@serendipitylit.com The project is still in its infancy and she is currently doing research so your assistance would be invaluable. You’ll find Marilyn’s writings to be highly sensitive, factual and always honoring of the memory of the subject.
Please note: CONJOINED TWINS is merely a placeholder title, until the manuscript actually takes full shape.

By: Chris Lawson

Chris Lawson — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:40:36 +0000

Justine, I think knowing what Tuchman’s books are about should be compulsory knowledge with exams at the end of school on this very subject!

By: Justine

Justine — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:19:45 +0000

Shelda Baldwin Glover: Wow. I'm really sorry to hear that. I can't imagine undertaking such a project without trying to contact the relatives. Lizzy-wa: I have no control over my schedule! I would've loved to go to Seattle. Maybe next year.

By: Lizzy-wa

Lizzy-wa — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:56:19 +0000

how come everybody but me already has a copy of HTDYF?! im even MORE depressed now!

-Lizzy-wa

By: Lizzy-wa

Lizzy-wa — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:55:18 +0000

hey Shelda-la…

sorry… it sounds…really kinda aweful when you put it that way…

-Lizzy-wa

By: Lissa

Lissa — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:50:59 +0000

Pretty much completely off topic:

We got our first shipment of HTDYF at our store today!! So, anyone in Columbia, SC, can get it! It went straight onto my teen new release bay (because I’m in charge of the juvie section!).

I’ve already bought mine. I’m so excited!

By: Lizzy-wa

Lizzy-wa — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:47:28 +0000

yeah. that book sounds… cool…

but on to more important matters:

Justine-la! i havent been on here in ages! i have a few complaints. first of all, one of my friends pre-ordered HOW TO DITCH YOUR FAIRY on borders.com. and it came yesterday! i preordered mine from borders, and i didnt get it! im really depressed!

also, i have realized that you arent coming to washington on your tour… and that makes me even MORE depressed! i was SO looking forward to seeing you and having you sign it and MAGIC OR MADNESS. but now you cant… i knew i should have stolen a manuscript and had you sign it back in october when you came on the EXTRAS tour…

(im just kidding… i would NEVER steal from you Justine-la!)

-Lizzy-wa

By: Shelda Baldwin Glover ancestor Aunt Millie Christine Mckoy

Shelda Baldwin Glover ancestor Aunt Millie Christine Mckoy — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:07:41 +0000

Strange how today’s writers piggyback on the work of others. Aunt-Millie-Chrissie must be turning over in her grave, exploited then and exploited now. A responsible writer would have at least gotten in contact with a descendant such as myself who holds rare collections and memories, such as a church ledger,receipts from the “Old Pearlie Mckoy Field, rare photos not in the public domain..oh then again that’s be my book, the truth about the exploitation of Aunt’Millie-Chrissie and how modern day writers have run amuck with a distorted history. I dare one of them to track down the sibling who was stolen or the sibling who Smith impregnated and shipped off to Florida. Get off the Siamese twins crap and respect HER for an intelligent human being, SHE had one bowel movement, SHE had one Uterus, Can you fathom your baby girl being subjected to a cavity exam, Yes Cavity exam! Peered upon by a bunch of men…SHE was virtuous Aunt Rebbecca McKoy Great Niece of Aunt-Millie Chrissie is still living in Plainfield, NJ, and Fred Dewey Mckoy Jr. is still living in Greensboro, NJ well into his 90’s. These are family who can give almost 100 years of history, yet not of these writers have reached out to them. I currently hold one of the largest and most extensive collections.

By: Nicholas Waller

Nicholas Waller — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:48:57 +0000

The pre-internet past was not all snappy titles; Gulliver’s Travels by Swift is on the title page “Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships” by Swift. “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” have colonic additions, and Peter Pan’s first iteration (as a play) is “Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up”.

By: Amber

Amber — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:01:30 +0000

I read a funny article the other week by Ian Williams, about how everyone is getting colon-happy with book titles, largely because of the way in which internet search engines look for things. So you have the title and then a subtitle that has all sorts of search words in it, so as many people as possible will end up at your book.

He cites ’snappy titles’ of the past and imagines how they would be ruined by the colon-subtitle addition:

“Moby Dick: How Ishmael Lost His Shipmates and Found His Soul While Chasing Jungian Archetypes Around the Globe and Carrying Out Experimental Marine Mammal Research”

The article is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/22/publishing.internet

By: Haddy-la

Haddy-la — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:41:28 +0000

fall out boy (ya i know i like fob but i dont care) has amazing song titals that are normally long and have nothing to do with the song like my favorite G.I.N.A.S.F.S. (gay is not a synonym for suck) its really anoying when people call inanimate objects gay

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:47:12 +0000

Fanny: My question is why are they shelving poetry in non-fiction? Shouldn’t it be in the poetry section? That’s where I look for poetry. Not in non-fiction.

By: fanny

fanny — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:40:20 +0000

Butif, like her other titles Carver: a Life in Poems and A Wreath for Emmett Till, it is a biography in verse and not a novel in verse, then it would belong in nonfiction.

By: Nicholas Waller

Nicholas Waller — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:10:46 +0000

Working titles can sometimes work – in the film world, Working Title is the name of a pretty successful production company, and one of their top films is Four Weddings and a Funeral, which was initially just the in-house working title until something more imaginative came along.

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:30:39 +0000

Chris: It’s not always editors that change the titles. Sometimes it’s marketing or the big book chains. All of my novels have gone through several titles before settling on one everyone was happy with. I try hard not to get attached to my working titles.

By: Steph

Steph — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:25:50 +0000

I’ll agree with you — the title isn’t that great, but the premise really grabs me. I wonder when the release date for it will be…….. Argh, I keep adding stuff to my MUST HAVE list!

By: Chris Howard

Chris Howard — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:01:01 +0000

I’m wondering if CONJOINED TWINS is Marilyn Nelson’s title. Any stats on how often editors change book titles?

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:18:48 +0000

Fanny: That’s dead interesting. I have to say I find it bizarre that poetry could be shelved as non-fiction.

By: fanny

fanny — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:40:21 +0000

Marilyn Nelson’s previous titles for young readers have been biographies told through series of poems and are generally shelved as nonfiction.

By: veejane

veejane — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:04:24 +0000

"Name/Name" or "Name-Name" is a common elocution from the 19th C. when speaking of the most famous conjoined twins of that era, Chang and Eng Bunker. (From Thailand, hence "Siamese twins.") I've read more than one source that calls them "Chang-Eng," especially before they adopted their American last name. As for titles, there is a YA novel out there called Beyond the Burning Time! But it's about the Salem Witch Trials. So. (If you want boring names, you know where to go? Westerns. So boring! The Virginian. The Searchers. Red River. Rio Colorado -- which is Spanish for Red River. Rio Bravo. Rio Grande. The Comancheros. Apache Dawn. And so forth. Historically, it wasn't necessary to signal genre when working with westerns, because they dominated pop culture well into the 30s. But the boring titles!) (Ironically, one of Zane Grey's better titles, To the Last Man, is a terrible novel.)

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:59:10 +0000

Chris Lawson: The subtitle almost never shows on the spine, which means when you’re searching shelves you come up with nothing. Sometime they’re not even listed in catalogues so you can’t find them that way either.

While I’m a fan of Tuchman’s work—she’s a fabulous writer and historian—her titles drive me nuts. You have to know what the book is about in order to find it. Very annoying.

Fanny: I know it’s a novel because of the way the deal was labelled: “Childrens:Young Adult”. If it was non-fiction that would be added to the label.

David & AnnMarie: Yeah, that concerned me also. Fortunately, deal notices tend to be written by the agent and rarely reflect the tone of the actual book.

By: AnnMarie Johnson

AnnMarie Johnson — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:16:11 +0000

For that matter, why is it “Millie/Christine” and not Millie and Christine? Conjoined twins are TWO people, not one and should be addressed as such. I hope the book reflects that. I’m interested as well from this description, unless it really does treat them as one person which I would find offensive and thus unreadable.

By: fanny

fanny — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:45:24 +0000

Do you know this is a historical novel? It sounds like it could be nonfiction. Also, this is just a deal announcement. It’s quite likely the title could change before publication.

By: David Moles

David Moles — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:44:39 +0000

What I want to know is, why is Conjoined Twins plural and “Millie/Christine” singular?