First up this month Nichole, Scott and Ellen tackle the touchy subject of titling books. If you are like us, you know the feeling of becoming attached to the titles of our work. Our New Author team shares their advice and experience dealing with this issue. Next up, they share their tips for staying in tip-top writing shape when you are gearing up for that great idea.
Have a question about how to navigate the publishing world or writing that first novel? Then submit your questions to our New Author team by emailing us at: askanewauthor@bookdivas.com!
I heard that sometimes editors change the title of your book. Is this true? Has this happened to you? And if it did, what was your reaction?
Nichole: I think it's quite common, though it hasn't happened to me—or should I say not yet, since I'm still a distance from my pub date. My agent did request I change it though, back in our pre-sale days, and I took it from the amorphous To Reach the Knowing to the slightly more tangible The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D.
Editors and agents have a variety of reasons for changing titles, from making them more concretely descriptive and evocative to one more easily remembered, and sometimes, one that's simply liked better by a high-powered buyer for a large chain.
Scott: I’ve heard that too, but like Nichole, haven’t experienced it. My manuscript was titled Wire to Wire almost from the start. At one point, when I was sending it out, I began to wonder if the title was holding it back. I remember a car trip with my wife and son when I began throwing out alternatives, all of which were mercilessly shot down. Bag Full of Glue? (Too depressing.) Ghosts of Desire? (Bodice-ripper.) The Northern Arrow? (Slight Boy Scout or Native American overtones.) I cite this only as evidence of how crazy you have to be to write a book.
Just before I sent the manuscript out for the last time, I put Wire to Wire back on the top — the only title I ever really liked. Looking back, it seems like a tremendous stroke of luck.
Ellen: A friend of mine had the experience Nichole mentions—having the powerful buyer for a big chain demand a title change—but I’ve been lucky about that. I knew that House Arrest was the right title for my novel and my editor never questioned it.
Now jacket design, that’s a whole other issue, another one that, like titles, can create all sorts of conflict between author and publisher. And that did happen to me. The publisher and I had very different ideas about the right cover for House Arrest. By contract, it’s their right to decide, and eventually I had to just make my peace with it. Which is what I suspect most authors do when the publisher insists on a title change.
While I want to write a book, I just don’t have a great idea for one right now. What are some good writing exercises to keep “in shape” until the idea hits me?
Nichole: Blogging is a big one, and if you don't have a blog of your own you can ask to guest post elsewhere. This serves the triple function of keeping your writing brain limber, getting to know prominent bloggers, and getting your byline out in the online world. Another favorite of mine is charitable writing, which I once wrote about here: "When Writing Doesn't Pay (And It Feels Great)"
Some organizations, such as smallcanbebig.com, rely on volunteer writers to craft shortstoryesque profiles of families in imminent need, which are collected online with a link to make easy donations.
While you wait to land on the perfect idea, there's no harm testing out the less-than-perfect ones. False starts are writing exercises, too.
Scott: I have to make presentations sometimes, and in hopes of making them more effective, I got some help from a drama coach. Part of his advice: never say anything you don’t believe. Things you believe in inherently have more power.
Translating that to writing, I would say this: go ahead and put words on paper in all the ways Nichole mentions and more — just make sure it’s something you really care about.
There’s also the possibility that you don’t need to wait for a great idea. My first writing teacher, (Jack Cady, The Rules of ‘48) said this: take two reams of paper and ruin them. Play with it the way a child would play with it.
That advice won’t get you or anyone through a manuscript, but it will certainly get you started. At least it did for me. I still have the ruined reams of paper to prove it.
Ellen: One thing that works for me when I’m “between ideas” is to change my environment. Instead of writing at my computer at home, I take a notebook to a coffee shop (preferably in a neighboring town, where I don’t know anyone) or onto a bus or subway. There, outside of my usual daily routine, I observe people closely, describe and exaggerate the small details that I see or hear, and make them into characters. Then the stories start to come. I find that if I let my imagination go and follow it, the “ideas” that I care about start to worm their way into the stories that grow from these newly found characters, and sometimes I have a new project worth pursuing.
