Join me over at Sia McKye's Thoughts...Over Coffee where I'm blogging about the difficulty of introducing my weirdly-titled short story collection, Unikirja, as well as Finnish folklore and mythology. Sia is a terrific blogger who hosts all kinds of writers and writing tips, so you would do well to bookmark her.
I'll be checking in to comment myself, while I do all the last minute things necessary before I get on that plane. It's a challenge being away a whole month so many details to take care of; at least most of my bills are set to be paid automatically -- what a help!
7 comments:
Nice interview. Here's what I was wishing you'd address: Why'd you decide it was worth it to go with a title you'd have to explain to readers? What was the benefit that outweighed them getting a feel for what the book was about?
I love learning how authors choose titles, since I'm brainstorming mine now. Thanks for the insight!
Oooh -- good question, Alexis! I think I'll copy this over to Sia's as well, but the truth is that "Unikirja" was just always the title in my head. I loved the idea of a book of dreams about my ancient heritage, so it had to be in Finnish. I guess market-wise, it seemed to make sense because people who would be put off rather than intrigued by the strange name would probably be unlikely to want to read them. For the majority of things I write (fiction anyway) the title is an integral part of the idea, even if the title gets changed. The novel I'm revising now is currently called Owl Stretching but I bet that will change (I'm sure most publishers would insist), but my previous novel was called Pelzmantel, so maybe I just like "interesting" titles!
The Nomenclatural Zone admonishes:
*OWL STRETCHING*
Best. title. EVER.
iow
DON'T CHANGE EET! :D
*h00t h00t!*
LOL -- thanks for the vote of confidence, Joey. I love it, but I suspect it will be a hard sell to most publishers. Never mind the peculiarity of the story line, which takes place now but in a slightly different US that did not win the Revolutionary War and most plants have been devastated by Monsanto-ization (did I mention the alien invasion, too?).
Kate, thanks for the plug, sweetie. I saw a google alert and here you were saying nice things about me. That is a great question Alexis and I think that would be a great, Kate to address Over Coffee, too.
Love the title of your blog--I belong to a large writing group called the Writin' Wombats, so it caught my eye.
Safe journey and have lots of fun.
Thanks, Sia! I appreciate your hosting me. Dana keeps telling me I need to join the Writin' Wombats...
I've enjoyed your posts. Wonder about the title, though. Will a reader be inclined to investigate more fully when spying it in the bookstore or will it get a skip because it doesn't sound familiar?
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