3 ms·

Maybe what you said applies to bad books. Yes, that's where the phenomenon becomes obvious. I note that none of your titles are business books, for example. ;)

Maybe what you said applies to bad books. Yes, that's where the phenomenon becomes obvious. I note that none of your titles are business books, for example. ;) [Pertinent side question: How do I know that? I haven't read any of the books. Though I probably should, because your reading list sounds awesome.] Which is not to say that the titles of all those books weren't chosen primarily to enhance sales. It's just that the target customer was a nonfiction reader, a person who is probably more likely to buy a book if it has a descriptive, serious-sounding, nonfiction-type title. Perhaps the median nonfiction reader is much more likely to pick up The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York than Architect: Robert Moses and his Largely Discredited Ideas, or Robert Moses: A Musical Homage to an Architectural Juggernaut. (Though the last one might turn out to be a great farce!) Have you noticed that every nonfiction book has a colon in the title? Even my fake book titles have that stupid colon -- it's like a tic, I can't get rid of it! Why is that, do you think? I think it's because the titles are designed for marketing: The initial title is short, and memorable, and evocative like a tiny little poem, kind of like a good domain name should be. The part after the colon tells you what the book is actually about, because the first title is so busy being pretty that it doesn't have time to tell you anything.

scott_s 18y ago
What you say is "marketing," I think is author creativity. Knowing the authors, the titles sound like their writing. For example, being a power broker is probably the main theme of the book about Robert Moses. The term is used several times, there's a chapter entitled that, and the central theme of the book is how Moses came to respect, acquire and wield power. Similarly for The Coldest Winter, the author (David Halberstam) stresses the cold as a perennial problem for the infantry, and most of the events occur during a particular winter. I've read several of his books, and it's very much in line with his writing style. Same with Shake Hands With the Devil. The author (Romeo Dallaire) uses that phrase in the introduction and at a turning point of the book to express how he felt about his position - he literally shook hands with perpetrators of genocide. I agree that non-fiction books often have a kicker in the title to clarify the subject matter. But I think the pretty, poetical title is usually written by the author. At least I think it is for the books I read.
- mechanical_fish 18y ago
  What you say is "marketing," I think is author creativity. What's the difference? Just because the author wrote the title doesn't mean it wasn't chosen for marketing purposes -- to grab your eye, to be memorable, to describe the subject concisely, to pique your curiosity, to remind you of a story inside of the book so that hearing the title mentioned in conversation prompts you to tell the story. Authors are marketers too. Indeed, the first task of any new commercial author is to convince a publisher to buy a manuscript, and that requires a title which catches the publisher's eye, and which the publisher is convinced will catch the public's eye. In other words, when I suggest that publishers pick titles with an eye to marketability, I'm not suggesting that the typical model is "publisher buys the book and then suggests the title". I suspect that's actually rather rare, although some authors have had that experience. Much more likely is the model where the publisher solicits hundreds of manuscripts and proposals and then picks out the handful that feel commercially viable -- and a good title helps a manuscript to stand above the rest of that slushpile.
  - scott_s 18y ago
    What I'm objecting to is perhaps not what you are still arguing for - that book titles are often "inaccurate, or cheesy, or stupid."

scott_s 18y ago

What you say is "marketing," I think is author creativity. Knowing the authors, the titles sound like their writing. For example, being a power broker is probably the main theme of the book about Robert Moses. The term is used several times, there's a chapter entitled that, and the central theme of the book is how Moses came to respect, acquire and wield power. Similarly for The Coldest Winter, the author (David Halberstam) stresses the cold as a perennial problem for the infantry, and most of the events occur during a particular winter. I've read several of his books, and it's very much in line with his writing style. Same with Shake Hands With the Devil. The author (Romeo Dallaire) uses that phrase in the introduction and at a turning point of the book to express how he felt about his position - he literally shook hands with perpetrators of genocide. I agree that non-fiction books often have a kicker in the title to clarify the subject matter. But I think the pretty, poetical title is usually written by the author. At least I think it is for the books I read.

mechanical_fish 18y ago
What you say is "marketing," I think is author creativity. What's the difference? Just because the author wrote the title doesn't mean it wasn't chosen for marketing purposes -- to grab your eye, to be memorable, to describe the subject concisely, to pique your curiosity, to remind you of a story inside of the book so that hearing the title mentioned in conversation prompts you to tell the story. Authors are marketers too. Indeed, the first task of any new commercial author is to convince a publisher to buy a manuscript, and that requires a title which catches the publisher's eye, and which the publisher is convinced will catch the public's eye. In other words, when I suggest that publishers pick titles with an eye to marketability, I'm not suggesting that the typical model is "publisher buys the book and then suggests the title". I suspect that's actually rather rare, although some authors have had that experience. Much more likely is the model where the publisher solicits hundreds of manuscripts and proposals and then picks out the handful that feel commercially viable -- and a good title helps a manuscript to stand above the rest of that slushpile.
- scott_s 18y ago
  What I'm objecting to is perhaps not what you are still arguing for - that book titles are often "inaccurate, or cheesy, or stupid."