Another new (final) subtitle!
My US subtitle has changed again, and it’s final this time. The title will be Lonely: A Memoir on Learning to Live with Solitude. I think I like it.
It may sound strange that the title has changed so many times, but here’s a glimpse inside the world of publishing: young writers often don’t control their titles. A title and subtitle have to be approved by layers of people in editing and marketing. You have to be a very established writer to have the clout to go to a publishing house and say, “This is the title. And it’s not changing.” I actually don’t mind the process of revision: it’s interesting to see how other people think about the book.
Another publishing note: I don’t choose any of the headlines or “decks” (the few lines below the headline) for any articles that I’ve written. Again, editors write those. So, if you see something such as “Loneliness swallowed me up,” it”s an editor at the Guardian writing that, not me.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 at 9:20 am and is filed under the category First Time Writer Stuff.
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2 Responses to “Another new (final) subtitle!”
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I like the tentativeness behind that phrase: I *think* I like it.
*I* think it’s a bit of a misnomer, the US subtitle and perhaps speaks of the problem publishers have with non-fiction books that just are, in your case, a memoir (when they want them all to *do* something).
I’m assuming this post was written by Ms. White as this is my first post to this site. I once wrote a haiku, here’s the gist: Solitude sits in my living room, mocking me. My former lover of 15 years ago once asked me how I felt about solitude after I mentioned my loneliness. She had two children, a husband (a bit of a history here), and an extended family, and was an attorney with an excellent social network. She did not get ‘loneliness’ in the way I felt it, and how you’ve written about it in your book.* That was the genesis to the haiku. All this to say, solitude seems to be born, out of an already rich life, or where one has their loneliness in tow. As I have not finished your book yet, I don’t know how your loneliness ends and/or heals. And, I believe I owe you $26 and change. Have you ever heard of Abbey Hoffman?
*(that is, indeed, quite the hollow comment on how I feel about what you’ve written)