US book news: a new sub-title for Lonely
It’s happened again, folks. Lonely seems to be a hard book to pin down. Since early 2009, I’ve had publishers on both sides of the border trying to come up with an appropriate subtitle.
In the US, my book is “Lonely: A Memoir,” while in Canada, it’s “Lonely: Learning to Live With Solitude.” This is the only difference between the two books.
My US publisher is now leaning towards my Canadian subtitle, because it has an educational aspect to it (and I do want the book to be educational). But they want to keep the memoir aspect as well. It’s tricky: the book is such a mish-mash of data, personal stories, and interviews, it’s really hard to know what to call it.
My new US title for the paperback will be Lonely: A Memoir on Learning How to Live With Solitude. It’s a mix of the original US and Canadian titles.
Confused? It’s a bit odd for a book to go through so many names, but since I just call it Lonely, I’m trying not to get too fussed about it (I won’t let them change the “Lonely” part.) You can write and share your two cents re the new subtitle, but the boat has pretty much sailed. Once it’s up on Amazon.com (and it is), it’s final. I hope people like it!
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 17th, 2010 at 12:46 pm and is filed under the category First Time Writer Stuff.
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5 Responses to “US book news: a new sub-title for Lonely”
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hi, Loneliness and solitude are not the same thing. Solitude is both a verable concept and has a long history. People who go on retreats are seeking solitude, to be alone with self, etc, what you referred to in part under the Existentialist rubric on radio. associating loneliness and solitude in the book title is, for me, misleading. good luck.
The subtitle about “solitude” is a misleading. It implies a Walden Pond type life. On the contrary, most if not all of us do not actually live in solitude. Maybe a better subtitle might be something like “Reflections on a Life of Inner Solitude”
@ Deb and Sean: I agree with the problems re solitude, but publishers are funny people. I tried to flag the solitude issue early on, but did not win that battle. We’ll see what happens with the subtitle when it is out in the world….
Hey Emily,
-Julie
I just got back from seeing my counselor and she is reading your book; she is halfway through. She immediatly suggested to me that people in my Cognitive Behavioral Therapy group may have been turned off by the book’s title because it is ‘sad’. I, myself, was not turned off by the title! And I really liked the image as I can relate to the flower being cut off from the oxygen it needs to survive. As to the new title from Canada, I think it will improve the book’s chances; not just to say that it is a study, but also to hint at and describe the book a little more, by just looking at the cover. Otherwise, of course, it IS a memoir, but people may be turned off by that because it is not necessarily entirely a memoir, rather it is a combo. I enjoyed the memoir aspect of it so much and thought it was needed; most people who are lonely are not giong to find out that they are not the only ones who experience those feelings and situations which you described- because they are not really discussing loneliness with others. Therefore I think the memoir aspect was perfect and needed. I certainly benefitted from it.
I have another comment. Most people in America know what solitude is; especially the book reading type of people. They also would probably be the ones who ‘get’ the benefits of solitude and who might have a lot of it on hand. In including that word in the title, you are openly naming and welcoming the experience that people are familiar with and yet you are calling them to question themselves, in that short instant of glancing at the book cover, whther or not their ‘solitude’ goes further than that into something unhealthy. That is a good question and a good starting point for people who may not yet know if they are really lonely. Like I said, I think the title change is a healthy one that will draw more people’s intrigue who may be just at the brink of being aware that they are indeed lonely.-Julie