What difference does a title make?
If NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEED had been named GHOSTS IN THE BUTTER or some other such nonsense, would it have sold however many copies it has sold so far (honestly, I have no idea how many books have left the warehouse, nor how many have come back)? If Jonathan Franzen's endlessly discussed FREEDOM--the book no critic can avoid reviewing at least once and the New York Times has now reviewed by my count FOUR TIMES--had been called LIBERTY, would it not still be the geitzeit champion of the 2010 publishing world? If my grandmother had wheels, would she truly have been a wagon?
Much has been discussed, here and elsewhere, about the importance of a good cover
on a book. That's a factor that will attract the eye, generate interest, and perhaps get an indifferent reader--or one who's never heard of the author before--to take a look. And when a cover looks especially good, it can make a reader consider the first page, or first chapter, of a book, which can lead to a sale if the author has done his/her job right.
We have to assume the book is of high quality, or the merits of the cover art will be meaningless. And yes, I know you've heard of books that were pure trash and should have been used to hold up the short end of the kitchen table rather than read, but had a great cover, and therefore sold lots and lots of copies. I'm here to tell you, that doesn't happen very often at all. In most cases, it will come down to a difference between your definition of "high quality" and that of the general book buying public. Lots of people read Dan Brown. Equally large numbers like Danielle Steel. You're not going to catch me telling either contingent that it's wrong. And no, I don't think great cover art had any hand in making those books the enormous bestsellers that they are.
But a cover is something that will draw the eye from a good distance away if it's properly designed and displayed. A title? What's in a name?
I have, of course, absolutely no empirical data on this subject. That would require something resembling research, a process for which I have notoriously little patience. If you find a factual error in one of my books, I invite you to assume that it's the product of my total and utter laziness. Besides, these are somewhat silly books, and anyone who is poring over them for factual accuracy might, I daresay, have problems larger than I care to explore. Seek help.
A strong title, I'll venture, is an asset to a book, crime fiction, "literary" fiction, or non-fiction. I had to fight (well, argue--he was in Kansas and I was in New Jersey, so a fight would have been physically difficult) with a publisher over the title to a non-fiction book that was eventually called (as I'd originally written) THE ASPERGER PARENT. The publisher, a house that specializes in books on autism and related disorders, felt that putting the name of the disorder ahead of the noun signifying the person had "less dignity." I argued that a title like THE PARENT OF A CHILD WITH ASPERGER SYNDROME OR A RELATED DISORDER ON THE AUTISM SPECTRUM would be cumbersome at best, and ridiculously long either way.
It stands, by the way, as the last argument I have won with a publisher. I'll leave it at that.
So, does a title make a difference? I'd argue it does. Stephen King probably would have sold CUJO even if it had been called MAD DOG, because he was Stephen King. But when he sold CARRIE, his first novel, and he wasn't Stephen King yet, would it have been as big a success called TELEKINESIS GIRL? Maybe not.
It's a question of degree. I personally loved the title A NIGHT AT THE OPERATION. I practically crowed over that one when I came up with it. So far, it's the book I've written that has sold the fewest number of copies. You can't figure readers sometimes.
But that book also had my favorite cover of the Double Feature Mystery series. Take a look here and tell me what you think. I liked it. Did the cover help? Was it too late, coming on the third book in the series? Was it just a lousy book? No way to tell, unless you could corner every one of the billions of people who didn't buy that book and ask them why.
There's a way to get people back to work, huh?
P.S. There are no dogs or cats in this week's post. This is an ironic comment. But the title got you to look, didn't it?
