Newsletter #2 — Titles Rule!
January 25, 2021
Newsletter #2 — Titles Rule!
Reader Comments — Last week a reader emailed to say: "Very intriguing title...has me curious!" You can bet that comment thrills me. A good title is definitely intriguing, arousing interest and curiosity. It makes the reader want to know more.
Shorter titles are often more intriguing than are longer ones, because they tend to hit harder, like a punch, but at the same time deliver less information, hence arousing curiosity (or maybe leaving you dazed?). I happen to love short titles. And I happen to think that The F Words is a perfect title for the story I wrote.
Sometimes when I tell people the title of my book, they respond by calling it The F Word. Singular, not plural. When they do that, I think they have missed all the intrigue built into the title. A book titled The F Word is pretty explicit. The reader assumes he or she knows what the book is about. But add an s to that title, and suddenly the possibilities multiply: the title is not explicit. You aren't sure what it means. But you will know after you read the book. Also: You might not notice them at first, but there are other f words on the cover.
2020 YA Titles — My favorite YA title of 2020 was We Are Not from Here, by Jenny Torres Sanchez. Here's my GoodReads review.
It's Drafty in Here — The F Words went through five drafts. I completed the first early in 2017, the second late in 2017. I finished the third draft early in 2018. The big structural changes in the novel occurred between the second and third draft. I had to jettison a subplot (Sob!), combine some chapters, separate other chapters, insert one new chapter, and change the order of a couple of chapters.
I finished the fourth draft in May of 2018. And I finished the fifth and final draft in early 2019. All the fine points of tying things together and making the manuscript tight occurred between the fourth and fifth draft. It's the fifth draft that I sent out to publishers.
That fifth draft sold in April of 2020. Except for a few minor changes, that's the version you will read when The F Words is published. In the book publishing world, four years from start to publication is probably average.
Comments/Questions Welcome — If you want to ask a question or make a comment, send it to the email address this newsletter comes from: newsletter@barbaragregorich.com