TITLE HELL

As soon as I got the deal with Kensington Books, the first thing they told me was, they planned to change the title of my novel. I had lived with the title Hunting The Innocent for many years and thought it was perfect. But like most publishing contracts, the publisher has the right to change the title whether the writer likes it or not. I was promised that I wouldn't be given a title I didn't feel comfortable uttering at a bookstore reading...

During the past few months, I've emailed a bunch of titles to Kensington, but they were all turned down. Last week they callled me to say they found the perfect title: Bitch City. I told them I'd consider it, though didn't like it from the moment I heard it. It was the wrong title for my novel. Friends who read my book hated the title. I obviously waited a bit too long to voice my disatisfaction, because when I called to say that I couldn't live with the title, I was told that everybody loved it and they were on a deadline and they couldn't wait a whole weekend for more suggestions. They gave me four hours to come up with something, if not I was gonna have to live with Bitch City.

As I walked around trying to come up with titles, the knot in my stomach grew tighter, and I suddenly felt like it was all crashing down on me, because there was no way I was gonna feel comfortable promoting my book with that title, so my writing career was gonna be over before it even started.

I called Kensington four hours later. I came up with eight titles and nervously read them over the phone. One by one they were rejected and my heart sank lower with each rejection. When I reached title number seven, the voice on the line was suddenly ecstatic, and thought it was perfect. She checked with Amazon. No book with that title. She called the publisher, who absolutely loved it, and I breathed the biggest sigh of relief of my life.

My novel is now called The Devil's Mambo. That's a title I can live with, indeed.