Monday
25Jun2007
Of Mules in Horse Harness
Monday, June 25, 2007 
I must be missing that chromosome that allows me to come up with book titles. It’s one of my great struggles as a writer. Some writers come up with a great title, which spawns an idea, but they never seem to finish the book. I’m the opposite, because my book is sitting here staring at me, and I can’t figure out a name for my baby.
Of course, I could just call it what I’ve called it all along––The Panama Hotel. It’s a real place. It’s where the story begins. But the book takes place in Chinatown, Japantown and various internment camps. The Panama Hotel, while I’m used to it, sounds like a place Manuel Noriega would go for spa treatment.
Plus, Kristin (agent) wasn’t crazy about it, and neither were the other agents that offered representation. And when Kristin did some pre-submission pumping of the book in NYC, the name was a bit confusing.
So after much hair-pulling, hand-wringing and Diet-Pepsi drinking, I’ve sent a mondo list to Kristin for her input. We’ll see…
In the meantime, here are some books you know, and their original titles. Nice to see I’m not the only one who has this problem.
First Impressions - Pride and Prejudice
The Copperfield Survey of the World As It Rolled – David Copperfield
The Sea-Cook - Treasure Island
Stephen Hero - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Under the Red White and Blue - The Great Gatsby
The Old Leaven - The Sun Also Rises
Tenderness - Lady Chatterley's Lover
Twilight - The Sound and the Fury
Catch-18 - Catch-22
Salinas Valley - East of Eden
Mules in Horse Harness - Gone With the Wind
Proud Flesh - All the King's Men
Come and Go - The Happy Hooker
Bar-B-Q - The Postman Always Rings Twice
And my personal favorite, Something That Happened eventually became Of Mice and Men. (Steinbeck must have let Lennie come up with that one).
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Reader Comments (21)
And how do you go from Bar-B-Q to The Postman Always Rings Twice???
I really had no idea what kind of input I'd be allowed to have on the cover. I'd always heard that once it's under contract, it's really in the hands of the marketing folks at the publisher since they know what jumps off the shelf. But I guess we can always suggest ideas--what they do from that point is a bit unknown...
Seriously, I am one of those who can think of a title but can't write the book...Funny how things work out that way...I have a ton of ideas, but can never follow through with any of them...
Good luck on your search.
JLB--here's a page with more titles:
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=638378
I found a bunch of 'em on various pages, but this was a nice compendium.
I think Panama Hotel would be better than The Panama Hotel. Good luck with your books. Let us know the final title!
Will be following your title trail. Here's wishing it turns out as terrific as Of Mice and Men. :-)
I was so intrigued by Catch-18 that I looked up this information on the Wikipedia:
"A magazine excerpt from the novel was originally published as Catch-18, but Heller's publisher requested that he change the title of the novel so it would not be confused with another recently published World War II novel, Leon Uris's Mila 18. The number 18 has special meaning in Judaism and was relevant to early drafts of the novel which had a somewhat greater Jewish emphasis.[3]
There was a suggestion for the title Catch-11, with the duplicated 1 in parallel to the repetition found in a number of character exchanges in the novel, but due to the release of the 1960 movie Ocean's Eleven this was also rejected. Catch-14 was also rejected apparently because the publisher did not feel that 14 was a "funny number". Catch-17 was also rejected so as not to be confused with the WWII film Stalag 17 So eventually the title came to be Catch-22, which like 11 has a duplicated digit with the 2 also referring to a number of déjà vu like events common in the novel.[3] "
I love the idea that certain numbers are funnier than others. Yeah, 14, you're just not funny enough.