Well, I really liked Round Trip too because I felt like it really played on the rounds of chemo that Natalie went through but also spoke more metaphorically to how she comes full circle and rediscovers her life.
But.
Nearly every business-y side person thought that it wasn't strong enough, eye-catching enough, if you will. So, what was I going to do? I mean, I wasn't not going to change the title when my agent so strongly urged me to (and my agent before that too), and when her whole agency agreed.
So...my agent and I brainstormed for a while, but didn't come up with anything really genius. In fact, I'm embarrassed to admit them now because they just feel so off. So anyway, my agent also asked for input from other agents at her firm, and bam, her boss came up with TDLF. While I liked the catchiness of it, I wasn't sure, frankly, how well it tied into the book, so I went back and tweaked a scene (toward the end with Susanna Taylor when they're eating scones) to make the title feel less esoteric. Once I did that, it was settled. TDLF was born.
Anyone else have his or her title changed? How did you feel about it?
1 comment:
I haven't yet had a book of fiction published, but when I had one of my first short stories accepted for publication I was told the Editor-in-Chief wanted to change the title to one of her choosing. I was uneasy, but it was pretty clear that from the magazine's standpoint, this was non-negotiable. So I accepted the change (and the clip, credit, and paycheck), and almost five years later it really doesn't bother me at all!
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