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Dear Reader,
Does the name of a book make a difference in its success? Sandra Dallas, New York Times best-selling author (of 11 novels), has expert advice to share in today's guest column.
And it's easy to enter the drawing for one of three copies of Sandra's latest book, Fallen Women. Simply send an email to: Sandra@sandradallas.com
Welcome Sandra. Thanks for visiting the book club today...
What's in a name? As authors, we know the answer is quite a bit. To Kill a Mockingbird would be an outstanding book by any other name, but its title makes it even more intriguing. What if it had been called The Trial of Tom Robinson?
Some books take off just because of the title. That happened with my second novel, The Persian Pickle Club, about a group of 1930s quilters with a secret. The original title was The Interesting Hour Club, the name of author Laura Ingalls Wilder's rural women's group. It was okay, but not great. Then I read that the paisley design was called "Persian pickle" by Victorian women. So I put that together with "club" and came up with the new title. I was an unknown author then, and several book dealers told me they ordered the novel just because they liked the name. Since they had the book in stock, they had to check it out. They liked it, and recommended The Persian Pickle Club to their customers. The book sold hundreds of thousands of copies, primarily through word of mouth. A number of book groups have told me they call themselves the Pickles, after the book title.
Sometimes I have the title before I come up with the book. That happened with New Mercies, about a woman who goes to Mississippi to find out about the death of an elderly aunt. It's a Biblical verse and part of my favorite hymn, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." I literally dreamed up a book to go with the title Prayers for Sale. I'd read a WPA slave narrative, published in the 1930s, that mentioned a former slave who filled his pockets with prayers written on scraps of paper. He carried a sign advertising "Prayers for Sale." The Bride's House was another title in search of a plot. An architect who toured a decrepit old mansion we bought in Georgetown, Colorado, declared, "It's a bride's house." What a great title for a book, I thought, and went in search of a plot for The Bride's House.
My agent titled Whiter Than Snow when it was a manuscript with the dreary working title of Avalanche. My editor, who has an unerring instinct for titles, came up with True Sisters for a work about the Mormon handcart migration that I had called only "the handcart book."
She also titled Fallen Women, a novel about the murder of a prostitute in 1885 Denver. The original title was Holladay Street, which was Denver's red-light street. It was named for freighter Ben Holladay and later changed to Market Street. My agent took one look at the title and said, "Your readers are going to think this is a Christmas book." Big surprise.
But that remark led to an idea for next year's novel. Its title: A Quilt for Christmas.
--Sandra Dallas
Send an email to enter for a copy of Sandra's book:
Sandra@sandradallas.com
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
AUTHORBUZZ: THE ANTIGONE POEMS (Poetry) by Marie Slaight/Terrence Tasker
The Antigone Poems is collaboration between artist Terrence Tasker and myself that was created in the 70's. It is an intensely personal work that I have long wanted to publish, in large part as a tribute to the artist. It is a story of a woman's struggle with power, both human and elemental. My intent with the poetry was to sculpt it to a bare and truthful essence.
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on THE ANTIGONE POEMS to read more and to email author Marie Slaight, you'll get a reply.
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