For a few years now, I have bemoaned the dearth of publishing industry professionals at the annual South by Southwest interactive conference. It's not geared specifically toward publishers; though, in many ways, it's telling that online media, the motion picture business, gaming, and the music industry have come to dominate the festival. Why is publishing left off the roster?

Publishing people should attend the interactive festival for a few reasons. The first, of course, is that it's still cutting edge (though, as the size of the crowd increases, that's waning)-- what's being talked about in panels and at parties is what you're going to be chasing after in a year or two. The second that one this is made clear by SXSW: storytelling rules.

Gamers, particularly, get this. They understand that it's not enough to have guns and dragons and scantily clad women. The underpinning of great games is story. What gamers really get is that games are defined in many ways. Sometimes games are played individually, sometimes they're played by groups of people in the same building, sometimes they're played by groups of people within the same region, and sometimes they're played by groups of people separated by geography.

Games, like reading, make people happy*. Games, like reading, invite people to share in a common world with common rules. Games, like reading, offer an alternative to the humdrumness of day-to-day life. Games are fun. Reading is fun. It's no wonder that gamers focus on the importance of storytelling.

But today's games get that participants don't exist in one space at one time. There are options for everyone, be it the solitary soul or the gregarious joiner. Books are like that too -- reading, the act of processing text on the page into brain waves, is something we do alone; but we love to share the story, the experience, the words, the nuance.

To me, the future of publishing is tied to the future of storytelling. The future of storytelling requires the realization that we started out by campfires listening to tales and we have been telling stories in all shapes and forms ever since. Books, as we like to imagine them, are relatively new in our human history. Books, if I may commit heresy, are a means to an end: one way to tell a story.

I am not much of a gamer, just ask my mother. She and my sister play Scrabble like it's a blood sport; I play for the sheer joy of the game. They hate me. I am madly in love with story. When I look back at what has engaged me through the (many) decades, story, mostly in text format, is front and center. I am happy to meander through convoluted plotlines, as long as I can trust that it's all going to come together in the end...even if I disagree with how it happens.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this over the past year, and it still feels weird to write it loud: publishing can learn a lot from the gaming industry. Hmm, maybe not learn a lot, but remember a lot. Remember that it's the story, stupid. Remember that it's the reader who matter. Remember that we're not picking up books to make ourselves miserable.

Most of all, remember that reading is supposed to be fun.


Posted by: Kassia Krozser

I’m about to suggest something that could make my life a lot harder. It just as easily could make my entire profession a lot stronger.

It seems like everyone wants to create comics and graphic novels. Stephen King has presented the latest stories in his Dark Tower series as comics. Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon has his own super-hero, The Escapist. Best-selling author Jodi Picoult has written DC Comics’ Wonder Woman, Jonathan Lethem has Marvel’s Omega the Unknown, science-fiction star Orson Scott Card has written Iron Man, and so on.

It’s not just novelists. Screenwriter-director Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, has written comics based on his own creations as well as long-established Marvel super-heroes. So has Clerks writer-director-actor Kevin Smith. Musicians are involved, too, from KISS’ Gene Simmons to cutie-punker Avril Lavigne to burnout rocker Courtney Love. Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage created the comics series Voodoo Child with his son Weston. The book’s publisher is Virgin Comics, which has also produced comics from author Deepak Chopra, porn star Jenna Jameson, and filmmakers John Woo and Guy Ritchie.

Gol-durn Johnny-come-latelies, I’ve occasionally grumbled. For decades, comics bumped along, often without making much money and almost always without attracting much prestige. Now that graphic novels have started getting some respect, amateurs from other fields want in. Where were they when the business needed them? (I may start manufacturing T-shirts bearing the line “I was comics when comics weren’t cool.”) Like TV stars who get a contract to write picture books or movie actors who get music-company record deals, celebrities are crowding into the graphic-novel world. And I suspect that they might crowd out lesser-known talents like, well, me.

Nevertheless, I want more celebrities to join them.

As a reader, I want to see great graphic novels, which means reaching out to any people who have the talent to make them—even famous people. And as a guy who works in comics, I’m all for anything or anyone that’ll bring the business more attention and higher sales.

But a lot of people who could make great graphic novels haven’t yet grabbed the opportunity, and I want them to. Here are some people who deserve a chance much more than a porno actress or a movie star’s son.

• Comic strip cartoonists. This category would seem to be a natural, but few strip cartoonists do much work in graphic novels. Crafting a three-panel gag requires different skills from sustaining a 200-page narrative.

But some strip artists could do it brilliantly. In Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau weaves stories that run for weeks at a crack, and his characters develop depth and maturity. Calvin and Hobbes’ Bill Watterson has a superb visual talent (look at his Sunday strips) and great skill at making vivid characters. For Better or For Worse’s Lynn Johnston and Funky Winkerbean’s Tom Batiuk have produced long storylines of considerable emotional punch as well as humor.

• Comedians who tell stories. Like comic-strip artists, some comedians are simply great gag writers. But others go further. Bill Cosby tells tales -- from memories of his family to the adventures of Fat Albert and Old Weird Harold to the episodes of The Cosby Show’s Huxtable clan—that indicate a genius for character and story structure. Ellen DeGeneres’ discursive anecdotes seem to run off in a dozen directions, but she always pulls them together into something hilarious. These storytellers could create great graphic novels, and they wouldn’t even have to draw. The field has a long tradition of fumetti, also known as photo-comics. Besides, a lot of artists would love to work with Cosby or DeGeneres.

• Artists who went astray. A lot of creative people studied art but became rich and famous elsewhere. Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood went to Ealing Art College and has kept up his skills. I’d love to see him do a comics memoir of his days in the Stones. Filmmaker David Lynch, famous for movies like Blue Velvet and the TV series Twin Peaks, trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and has created both animated and print cartoons. Horror novelist Clive Barker is a skilled painter of visions every bit as weird as the ones in prose volumes like his Books of Blood. Tim Burton, who started as an animator before going on to direct Batman, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and other movies, has written and drawn books such as The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories.

There are so many more. Suspense novelist Walter Mosley knows comics well; he’s even published a lavish, panel-by-panel tribute to the first issue of Fantastic Four. Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, could produce terrific graphic novels. Editorial cartoonists like Pulitzer Prize winners Don Wright and Dick Locher could deploy their remarkable skill at staging scenes, capturing characters, and making points into superb narratives.

As long as I’m dreaming, I’d like each celebrity guest to do all the work of making comics. No ghostwriters, as-told-tos, or other crutches that let a celebrity come up with a few ideas and turn the bulk of the work over to professional writers. In my ideal world, celebrity creators of graphic novels would have to do what the rest of us do: face the blank sheet of paper and muck through every detail of structuring a plot, building a world, and devising each characters’ words, actions, and emotions.

I can’t forget the way screenwriter Sam Hamm reacted after he first tried writing comics. “Comic books are damned hard to [create],” he admitted in the introduction to his graphic novel Blind Justice. “I did my harrowing stint and came away with enhanced admiration for the talented guys who turn this stuff out on a regular basis.” Still, he added, “It’s an experience I wouldn’t have traded.”
 
I don’t know about you, but I hope that Bill Cosby or Ron Wood would feel the same way.

Posted by: David Seidman

You know that graphic novels are getting more popular all the time. You’ve read GNs, but to do your job right you need to know more about them. Where to turn?

Let me take you by the hand. It’ll be easy.

Publishers Weekly issues a free e-mail newsletter called PW Comics Week, full of news, previews of upcoming graphic novels, links to reviews, and other useful stuff. You can sign up for it here.

The Comic Book Industry Alliance (CBIA) is a group of more than 500 comics creators, retailers, and other experts. If you’ve got questions about graphic novels, if you’re looking for a comics creator to do a presentation, or if you need anything else related to comics, the people on the CBIA’s very active message board can help.

The CBIA’s reach is worldwide. For information specific to your own area, your local comics retailers can be immensely useful. To find a retailer near you, call the Comic Shop Locator Service (CSLS) at 888-COMIC BOOK (888-266-4226) or visit the CSLS web page. You can also check out the master list of comic book stores.

Comic-Con International: San Diego, held at the end of July, is a must for anyone passionate about comics and graphic novels – or anyone who just likes spectacle. The four-day monster, the biggest comics convention in North America, gathers the entire comics community: more than 100,000 writers, artists, publishers, retailers, fans, and more. The show even has special programming for librarians. The 2007 con, for instance, included panel discussions such as “Graphic Novels in Libraries” and “The Secret Origin of Good Readers” (hint: the origin has something to do with comics) alongside “DC Comics’ Big Guns” and “Pro/Fan Trivia Match.” If you can’t make it to San Diego and you want to find a convention in your community, you’ll find links at Comic Book Conventions, Comicon.com, and Hoboes’ Comic Book Conventions.

You probably know that the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is a great source of guidance regarding graphic novels. The organization issues an annual list of Great Graphic Novels and sponsors “Get Graphic @ Your Library” workshops to help librarians work with GNs.

Once you get deeper into the world of comics and graphic novels, I think you’ll like it. We GN folk are a fun and friendly bunch, if a little on the geeky side.

See you soon, I hope.

Posted by: David Seidman

I hate to admit it, but graphic novels can be a problem.

The librarians of Marshall, Missouri, know the problem too well. “Does this community want our public library to continue to use tax dollars to purchase pornography?” Marshall resident Louise Mills asked the city council in October of 2006. She was referring to two award-winning graphic novels: Blankets, Craig Thompson’s tale of first love and sexual awakening, and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Alison Bechdel’s memories of (among other things) her father’s homosexuality and her own. The library pulled the books from its shelves and didn’t return them until March of 2007. The controversy led the library’s board of directors to create a new set of standards for selecting books.

More scary was the Gordon Lee arrest. Lee’s a comics retailer in Rome, Georgia. For Halloween 2004, Lee didn’t give out candy; he gave out comic books. Unfortunately, he accidentally gave one boy a copy of Alternative Comics #2. The issue included a story featuring Pablo Picasso in the nude. Lee tried to apologize, but the cops charged him with distributing obscene material to a minor. The resulting controversy and trials slogged on until April 2008, when Judge Larry Salmon agreed to dismiss the case.

How can you avoid problems like these, especially if you’re not a deep-dyed expert in all things comics?

Librarians experienced in these things suggest treating graphic novels like any other books. “One of the biggest ways that librarians can reduce the problems is to have graphic novels in the appropriate areas, by age,” says Nick Smith of southern California’s Pasadena Public Library. Los Angeles County Librarian Margaret Donnellan Todd explains, “The graphic novels in the children's collection are evaluated for the collection using our criteria for our children's materials. Young adult graphic novels are catalogued and shelved in the sections identified as Teen or Young Teen. These books are evaluated to meet our criteria for those age groups. Adult graphic novels are catalogued in our adult collection and meet our collection criteria for the adult collection.”

“You don't have to have read every book that comes into your collection,” Nick Smith adds, “but you should have general guidelines on why you purchase things, and what sources you use to learn about them.” ForeWord reviews graphic novels, for instance, and so does Library Journal. Diamond Comics Distributors, which dominates the delivery of comics to shops, has a number of resources for librarians. Bill Schanes, Diamond’s vice president of purchasing, recommends the Bookshelf section of Diamond’s website. In particular, check out Bookshelf’s Graphic Novels for Your Library page.

Some of the best sources of information are your local comics retailers. A few, like Nancy McCann of southern California’s Comics Unlimited, have even been librarians themselves. You can find the nearest retailers by calling the Comic Shop Locator Service (CSLS) at 888-COMIC BOOK (888-266-4226), visiting the CSLS web page, or using the master list of comic book stores.
 
If you can’t find a local shop that suits you, worry not. The Comic Book Industry Alliance, a group of retailers and other comics professionals, has a number of members willing to advise librarians nearby or far away. Among them:

• Rick Lowell of Maine’s Casablanca Comics: comics@casablancacomics.com or 207-780-1676.
• Gail Burt of southern California’s Metropolis Comics: metrohero@gmail.com or 562-263-0277.
• Mick Galuski of Toy Soldier Games and Comics in Amesbury, Massachusetts: galuski@gmail.com or 978-388-2512.

In addition, says Gary Dills of Virginia’s Phoenix Comics, “We are currently working with our local librarians to build a resource for reviews and content warnings for teachers and librarians. This site will feature reviews by librarians, teachers, and consumers with ways that the material has been used in the classroom and how often they are checked out of the library.”

To play it as safe as possible, some librarians buy their graphic novels directly from the stores. Phil Boyle of Florida’s Coliseum of Comics retail chain says, “We offered libraries the option to return any book before they put it on the floor if they felt it was not something they were comfortable with. We had many take us up on the offer and we exchanged the books for items that were appropriate.”

So relax. You don’t have to face an angry city council meeting or wake up to find a warrant for your arrest.
 
And a good thing, too. In the words of Joan Kramer, coordinating field librarian for the Los Angeles Unified School District, “All I can tell you is, graphic novels are here to stay.”

Posted by: David Seidman

Ever been to Everyone Who’s Anyone? It’s a website that’s useful but very, let’s say, quirky. The gent who runs it is trying to get journalists and others to pay attention to his writing, which he calls “the greatest work of art of the 21st Century.” To those who choose not to read his work, he says, “You'd rather wallow in the ignorance and petty self-aggrandizement your owners keep you wallowing in for their own mean, miserable, money grubbing reasons.”

So he’s quirky, but his website lists thousands of journalists and others, complete with phone numbers, postal addresses, e-mail addresses, and so on. It needs updating, but it’s still one of the greatest sources of contact information that I’ve ever seen.

If you try to get press attention for events and organizations, you know that it can be an uphill climb. Sites like Everyone Who’s Anyone can help. Author John Kremer’s amazingly comprehensive Book Marketing is another gem, with one page listing hundreds of journalists who write about books and another that includes some editors of newspaper book sections.

Newspapers, though, are in decline. Websites that cover local events can help to spread the news about whatever you’ve got going. The top sites for announcing events include AOL’s CityGuide and two Yahoo! sites: Yahoo! Local and Yahoo! Upcoming.

To find popular blogs and other sites covering your area—well, you probably know this already, but dig through Technorati and Alexa. They’re not always easy to use, and the results aren’t perfect, but they can reveal sites that act as useful pipelines to people you want to reach.

If you’re planning an event dealing with my field—comic books and graphic novels—I’ve got two great places to contact. Publishers Weekly’s The Beat often recommends public appearances by comics creators all around the country, and the Comics Reporter has a pretty comprehensive events calendar.

One last thing. As a journalist by training, I know how crazed and disorganized my colleagues and I can get. When you send out a message to journalists, follow it up a few days later with something like this: “Last Wednesday, I sent you an e-mail about our upcoming event. Did you receive the e-mail—and if so, are you planning to cover the event?” To refresh the journalists’ memories, your follow-up should include a copy of the entire original message. And obviously, you should send out another reminder a day or two before the event.

There are a lot of other ways to pull the press your way – phoning TV stations, mingling at the local press club, and so on. Whether you go by those routes or ones that are, let’s say, quirkier, all I can say is: Good luck, go get ‘em, and remember your old friends (like me) when you become famous.

Posted by: David Seidman

“Graphic novel” is a weak name. For one thing, it sounds like smut. (“Man, that novel was so…so graphic!”) Besides, it implies that a book-length comic book must be fiction.

And that’s a rotten shame, because nonfiction graphic novels have a huge potential readership. The Zogby polling group just released a new survey on books and reading. It found that the most popular genres after general fiction are nonfiction: history, current events / politics / international affairs, biographies, and religion / philosophy. Library Journal’s 2008 book-buying survey says that the books with the highest circulation are in the medicine/health category. An Associated Press / Ipsos poll says that the most-read books in 2007 were the Bible and other religious works; history and biography were popular, too. Nonfiction sells.

So why does nonfiction account for only two percent of all graphic novels?

I took that figure from Amazon.com, which lists 74,021 graphic novels, of which only 1,573 are nonfiction. Quite a few of them aren’t graphic novels at all but prose nonfiction about comics like Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography and The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America.

Maybe there are so few nonfiction graphic novels because they don’t sell. Or maybe not.

Rank Amazon’s GNs by sales. You’ll find that the top one percent – in fact, the top one-third of one percent – includes plenty of nonfiction. There’s history and current events like The 9/11 Report and Larry Gonick’s Cartoon History series, and memoirs such as Fun Home, Persepolis, and Maus.

What’s more, Joe Sacco’s work of comics journalism Palestine seems to find new readers every time the Israeli-Palestinian conflict heats up. Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics is virtually required reading for anyone interested in comics. And Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor became an Oscar-nominated movie.

Publishers for kids know the strength of nonfiction GNs. Capstone Press’ Graphic Library series has dozens them, covering history, biography, and science (including – cough, cough – my own Samuel Morse and the Telegraph). Lerner Publications has its Graphic Universe line, Rosen Publishing has Graphic Nonfiction, the British publisher Osprey’s Graphic History imprint focuses on wars and battles, and Gossamer Books publishes nothing but nonfiction graphic novels.

But where are the graphic-novel equivalents or adaptations of the nonfiction that adults buy? It’s hard to find comics versions of spiritual and self-help books like The Purpose-Driven Life, The Secret, The Last Lecture, and A New Earth. There aren’t many political manifestoes like Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope and Ron Paul’s The Revolution. There’s a shortage of GNs full of advice along the lines of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, or Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. And where are the GN editions of food books like The South Beach Diet? As my retailer friends say, we’re leaving money on the table.

If publishers start generating graphic novels for grown-ups in a variety of nonfiction genres, will retailers and librarians stock them? Maybe not immediately, but I think it’ll happen. I can imagine publishers producing floods of squarebound comic books full of happy-talk spirituality, oversimplified investment counseling, rants about government, and hardnosed commands about how to eat, behave, feel, think, and live.

Say, publishers? Take your time, okay?

Posted by: David Seidman

Following the advice of bloggers and magazines is a sure recipe for entrepreneurial ruin. Does this mean don’t read the blogs or magazines? NO! It means, make the news, don’t follow it. Or—to paraphrase a successful ad campaign: “If you read it, it’s history, if you do it, it’s news.”

Reporting Versus Analyzing

ForeWord, true to its name, is almost certainly the best of the trade magazines—very ForeWord thinking (the theme of my blog today—and clearly the most useful source of information for any independent publisher, independent bookseller, or independent author or librarian. And no, I’m not suggesting you stop reading the trades. Rather, that as a publisher, agent, librarian, bookseller or author, you owe it to yourself to read all the trades—especially the innovative ones such as ForeWord—to give you the foundation from which to launch your new ideas.

But make no mistake—no entrepreneur survives on other people’s ideas. No author succeeds by cloning Harry Potter or The DaVinci Code—or Kunati Books. (Mind you I was tickled to find an indie publisher who "borrowed" our tag line: "Controversial. Bold. Provocative." ) No publisher can thrive for long with an unchanging list of ideas, concepts, marketing plans or authors.

So, read the trades, and the blogs (especially this one, and my publisher blog: http://www.kunati.com/our-publishers-blog/) but only as a base for new-thinking. What’s In and What’s Out is not a good foundation for publishing decisions.

What’s In; What’s Out?

This is the biggest issue I have with the larger magazines and newspapers and their predictions of What’s In and What’s Out in any area: books, fashion, food, wine, you name it. Some journalists and bloggers take on the role of creating fads and fashions, instead of reporting on them.

Independent “Fill-in-the-Blanks” Do It Best

Fortunately, readers don’t always follow these trends, and publishers who simply try to follow fads often find these titles heading straight to the remainder tables.

ForeWord-thinking indies often take the larger risks to introduce new talent, ideas and concepts. I recently read a blog that proclaimed, “Indie’s find the new authors, big publisher’s poach them.” Well, that may be an exaggeration, and clearly the authors have the right to profit from their new-found fame.

But it does highlight the role Indies have taken on; Indie publishers find the new talent and through innovation help them succeed, assisting debut authors to build their brands and careers. Indie booksellers do the same by hand-selling books. Independent magazines such as ForeWord, even more so. Read the story of ForeWord’s inspirational start-up in the 10th Anniversary issue of the magazine. Indies (in any field) are the unsung heroes, you could say.

An Inelegant Segue...
I’ll gratefully make a small plug here that only subtly ties in with my point in this blog: First happy 10th to ForeWord (much deserved!) And thank you ForeWord for recognizing the role of the Indie Publishers with your new Independent Publisher of the Year Award… I’m beyond delighted Kunati and our author’s were honored, and am so much hoping this inspires other indies to innovate, take chances and find new talent. Which is my crazy segue into …

Memoirs… In not Out!
Today I spent two hours chatting with a very talented memoirist with an important story to tell about abuse. Now, I was trying to explain, “post Frey, memoirs are out” but I found myself not believing it. And, in the end, I made an offer on this most wonderful book.

When I look at our book list, I see a dozen memoirs. So, clearly, we don’t believe they’re "out." They sell well. They are not famous people—just important stories from real people with genuine writing talent. Such as Mothering Mother: an important story of a daughter coping with her mother’s Alzheimer’s. And Paul Cook’s new memoir Cooked in LA: a stunning story of addiction to fame, alcohol and drugs. And most certainly Wendy Aron’s amazing Hide & Seek, both a memoir and a story of recovery from one of America’s most debilitating conditions: depression.

Clearly, we don’t believe memoirs are dead. Today, I saw Publisher’s Weekly described Memoirs as “Unstoppable” and cited bidding wars on memoirs. “Publishers continue to snap up memoirs, undermining the perception that the genre is embattled in this post-Frey, post-Seltzer era.” Indies, of course, knew this long ago. It's not news to us.

Novels, a Shrinking Affair?
Commonly accepted “publishing trends” indicates that novels are shrinking affair, certainly for the debut author. Now, here we may be somewhat different from the prototypical indie, and clearly different from the larger publishing houses. We love debut fiction and fiction in all categories. It’s one of the reasons why we’re in business. And we continue to show that debut fiction can be successful, even in a 1 million plus title universe, where self-published fiction will soon outnumber trade-published titles.

But What is the Secret?
Hard work? Innovation? Risk-taking? Creating new trends? All of the above. Our director Kam Wai Yu created the first book trailer back in the eighties. Movie trailers were his inspiration, but it hadn’t been done. Why, we asked? The synergies of two industries combined to create a new phenomenon. Now, we lead with book trailers. But, it’s hardly considered innovative now. Almost mainstream. Nice to set the new mainstream I suppose.

So, on to the next innovation. Blog tours. Okay, that’s mainstream now too. Ezines. Been there, done that. Social Marketing 2.0. Very yesterday. What’s next… well, I’ll share, but not today. (Hint: I share often at http://www.blogertize.com)

Does this Mean You Must Invent?
Of course not. It does mean you must be an enthusiastic early adopter. Make it your own.

By watching ForeWord and the blogs, you stay on top of the next great trend: interactive trailers, paperless galleys, paperless catalogs, live web, online PR... And then you add your own personality to what has proven successful. Blend your brand of enthusiasm with the hottest new trend. Ignore the big publisher trends. By the time you hear what’s hot, it’s yesterday. Live author chat? So old now. Virtual book plates. Done. Think beyond.

Make it your own. Work it (that’s the hard work part). Take risks, especially the ones that only cost time versus money. Invest the time (who needs TV time or sleep?—if I wanted TV time would I be writing this blog?) These are the tools of the indie. There’s no secret.

We Just Want it More
Why does this work for the indie? It’s simple, really. We want it more. We work harder because we want it more. There’s no stopping innovation--and innovation has always come from individual minds.

Individuality is definitely the territory of independent publishers, independent booksellers, and independent magazines such as ForeWord. We have to invent to succeed. We have to work to grow. And we do it with a big smile, because enthusiasm is a big part of the formula for success.

Posted by: Derek Armstrong

by Derek Armstrong, author of, let's see MADicine (one word), The Game (two), The Last Troubadour (three)…(and climbing?)

Novel titles are like clothes. They follow trends and fashions and they get longer and shorter, reveal more, then less. As a marketing professional who has "led" in new ideas in publishing and book marketing since 1988 (for various large publishing companies), I've always preached the almightiest of all marketing rules: Thou Shalt Have a GREAT Title. Without a great title, years of work can be wasted.

Short Thrilling Titles Gone?
For the last few years, the bestsellers lists have been dominated by thrilling, short titles that said little but seemed to promise crisp pace and excitement. Perhaps the over saturation of titles in a 1.2 million-titles-in-print, will change all that.

One word titles are so “out” now, perhaps because an online search nets too many identical hits, or perhaps because they are out of fashion. Stephen King brought it on with IT and Dreamcatcher and other thriller authors dove in with Rabid and Jaws and James Patterson’s snippy titles such as Sail and Jester. Of course there were the classics such as Lolita and Ulysses. (Now, you've got to give credit to a blogger who dares put Lolita and Ulysses in one sentence!)

Growth Hormones in Titles?
Lately, perhaps because of issues of similarity, the titles have grown back up to two and three word bites, with the bestseller lists dominated by plays such as: The Quickie and Simple Genius and of course all of Janet Evanovich’s eternally two word titles, such as Fearless Fourteen.

But The Classics Probably Had it Right!
Classically (and in fashion, classics always return, right?) we favored longer titles. Titles such as A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter seem to indicate the fashion trend is moving back to classic. After all, they're hugely memorable. Who can forget:

* Gone With the Wind
* Up the Down Staircase
* From Here to Eternity
* Splendor in the Grass
* For Whom the Bell Tolls
* The Lord of the Rings
* A Dance with Dragons
* War of the Worlds
* The Pillars of the Earth
* To Kill a Mockingbird

Even Longer? You Asked For It...
Many hot titles are much longer than four words or five, and have caused reader rants and complaints in some cases, but there is little doubt the trend is going long again. And who can argue with the success of A FareWell to Arms or The Sun Also Rises? Ernest Hemmingway was the king of four word titles, and with good reason. Did any other author command such recall from such poetically perfect titles?

Longer Titles Back in Fashion?
So, what’s with the new bevy of longer and longer titles. Do they work? I’d like to invite your comments on these new trends. Here are some popular titles that are inevitably pulling us towards longer and longer titles. In some ways, they sound hip, cool, even catchy. But can anyone remember them?

Quite a Mouthful
In Sloan Crosley’s cool “Quite a Mouthful” blog he cited: "Lucinda Rosenfeld's wonderful What She Saw in Roger Mancuso, Günter Hopstock, Jason Barry Gold, Spitty Clark, Jack Geezo, Humphrey Fung, Claude Duvet, Bruce Bledstone, Kevin McFeeley, Arnold Allen, Pablo Miles, Anonymous 1-4, Nobody 5-8, Neil Schmertz, and Bo Pierce. A title that can be absorbed for the bargain count of…36 words.  Is it any wonder that recent major fiction debuts have been called And Then We Came to the End and Special Topics in Calamity Physics?”

Other hot examples of long titles cited by Sloane:

* Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
* Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
* I Love You More Than You Know
* You Don't Love Me Yet
*I Love You, Beth Cooper.

My own titles go with the fashions. My earliest, The Game, was two short words, but nearly impossible to find against sports titles on Amazon. Then, MADicine, easier to find, but one word. The Last Quest and The Last Troubadour are three words each. Other Kunati Titles range from one word, such as Callous, to a lengthy Mothering Mother, A Daughter's Humorous and Heartbreaking Memoir. Putting aside nonfiction, and long subtitles, Kunati titles run the full spread, all very memorable, but trending longer:

• bang BANG
• Bathtub Admirals
• Belly of the Whale
• Courage in Patience
• A Decent Ransom
• Heart of Diamonds
• Hunting the King
• Janeology
• The Last Troubadour
• The Last Quest
• The Master Planets
• Miracle Myx
• Nuclear Winter Wonderland
• On Ice
• Recycling Jimmy
• The Secret Ever Keeps
• Shadow of Innocence
• Toonamint of Champions
• Truth or Bare
• Unholy Domain
• Whale Song
• Women of Magdalene

Our 2009 titles seem to be pushing into the five to seven word range.

What Do YOU Think?
I’d love to hear comments from readers, authors, agents, librarians and booksellers. What do you think of longer titles? What’s hip right now? What’s just right?


Posted by: Derek Armstrong