All In The Title
I’ve long admitted that book titles and covers impact my buying choices. As a result, I was very interested in a contest held by the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution . It was called the World’s Worst Book Title Contest. Note that these are titles of published books and not ones someone made up.
Ready?
The winner was: Cooking With Pooh. Yeah, it’s a real book. The good news here is that the “Pooh” is Winnie the Pooh, but still. Some other impressive entries were:
-Letting It Go: a History of American Incontinence
-The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification
-Everything You’ll Need to Remember About Alzheimer’s
Again, these are real books. And, for those wondering about the shopping cart book, you can find it here. The synopsis on B&N says: “A must-have for anyone with a passion for shopping carts and a love of the great outdoors.” I’m not even sure what to say about this, so I won’t say anything.
Every author out there who has complained about your book’s title - do you feel better?
November 26th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
My first job in publishing, I was typing a foreign rights catalog for the Frankfurt Book Fair. Our publishing house had the rights to a nifty little volume on taxidermy - called
HOW TO MOUNT SMALL MAMMALS.
Still makes me happy.
Kate
November 26th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Hi HelenKay! When I first read your post I thought the shopping cart title and the Alzheimer’s title were related. I pictured an Alzheimer’s patient with a shopping cart, cruising the great outdoors…
November 26th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Those are awful!
November 26th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt I’ve long admitted that book titles and covers impact my buying choices. As a result, I was very interested in a contest held by the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution . It was called the World’s Worst Book Title Contest. Note that these are titles of published books and not ones someone made up. Ready? The winner was: Cooking With Pooh. Yeah, it’s a real book. The good news here is that the “Pooh” is Winnie the Pooh, but still. Some other impressive entries were: -Letting It Go: a History of [...]
November 26th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Sorry about that Jill.
Kate, your stories amaze me. And, I have an idea for a new book: MOUNT SMALL ANIMALS IN STRAY SHOPPING CARTS. That’s going to be my next single title. Who could resist a title like that…?
November 26th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Lol HelenKay! But if I may, I think HOW TO MOUNT SMALL ANIMALS WHILE IN STRAY SHOPPING CARTS might be a bigger seller.
November 26th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
I like the shopping cart tittle. And it is amazing that someone actually wrote a book about them. I went and checked it out. Sounds interesting, made me think of the ones I saw in places they should not be and wonder what kind of peron would go in such a trouble to place them there. What did they do push them all the way?
November 26th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Thanks for the chuckles. Wonder if those authors/publishers deliberately named the books that way…? Also makes me think about how (whose) point of view can play such a big role though in this case there really can’t be much confusion as to how to read the title(s)! does that make sense?
November 27th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Okay, I’m finding the shopping cart book strangely compelling.
What does that say about me?
No…don’t answer that *g*
December 1st, 2007 at 9:54 am
I totally would pick up the small animals book. BTW, always thought Pooh books had a lot of odd turns of phrase anyway. I mean who wants to be friends with pooh. Ugh!