A reprint of three columns, which I reprint here in one place in order to offer timely advice about titles:

The esteemed Mike Flynn (who has never written a book entitled Wreck of the Country of the River of the Blind Stars) has written an article entitled “Entitlement”, and yours truly as well as real science fiction authors such as Nancy Kress and Michael Swanwick were interviewed and asked to contribute.

You can see the results here:

On LiveJournal

Part I. http://m-francis.livejournal.com/204595.html

Part II. http://m-francis.livejournal.com/205007.html

On Blogspot (the blog less traveled)

Part I. http://tofspot.blogspot.com/2011/07/entitlement-part-i.html

Part II. http://tofspot.blogspot.com/2011/07/entitlement-part-ii.html

Mike Flynn is also proffering the following contests:

Contests



Our favorite titles.

Okay, dear readers, if there are any. Your assignment is to share book or story titles that you found effective, memorable, or resonant, regardless of the quality of the story itself. That is, titles that lured you to buy the book or read the story, or which have stuck with you afterward. What about the title enticed you? What made it work. You don’t have to restrict yourself to SF titles, either.

Old wine in new bottles.

Pick a book or story you liked, and suggest an alternate title for it.

The best “Old Wine in New Bottles” entry mentioned in the article itself, was from a writer who complained of a certain over-meddling editor: He would have re-titled The Bible to War God of the Desert.

The answer was far more material than Mr. Flynn needed, but then again, when I sit down to write a short story, I end up with a three volume novel, so ending up with more material than needed is something of an endemic problem for authors in the Big Time (a title by Fritz Leiber).

THE MIKE FLYNN / JOHN C. WRIGHT interview.

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Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.