Feb 17, 2016

Titles and Nicknames: What the Author Calls a Book vs. the Published Title

I was musing today on book names. Not so much the title a published book has across its cover, but the name it still carries in my head. Sometimes, when people talk about a story of mine I need to do a quick mental calculation, swapping its published name for the one I used to call it privately while I was writing. Some of those first names stick in my mind a long time and others disappear as soon as a final title is decided on for publication.
 
Take my next book. 'A Vow to Secure His Legacy' seems an okay title. Yet, I still think of it as 'Bucket List Bride' which is the name I and my crit partner gave it as I was planning the story. It wasn't a title I suggested to my editor as I really couldn't see BLB being used for a Presents story. The story is about a woman who believes she's dying. She decides to spend her last relatively healthy months on travelling the globe to tick items off her bucket list. Along the way she acquires a French lover and then a pregnancy and her plans change. You can see why the name appealed.
 
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014PTTEQ2
Similarly, the book after this one, which is called 'The Flaw in Raffaele's Revenge' is still, in my mind, my RBB or Reverse Beauty and the Beast, as it's about a scarred, reclusive heroine who falls for the most gorgeous man on the planet. Again, not a title I suggested to my editor.
 
Here are a few others. When I wrote an amnesia story about a hero from Lake Como in Northern Italy it was fated that it would become 'Coma in Como' to me. Most of the time I remember it's now called 'Forgotten Mistress, Secret Love-Child' but I still think of the old nickname just as often as the published title.

 

Along the way 'The Liakos Legacy' became 'The Greek's Convenient Mistress' and 'The Unwanted Wife' turned into 'The Greek Tycoon's Unexpected Bride'. I still remember and sometimes use the old names for those two as they were both books where, remarkably, I wrote the book because I got the title in my head and just had to write the story!
 
'Forbidden Desire' turned into 'Defying His Desert Duty'. It's a story very reminiscent of Tristan and Iseult, where the hero falls for the woman he's escorting as a bride to marry his king. Hence 'forbidden', but I admit I tend only to remember the published title of this one now.
 
 

 
There are a number of others, including 'Love at First Sight' which became 'Undone By His Touch'. In that book the hero falls for the heroine while he's blind, but when he regains his sight he recognises her as the woman he's always held responsible for his brother's death. So there's a question about whether he 'saw' her better through his eyes or when he was blind. Sometimes I have to think for a second or two to remember the official title. 


How about you? Do you use nicknames for favourite or everyday things? Do you find yourself sometimes using a shorthand code with your family and friends for things the rest of us would call by another name? Do YOU have a nickname?

A VOW TO SECURE HIS LEGACY will be out soon. Here are a couple of links if you want to order it:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Book Depository
Harlequin

16 comments:

  1. So many great books and so many great titles, Annie.

    I had a very boring nickname growing up - George - although I was also called PC, short to Pork Chop as I used to carry on like one.

    My poor children get a different name almost everyday...peanut, pumpkin, turnip, peanut pie, turnip toes, sausage, pumpernickel...I don't know why?!?! Now they just answer to pretty much anything. However, my fourteen year old has hinted that perhaps calling him turnip toes in front of his friends might need to cease!

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    1. Jenn, you made me laugh! I've never heard of turnip as a nickname. You'll have to use that in a story. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. Hello Annie, I like the nicknames ..... in fact my husband and we have one each. My nickname is pussycat, my husband's sparrow

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  3. Hi Annie! Oh, how lovely to wander down memory lane with you and look at original titles. Always interesting, isn't it? I actually think Defying Her Desert Duty is great. One of my favorite titles (and books!) of yours. Bucket List Bride always makes me laugh so probably it IS a good thing they changed it in the final version!

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    1. Anna, it brings back memories, doesn't it? Yes, I laugh at Bucket List Bride. I don't think it's immediately appealing, though I love the story. Better that it got another title.

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  4. I love nicknames for your stories, I always think of mine in terms of the couple's names or the series name, much less interesting than your way!

    In terms of nicknames, my husband always had a thing (before we got marrived) for calling me 'Rov' which is a shortened version of my maiden name. We've been married for years now and he still calls me by that same nickname. I can see us being old and grey and him still calling me that :D

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    1. Ah, Stef, that sounds lovely. My parents had the same thing. Dad's nickname for Mum was a shortened and rather cute version of her maiden name and it stumped people who didn't know them well.

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  5. Hi Annie

    Loved this post these books are like your children so it is no wonder that you have nick names for them :)

    I really don't have one although my Nanna always called me Hel and I do have a couple of close friends that call me that also and I call one of my daughters pumpkin for some reason and the grandkids are often Bub my Father was the youngest boy in his family and was known as Bubba for ever even when he passed away the write up in the paper called him Bruce Bubba :)

    Have Fun
    Helen

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    1. Helen, it's nice to have an affectionate name or two in the family, isn't it? Thanks for sharing.

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  6. Annie, you know how much I love the title "Coma in Como"! Makes me snort my coffee every time. Though it's perhaps not quite the right title for a Presents Romance. ;-)

    Mr Douglas and I have a nickname for coffee. If we're making coffee we shout out to the other "Would you like real or imagined?" Real being proper coffee while imagined is decaf. I'm thinking that would sound seriously strange to someone who doesn't know us. :-)

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    1. Love your coffee ritual, Michelle. It makes perfect sense to me!

      Yes, C in C makes me laugh too. Strange when the book's not funny at all. :)

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  7. Such an interesting post, Annie. Having read many of your books I was fascinated to see their "working titles"!

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    1. Kandy, I'm glad you liked it. I'm always fascinated by 'behind the scenes' info on other people's work.

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  8. Hmmm... I had never thought of the working titles or nicknames that authors have versus what it actually gets published as. It does make sense since we can't just talk about book 1 etc without risking confusion.
    I can't think of anything that I use nicknames for right now, but that's brain fatigue - I'm sure I'll wake up in the middle of the night with an answer.

    I do agree that Bucket List Bride would not have worked for the line that the story is published under, but I love that as a title and am going to need that book in print - just so I can note the nickname in it as well as read it.

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  9. Annie, thanks for this peek behind the scenes of your writing! I confess I'm rather partial to Bucket List Bride as a title! It's intriguing and different and immediately raises questions - like is it the heroine's bucket list or the hero's?

    I'll keep an eye out for this book when it arrives on the shelves!

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