Within eighteen hours of posting Helping Jennifer at the stories blog, it had shot to number two in the pageview list with forty. It’s now twenty four hours since I posted L’Etranger and it’s had four pageviews. In my opinion, L’Etranger is the better story. It’s darker and more thoughtful, so I assume the big difference is due to the fact that Helping Jennifer is a more appealing title.
Not that this matters to me, since both stories have already been published and read elsewhere. But aspiring authors might take note that, if you want stories to be read and you’re not a recognised name, the title should not only be appropriate to the story (which L’Etranger certainly is,) it should be catchy as well.
Once a name is established, of course, it doesn’t matter. Who the hell would read a book called Martin Chuzzlewit if it hadn’t been written by Dickens?
3 comments:
I'll have to get there Jeff and read both. It's so amazing how a title can be such a draw and for who-knows-what reason. Do you think the title should be appropriate to the story? I'm not sure, because in the end it can be a far stretch anyway and if someone's gotten that far, well good. I agree that it has to be catchy, it's a sound bite world out there.
I think the title needs to have some relevance, Della, else why give it a title at all? Whether it needs, to be 'clever' is the debatable point, I think. I'm put in mind of MR James' 'Lost Hearts,' which sounds almost romantic, but it's about an act of vengeance taken by two children who'd had their hearts torn out in a magical ceremony.
I suspect that if I'd called this story 'The Stranger' it would probably be more attractive, but I chose L'Etranger because of the French connection. Maybe I'm guilty of being too clever. Maybe people find the foreign title a barrier.
Yes, I do think a title must have relevance, it's just so subjective sometimes. I don't think L'Etranger is a problem, The Stranger might be too common. One of my old posts has a French title and oddly, it's one of my most visited. But that's because of the goat eye :)
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