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Monday, July 2, 2012

The Lost Princess

In my continuing search for an alternate title for Elementals, I'm considering The Lost Princess.

Yes, it's been done before, but hear me out.

1) It has been done before. An Amazon search yields four titles, meaning I increase my odds of getting seen by people looking for something else. It could also be said I risk losing attention as a potential reader gets distracted or confused by those other titles, but I may be willing to take that chance.

2) It could apply to either princess. Glorya certainly gets physically lost and Dyana is the prodigal sheep. Am I mixing my parables?

Why not go for the plural, then? Because "princesses" sounds stupid and is annoying to hiss at people. Better to keep it simple and singular.

3) I'm not finding any one or two words to express the multiple dualistic elements of the story. I considered "Essentials," but it sounds like a feminine hygiene product or a line from Victoria's Secret. I'm not OK with people finding that in a search. Suggestions from my test readers tend to focus on one or the other of the story lines, depending on their preferences, so I'm not getting anywhere that way. I've been thinking of it as Elementals for so long, I'm nearly useless in calling it anything else.

4) Finally, it pays homage to one of my favorite authors and favorite books: George MacDonald's The Lost Princess, which I found in my Amazon search, btw. Of course, there is only one princess in that story (Agnes is a shepherd's daughter) but nothing is perfect.

I'm not devoted to the idea, but it's the best I've managed so far.

Why change it? You've asked that before. I'm not sure I should, but since I have creatures called "elementals" in Star of Justice, I don't want readers to think that this book has anything to do with that world other than the same author. It doesn't. I don't even have a sequel planned for Elementals, although a few ideas have floated about in the empty space between 3 and 4 AM.

Which reminds me I'm once again cycling through insomnia, so beware. Crankiness always follows lack of sleep for the turtle.

4 comments:

  1. My personal opinion--it's not a title I'd pick up. It sounds like a children's book, and Elementals is not a children's book. At the very least, I'd expect sweetness and fairy tale stuff, and Elementals is neither.

    You need something a little darker--not really dark, but not all girls in pretty bows.

    Hope my comments don't incite the sleepy-crankies. You may respond in kind by being blunt about my writing. Oh, wait, you already did that ;).

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  2. I can't really suggest a title for something I haven't written, but The Lost Princess doesn't excite me. If I ran across it on Amazon, I'd go "Meh" and pass it by. It evokes the same reaction in me as "Attack of the Clones" for the second Star Wars prequel.

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  3. Right. "No" to "The Lost Princess." Check.

    I could just call it "The Story Formerly Known as Elementals."

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  4. I know there is a perfect title for this book. The story is awesome. It will come!

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