My Kid is a Damn Nutter

Clodfobble · 05-13-2015, 07:43 PM

Need suggestions plz...

So my agent (not tired of saying that yet) thinks that the title needs to be more accessible. There's this classic short essay called "Welcome to Holland" that every parent with a special needs kid is familiar with, and large parts of the book are tied into this metaphor of Holland vs. Italy, including the current title. But she thinks everyone outside that tight-knit community will be clueless as to the meaning and might genuinely mistake it for a travel memoir, and that even if I could talk her into it a publisher will definitely insist on changing it. I accept her expertise in this area, but so far we have not been able to come up with a new title that is suitably artsy-slash-intriguing but also refers accurately to the tone of the book. Because there are tons of sappy options out there like "Searching For..." and "Saving..." and crap like that, but it's not a sappy book, it's very much a defiant and funny and irreverent book, and I'd rather a stupid literal title like "How I Did This Thing" than some wistful acceptance bullshit.

As an example, one of my favorite suggestions so far was "Hysterically Impaired," which is actually a direct quote from the book, but it sounds a little too much like mockery without any context. Gotta ride that edge a little safer.

Any ideas?

05-13-2015, 07:43 PM	#11
Clodfobble UNDER CONDITIONAL MITIGATION Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 20,012	Need suggestions plz... So my agent (not tired of saying that yet) thinks that the title needs to be more accessible. There's this classic short essay called "Welcome to Holland" that every parent with a special needs kid is familiar with, and large parts of the book are tied into this metaphor of Holland vs. Italy, including the current title. But she thinks everyone outside that tight-knit community will be clueless as to the meaning and might genuinely mistake it for a travel memoir, and that even if I could talk her into it a publisher will definitely insist on changing it. I accept her expertise in this area, but so far we have not been able to come up with a new title that is suitably artsy-slash-intriguing but also refers accurately to the tone of the book. Because there are tons of sappy options out there like "Searching For..." and "Saving..." and crap like that, but it's not a sappy book, it's very much a defiant and funny and irreverent book, and I'd rather a stupid literal title like "How I Did This Thing" than some wistful acceptance bullshit. As an example, one of my favorite suggestions so far was "Hysterically Impaired," which is actually a direct quote from the book, but it sounds a little too much like mockery without any context. Gotta ride that edge a little safer. Any ideas? __________________ My book My other book My spirit animal

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