TOS: The Red Ensign by DRGIII - January 2013
- Thread starter DarkHorizon
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Publicist? You must mean "editor." And I think a working title usually has some connection to the subject matter, even if it's just entered on the contract as STAR TREK: TITAN BOOK THREE or STAR TREK THE LOST ERA: PICARD. When I come up with an actual working title, it's always something related to the story, even if it's not the best feasible title. I don't just call it Blue Harvest or something.
I did once get commissioned for a book at the time called in the documentation "I'll think of a title by the time it's finished, honest" - but usually even a working title has some connection to the story or theme
For the record, David R. George III just posted this on his Facebook page:
DRGIII has asked in the past that his words elsewhere shouldn't be copy and pasted here, so please paraphrase in the future -- Rosalind
Too bad... I rather liked "The Red Ensign." It has a certain ominous poetry to it that intrigued me. Oh well!
DRGIII has asked in the past that his words elsewhere shouldn't be copy and pasted here, so please paraphrase in the future -- Rosalind
Too bad... I rather liked "The Red Ensign." It has a certain ominous poetry to it that intrigued me. Oh well!
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Well, I guess this novel will be that 1% where the public title isn't the finalized one.
Perhaps we should start titling new novel threads as "untitled author project" like IMDB does for movies "untitled director project."
I am looking forward to every book this year, and the it would appear that next year will be just as good.
I am looking forward to every book this year, and the it would appear that next year will be just as good.
I think the problem is that the online databases and such are getting too efficient, so placeholder titles that are supposed to be for internal use only are increasingly getting out to the public early in the game, before any proper announcement.
^Quite possibly so, but what is wrong with calling it an "untitled author project"?
It doesn't make sense from a marketing perspective to release a placeholder title if marketing people run with it and then it gets changed and all that marketing is gone.
A name is important, it's a brand and especially so for authors. I don't believe this placeholder title crap occurs outside of tie-in fiction, at least I haven't heard of it doing so.
It doesn't make sense from a marketing perspective to release a placeholder title if marketing people run with it and then it gets changed and all that marketing is gone.
A name is important, it's a brand and especially so for authors. I don't believe this placeholder title crap occurs outside of tie-in fiction, at least I haven't heard of it doing so.
That was an April Fools joke.
Most people put in more effort than just reprinting a facebook post
But what we're talking about isn't marketing. It's database entry. This is what I'm saying -- the database side of the process has become so automated and efficient and networked that it's getting ahead of the marketing. Placeholders that are supposed to be strictly internal, that are just for the paperwork and internal reference, are getting automatically picked up by the computers that update the online catalogs almost as soon as they get entered into the computers on the publisher's end.
Indeed, maybe that's why the internal reference titles increasingly seem to be non-descriptive placeholders like The Red Ensign -- because the folks at S&S are starting to adapt to the way the automation is racing ahead of the marketing, and are trying to minimize the amount of actual book information that gets leaked out prematurely.
Well, not to the same extent, because original fiction is usually completely written before it's sold. But it's not uncommon for writers in any medium to use placeholder titles or to change their minds about their titles. Sometimes it takes a long time to figure out the right title for a novel. Heck, I have a spec novel that I've been working on for the past few years and planning even longer, and it was only a few months ago that I finally hit upon a title I actually liked.
No, it wasn't (at least not originally); the thread asking about it was started about a week before April 1. The rumor probably arose from the fact that Simon & Schuster did lose the Trek calendar license to a different publisher, and some people either misheard that news or feared that losing one license might've meant losing both.
It's true placeholder titles can take on a life of their own. Just look at the movie Snakes on a Plane. Originally that was meant to just be a placeholder, however everyone took notice of that title and fell in love. Samuel L. Jackson agreed to do the movie without reading the script simply because it was named Snakes on a Plane. When a new title was eventually given to the movie, there was backlash from everyone, including Jackson, so the placeholder had to be the actual title.
As I recall, Deep Space Nine was originally a placeholder title that the creators weren't really happy with, but once it got out to the public, they ended up being kind of stuck with it.
^^^ Really? I'd never heard that one before. If I may ask, what is your source?
I think I got it from a couple of places, including The Making of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and probably some magazine article back in the day. And on reflection, I think it wasn't just that it got out to the public, but that they just got so much into the habit of using the placeholder title (and had so many other priorities demanding their attention) that inertia just won out.