Many of you are writing books or magazine articles. Never forget the importance of having a great title. A great book can do poorly because of a less-than-stellar title. Here are some examples of titles that were changed – you’ll recognize the new ones:
Tomorrow is Another Day – became Gone With the Wind. And Scarlett’s original name was Pansy.
Blossom and the Flower – became Peyton Place
John Thomas and Lady Jane – become Lady Chatterly’s Lover
Something that Happened – become Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Mistress Mary, taken from the classic nursery rhyme, was the working title for Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden.
To Kill a Mockingbird was simply Atticus before Harper Lee decided the title focused too narrowly on one character.
Ayn Rand thought her first title, The Strike, gave too much plot away, and renamed her novel Atlas Shrugged, at the suggestion of her husband.
Alex Haley’s influential 1976 novel was changed from Before This Angerto the much more diplomatic Roots: The Saga of an American Family.
Catch 22 was originally Catch 18. But another book was being published at the same time with 18 in the title so at the last minute, they changed it to Catch 22.
It’s also not unusual for books to have different titles in different countries – even if the same language is spoken. 
When I wrote No More Mondays, Random House won the bidding war based on my manuscript titled Revolutionaries at Work. I loved that title and wrote the whole book with that name. At the end of each chapter I had questions and next steps for those who were Revolutionaries at Work. When the manuscript was completed and ready to go to print we did some small focus groups to get feedback. The overwhelming image brought to mind when people saw that title was of some disgruntled employee walking in the door with a machine gun. Terrorist acts were prevalent and that’s the first thing people thought of. Definitely not what we wanted. We had some brainstorming sessions with the publishing team and came up with the new title – No More Mondays. When that book went to paperback after two years, we again discussed whether there was a better title. We ended up just adding the word “dreaded” for No More Dreaded Mondays. The text is exactly the same – you’ll notice the original name on the still current audio.
Lots of books have had titles changed after a couple of years of being on the market. We’ve thought about changing the title of Wisdom Meets Passion. I think it may be the most important book I’ve written but it never took off in sales.
Any ideas? And no, I’m just kidding about Purpose Driven Life. I hear that’s already been used.
Seth Godin always has unique book titles. I wonder what some of his original title ideas were.
My original book title was Brand Against The Machine. The publisher had me think of dozens of other titles before settling on the original idea 🙂
John,
Yeah some of Seth’s are hard to figure out. I guess he has the street cred to call them whatever he wants.
Fascinating look at some well-known titles. I must say, they’re all intriguing improvements! Perhaps we should come up with a ratio … how many hours did you put into writing? … take 5% of that amount and invest it in developing a winning title and sub-title.
Brian – yeah, I wish there was a formula. Seems to be a shot in the dark every time.
I’ve always loved the word “revolution”, & have felt a positive connotation with it. Too bad others see it negatively; I’m with you on the positive side.
Fun to know some of those other previous titles.
Diana – I too loved the word “revolutionary.” It connotes doing something others have not done, coming back around to something from the past, and more. Just didn’t work in this setting.
Just finished Gone With the Wind. Scarlett actually WAS a selfish pansy, in my opinion. She and Rhett deserved each other. LOL
Yeah a lot of names could have been given to her – to fit her personality.
In my welcome letter from my publisher they’d changed the title of my book! And I don’t care for it. I hope we can find one we both like. Enjoyed the history of the titles.
Debbie,
Wow – that’s pretty old school to change it without even talking to you first. It can be up for discussion but ultimately it has to be something you feel good about.
Dan, I wouldn’t have guessed that Wisdom Meets Passion was not a big seller. Based on the promotion you did, and the fantastic cover alone, I would have guessed otherwise. I was excited to get an advance copy at the Write to the Bank seminar in 2012.
I actually used Wisdom Meets Passion as a textbook in one of my college courses a couple of years ago. It challenged a lot of the students’ predominant thinking and we had some pretty heated class discussions. But thinking about it more, I do wonder if a different title would make a difference. At any rate, it’s a wonderful book and it deserves a wide audience.
Kent,
It did okay by industry standards – just not by mine! Thanks for your note.
I love the book. I received a free copy from Kevin for being part of the Free Agent Academy. If I were to retitle the book, I would consider the overarching theme that I took from it.
I get the idea of wisdom and passion. It is the passing of a torch in an endurance race. But it isn’t passing so much as sharing together in a community.
I like the title:
Sharing The Generational Torch
Or something like that.
Jake
I feel dizzy
Jake – Sharing the Generational Torch – I like that. Thanks.
My title for Wisdom Meets Passion: Generation Collaboration.
Thanks Eva – love it.