Choosing a Title

NIGHT LAUNCH! It's been ages since I saw a night launch from the Kennedy Space Center. It's delayed, it's too cloudy, I'm watching TV and forget to look . . . But this week the launch came with the late news and was right on time:  11:03 PM. I watched the launch, ran outside, and there it was, a great red glow rising over my neighbor's house, clear as a bell, as the saying goes. I watched that big red splotch until it was the size of pinpoint. Wow! (FYI, the rocket was sending a probe to explore the sun.)

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A ladies' group in my church held a Mother-Daughter Tea this week, and I was pleased to attend not only with Susie but with two of the grandgirls. (Hailey was off to Daytona with her church group, but not until after she posed with the rest of us for a "hatted" photo.) The hat I'm wearing, by the way, was purchased by my mother at Filene's in Boston somewhere around 1936-37, for attending Tea at the Harvard Faculty Club while my father was in Graduate School. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to wear it. (There are two blue velvet ribbons that trail all the way down to the waist in back.)

 

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CHOOSING A TITLE

After looking at the Inventory I posted last week, a friend asked if I had ever blogged about Titles, and of course that instantly became the Topic of the Week.

Firstly, let me confess that I do not consider Titles one of my better skills, and yet after my experiences with some of my past publishers, I have come to the conclusion that I'm a lot better at it than some of the editors I've had. Also, after naming and re-naming forty-plus books, I'm getting better at it. So for what it's worth, here are some of my experiences with Titles.

HE SAID, SHE SAID. I absolutely hated the title for this book, but it was my first print book, and who was I to argue? Why did Kensington change my original title of Love At Your Own Risk? Because, I was told, the Marketing Department objected to the word "Risk." Happily, when indie-pubbed years later, it returned to its original title.

THE INDIFFERENT EARL. In a problem similar to my experiences with Kensington, my first book for Signet came out with a title that made me grind my teeth. Even one of the reviews mentioned that the hero was far from indifferent! My title, The Courtesan's Letters, was rejected because "it wouldn't play well in the Heartland." (Literal quote - that's what my editor said.) Needless to say, when I got my rights back, I indie-pubbed it under my title, not Signet's. Note:  Despite its indifferent title, this book was nominated for RWA's RITA award and was chosen Best Regency of the Year by Romance Readers Magazine.

THE MAJOR MEETS HIS MATCH. Now this one I confess to tossing out as a possibility and my editor seized it. It certainly fit the story, but when I indie-pubbed it, I changed it to The Temporary Earl. It's been a long time ago, but I suspect I was capitalizing on readers' love of titles. A major is a gentleman, but an earl - Wow!

THE LADY AND THE CIT.  I really liked this title, and I figured readers of Regency romance knew what a "Cit" was. But I later fielded enough questions about it that when I went indie with it, it became A Gamble on Love. A title that described this remarkable marriage of convenience without anyone having to ask what a "Cit" was. (FYI, Cit was a not-so-complimentary name for men who actually earned a living rather than lived on inherited money. Some say it comes from the French Revolutionary "citizen"; I tend to think of it as a term for men who worked in the City of London, what we'd call "the business district.")

ROSES IN THE MIST.  I chose this title for my only Young Adult book all by myself. And I loved it. But when I eventually indie-pubbed it, I chose The Captive Heiress instead. Why? Probably because it was more attention-grabbing. With all the books on Amazon, Smashwords, and other vendors of indie books, an author needs all the eye-catchers he/she can get.

THE LAST SURPRISE.  This Christmas novella was published as part of an anthology - that year "Surprises" was the theme. When I indie-pubbed it, I wanted a title that gave a better hint of the story, and The Lady Learns to Love was born.

Grace note:  I have decided to leave the subject of naming a book from scratch for next week.  Lessons to be learned from the above:  1) editors are subject to the dictates of Marketing Departments; 2) busy editors do not always come up with the best names for your precious baby. So, if you don't like the title given your book—and if you think you can do it without alienating your meal ticket!—object. But do not object unless you have a better title to offer and good reasons why your title is better. Let's face it:  "Don't bite the hand that feeds you" is an adage that still prevails. Remind yourself that when you go indie, you can do as you please!

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A peek at the Social Media ad for Shadows Over Greystoke Grange:

 

For a link to Shadows Over Greystoke Grange on Amazon, click here.

For a link to Shadows Over Greystoke Grange on Smashwords (20% free read), click here.

For a link to Blair's updated Facebook Author Page, click here. 
 

For a link to Making Magic With Words, click here. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace

 

Blair Inventory

I don't believe I have ever posted an inventory of all my books as Blair Bancroft, and the beginning of 2020 seems like a good time. So here they are, all forty-plus, illustrated with an occasional cover (beginning with my very first publication, Tarleton's Wife - although the cover above is #4 in its twenty-year history).

 

BOOKS by BLAIR BANCROFT

available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble,

Smashwords & other online distributors

               
The Regency Warrior Series (in order)
The Sometime Bride
Tarleton’s Wife
O’Rourke’s Heiress
Rogue’s Destiny
The Lady Takes a Risk
The Abominable Major

Traditional Regencies
Lady of the Lock
Steeplechase
Lady Silence
The Harem Bride
A Season for Love
A Gamble on Love
The Temporary Earl
The Courtesan’s Letters
Mistletoe Moment
A Lady Learns to Love

Regency Gothics
Shadows Over Greystoke Grange
The Ghosts of Rushton Court
The Blackthorne Curse
Tangled Destinies
The Welshman’s Bride
The Demons of Fenley Marsh
The Mists of Moorhead Manor
Brides of Falconfell

The Aphrodite Academy series* (in order)
(Regency Darkside)
Belle
Cecilia
Holly
Juliana
   
*Age 18+
Also available in a Boxed Set

Medieval
The Captive Heiress (YA+)
(See also Florida Knight)

Steampunk/Alternative History
Airborne - The Hanover Restoration

Romantic Suspense, Thrillers & Mystery
Hidden Danger, Hidden Heart
Death by Marriage (GB)*
Orange Blossoms & Mayhem (GB)
Shadowed Paradise (GB)
Paradise Burning (GB)
The Art of Evil (set in Sarasota)
Limbo Man (international thriller)

*GB - Set in “Golden Beach” on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Contemporary Romance
Florida Knight  (GB)
Love At Your Own Risk (Cape Cod)

SciFi Adventure/Romance**
Blue Moon Rising series (in order)
Rebel Princess
Sorcerer’s Bride
The Bastard Prince
Royal Rebellion

**Also available in a boxed set

Non-Fiction

Making Magic With Words - Advice on
   Writing & Editing

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Note:  Sample free reads are available on Amazon Kindle & Smashwords.
   

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For a link to Making Magic With Words, click here. 

For a link to Shadows Over Greystoke Grange on Amazon, click here.

For a link to Shadows Over Greystoke Grange on Smashwords, click here.

For a link to Blair's updated Facebook Author Page, click here. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace



                       
               

Killed by Pedanticism

Cassidy, Riley, Hailey at Aladdin at the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center. And no, that's not teenage indifference - Mommy mistook the performance time and they had to rush out of the house without time to change.



At the beach earlier this week, Cassidy proved that Riley isn't the only grandchild to inherit Grampa Elliott's gift for photography.

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Now that Making Magic With Words is finally available on Amazon Kindle (link below), I'm free to continue with a few more comments on Writing and Editing. Today's subject:  how easy it is to shoot yourself in the foot by being too pedantic.

KILLED BY PENDANTICISM

The first thing every author of Historical Romance learns is:  Do not alienate your readers by putting too much history in your Historical Romances. Now of course I had never heard of this rule when I wrote The Sometime Bride and Tarleton's Wife, but somehow I muddled through—they're both still selling after twenty years on the market.

BUT . . . over the past year I have seen what I can only call shocking examples of authors I wish had the benefit of the advice offered by the Romance Writers of America. There really are reasons for cautioning authors of fiction not to get so carried away by their research that they tell readers far more than they'd ever want to know about "facts," to the point of obscuring the emotions and personalities of their characters, as well as the unfolding of the plot.

1.  My first example has been mentioned on this blog before, but I felt it should be included here, as a pedantic, "non-fiction" mindset was the only excuse I could think of for the author who wrote an incredibly well-researched historical novel, but made it almost impossible to read as he/she used NO punctuation in the dialogue. As if the author had never read a work of fiction and had no idea how to express the spoken word. This is Pedanticism to the max. The Arrogance of Academia, if you will. 

The point:  Never, ever write anything without reading extensively the works already available in the genre of your choice. And never be so arrogant you think you know how to write a work of fiction when you have never read anything but text books and non-fiction!

2.  I recently bought a work of fiction by a new author. The blurb sounded intriguing, but when I turned to Page One, I was amazed to discover an "Introduction" that went on page after page in an academic style similar to a thesis or dissertation. In a work of Fiction?? I could not help but wonder how many would-be readers bothered to continue on to the actual story. I did not.

The point:  There is no place for "Introductions" in Fiction. In e-publishing, no place for anything at all upfront. Page One = Chapter 1. And I do wish print publishers would use a similar format for the e-versions of their books, relegating Reviews, Thank-you's, etc. to the back of the book, not the front. I grind my teeth every time I have to hit the Forward button multiple times to get to Chapter One.)

Repeat:  Author's Notes, historical background, thank-you's, etc., go at the back of the book. And absolutely NO information dumps that sound even remotely like a PhD. dissertation. This style of writing has no place in a work of Fiction. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. I've been know to put a BRIEF Author's Note at the beginning of a book when necessary. My most recent, Shadows Over Greystoke Grange, is a good example. I felt an upfront warning of "Do not try these spells at home" added a certain something to a tale of amateur witchcraft!

3.  Sometimes an author can mess up, even in a work of Non-fiction.

I was thrilled to discover that at long last a book by an ancestor of mine had been translated into English. I immediately purchased it (in print) from Amazon. When I sat down to read it, I felt obligated to read the Introduction first. The author had, after all, gone to the trouble of translating a book from a rather obscure language and an age far in the past. But as I plowed my way through page after pedantic page, I ground my teeth over the pace, over details that seemed patently unnecessary. Finally, after several abortive tries to get through the Introduction, I started flipping pages until I got to the meat:  what my ancestor actually wrote, lo, so many hundreds of years ago.

And guess what? His writing was concise, every sentence crafted for easy understanding. Paragraph after paragraph of precise instruction for the young men of his day—the very first book on "how to be knight." A book that lays out all the duties and responsibilities of a knight and the importance of that position as defender of his people.

A true treasure, and I'd almost given up on it because the translator prefaced the book, not with a reasonable explanation of how his translation had come about, but an entire thesis which was almost as long as the manuscript itself. 

The point:  Even when writing non-fiction, do not put readers off by a lengthy pat on the back because you did so much research or because you have to explain why your work is better than someone else's. A brief, to-the-point Intro is enough, with the Bibliography and/or Thank-you's in the back. Do not put readers off by intruding too much of yourself into the mix. Allow your work to stand on its merit.

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For a link to Making Magic With Words, click here. 


For a link to Shadows Over Greystoke Grange on Amazon, click here.

For a link to Shadows Over Greystoke Grange on Smashwords, click here.

For a link to Blair's updated Facebook Author Page, click here. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace

Shadows Over Greystoke Grange

Why did an exploding rocket make everyone at Cape Canaveral happy this week?

Because it was the final test of the Dragon Crew Capsule. A successful launch deliberately blown up to see if the crew capsule would jettison as planned. It did, descending into the Atlantic with the aid of four parachutes, was successfully recovered, and is now back on land. At long last, we're getting close to launching astronauts from the U.S.

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And now . . . the second half of the editing-two-books-at-once struggle:

Shadows Over Greystoke Grange, my eighth Regency Gothic,  is now available on Amazon Kindle and Smashwords.

At eighteen, Adria Lovett can think only of making her come-out and finding the love of her life. Until, scant weeks before leaving for London, her world crumbles around her, pitching her into a situation shockingly contrary to anything she has ever known.

And yet, though far from London, Adria finds herself surrounded by a bevy of young men—none of them what she envisioned when dreaming of her future. There is Dudley Greystoke, who should be Sir Dudley but is not; Chandler Satterthwaite, who has strayed far  from the fold of his father, the vicar; the supposedly reliable Ned Steadman, son of the local squire; Garth Maddox, son of a gamekeeper, who calls himself Myrddin, the Welsh name for Merlin. And Drake Kincade, son of a wealthy merchant—the Drake Kincade, known to many as “the Devil’s Spawn,” who has fled to the country to escape a bride selected by his father.

And then there is Dudley Greystoke’s twin sister, Daphne, a young woman as willful as she is beautiful, who plunges Adria into the world of witchcraft—a world already complicated by a barrage of evil deeds ranging from nasty pranks to murder.

Grimoires, spells, devil-worship, rape, and murder—not at all the Season Adria dreamed of.

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I have also updated my Facebook Author Page to include background information on both Shadows and Making Magic With Words. (Links below).

Grace note:  Sadly, Smashword's format translator could not cope with the many transitions Making Magic endured before being uploaded to Smashwords: 206,000+ words reformatted from Blogger to Word Perfect to RTF to DOCX to DOC. Sad, but not surprising. So Making Magic is currently available only on Amazon Kindle (which includes a download to your computer).


For a link to Shadows Over Greystoke Grange on Amazon, click here.

For a link to Shadows Over Greystoke Grange on Smashwords, click here.

For a link to Making Magic With Words, click here.

For a link to Blair's updated Facebook Author Page, click here. 

Grace note:  my website is being updated, so we'll skip the link to that one this week.

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To end this week's blog on a fun note, I share this incredible photo found on Facebook. As someone whose balance no longer allows me to keep myself upright on a bike, let alone me and something as small as my cat, I am in awe! (Please note the leafy cushioning.)

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace

MAKING MAGIC WITH WORDS

Done at Last!

On Saturday afternoon (1/18/20) Making Magic With Words was uploaded to Amazon Kindle. Yay, hurray!

For a link to MMWW on Amazon Kindle, click here.

PLEASE, faithful readers, pass the news along, write a review.

I'd really, really appreciate your help spreading
the word about this one. 

Here's the Blurb:

Making Magic With Words offers easy-to-understand advice on Writing, Editing, and a wide variety of Publishing topics—206,000+ words designed to get you started on your writing project, support you every step along the way, and advise you on what comes after "The End." Topics range from choosing a genre to the difference between an editor and a copyeditor. From how to develop your characters to the nitty-gritty of punctuation. From Point of View, Hooks, and Show vs. Tell to helpful aids like ASCII codes, Microsoft codes, and how to work with Track Changes. From "Edit the Blasted Book" to Where and How to submit. Making Magic With Words also includes step-by-step instructions on many of those tricky little technical problems we have to cope with in the Age of Computers, such as how to change manual tabs to automatic.

Making Magic With Words is a compilation of nine years of blog posts on Writing and Editing, which first appeared on Grace's Mosaic Moments and are now organized by topic under three major headings:  Writing, Editing, and Random Thoughts. The author was trained as a teacher, spent more than thirty-five years as an editor, and a quarter century as an award-winning author. Blair Bancroft has published more than forty novels, including Regency (Traditional, Historical, and Gothic), Suspense, Mystery, and SciFi. Additional information can be found at www.blairbancroft.com)

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As Grace's Mosaic Moments enters its 10th year, once again . . .

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace

For a link to Blair's website, click here.


For a link to Blair's updated Facebook Author page, click here.