Subtitle

Titles are easy to come by, unless you have a publisher that insists they know better – and in the case of “Time’s Up!” actually did know better. Subtitles are a different matter entirely, because they are – in effect – the description of the book.

Have you noticed recently how book subtitles have turned into straplines – so while previously a book may have been called “Thin” and subtitled “Losing Weight Really Quickly”, it will probably now be subtitled “How to lose weight very quickly, with a minimum of fuss and not die in the process.” Admittedly it’s more descriptive, but is also submitting to the belief that people are incapable of reading any of the actual pages to see whether they want to commit to the book; rather they buy books based entirely on whether a marketing executive understands reader psychology well enough.

That’s just manipulation.

That’s the kind of thing that needs undermining.

Anyhow, yesterday this blog had the subtitle “Taking Our Lives Back”, which sounds far too ethereal. The subtitle – which incidentally, I rediscovered in an outline document – that I am now using is “A Practical Guide for Radical Change“, which will no doubt get me into trouble with all sorts of people, including potential publishers, but is far closer to the spirit of the book.