Things To Think About When Naming a Book

You know, every once in a while, I out-stupid myself. Stick around for this story: you'll love it.

As you all know, the title of the second book in The Asphodel Cycle is The Gift of Redemption. Naturally, I have "The Gift of Redemption" on my Google alerts because I like to know when my books pop up on the web. (For all of you aspiring writers out there, ALWAYS set up a Google alert for your stories--that way you can find out if someone is selling it illegally. This is especially important for e-pubbed stories.)

At any rate, the title stems from the theme of the book--the gift of redemption occurs when the Virgin Huntress accepts the only sacrifice that can redeem the race of Elves. It was a natural title for the book; that's what the book was about.

What I didn't think about was what else would pop up on Google alerts with the phrase "the gift of redemption."

Do you know how many church blogs I find out about every day talking about the gift of redemption? How many priest's personal blogs, how many printed sermons, how many religious sites use that phrase every single day? Whenever I get a Google Alert for The Gift of Redemption, I usually discover that *this is all made up* Father Stanley Bingo of St. Jehosephat Parish in Kansas City has delivered an entire sermon about the gift of redemption and, just in case you missed it on Sunday, printed it in its entirety on the parish blog on Monday.

This is particularly bad around Easter and Christmas, as I discovered much to my chagrin this past year.

Every Monday, my Google alert for "The Gift of Redemption" is usually fifteen to twenty posts long. Hidden amidst all the church blogs are a couple of ebook sales distributors and maybe a review or a post from this blog. So let's get something straight here:

The Gift of Redemption by Celina Summers is about Elves, a fictional race of beings that are an archetype of the fantasy genre.

When you're naming your stories, future and present writers, take a moment to think of what you're getting into in the wonderful world of Google. The final installment of the Asphodel series was originally going to be called simply "The Apostle."

Ummm...we're not going that route. Hopefully, The Apostle of Asphodel will protect me from the influx of church blogs that I'm quite certain will be just as relieved not to have "Elf Killing and Other Hobbies" showing up on their Google Alerts in the future.

See? I'm doing it all for religion. That's okay though; the Pope can thank me later.

A Scary Story for Young Writers...Gather 'Round

Lemme tell you a little story.

Once upon a time, there was a very ignerrent newbie writer. We'll just call her...er...Celina. At any rate, Celina had written the NGGN (next great genre novel, duh) and was just starting to poke around the internet looking for what she should do next.

(Did I add that she was pain-pill befuddled after two years of excruciating back pain? No? Well I digress. To continue...)

Just because it SEEMED SO EASY, she contacted a few agents via their online information. You know, sent out a couple of query letters and synopses (which were faithfully reproduced from sample ones online at great places like Absolute Write and Editors and Preditors) just to see what would happen.

Imagine her shock when, a few weeks later, she was contacted for a partial. Now, although most places stipulated first three chapters, this place was different. They only wanted part of one. Celina shrugged, sent it out, popped another Percocet and went back to playing Snood. Within...do I have this right? FIVE days she was contacted by an agent offering her a contract.

Oh the joy. A real, live contract. How wonderful. But....wait. She has to PAY this agent four grand? For what? Oh, it was explained to Celina meticulously.

But something didn't seem quite right.

Armed with more Percocet, Celina staggered back to the computer. While swilling a glass (okay--a bottle, damnit) of wine, she proceeded to do a very simple thing. She googled cris+robins+agency.

Let me repeat that. Doped up on Percocet, drunk off of wine, completely in agony (this was before my back surgery) I spent five minutes of time and googled someone--and LO AND BEHOLD-- I managed NOT to get scammed.

Now, those of you who know me are reasonably well-aware that I would NEVER send money out for any reason usually, but it was particularly true at that time. I was unable to work, we were surviving off one income, and 4 grand??? HA. But, by the same token if it would get me published...

It was tempting, Gods know it was tempting. It's equally tempting for every newly learning writer to take the easiest road and get published as quickly as possible. (Like that ever happens) And that's how the preditors find their prey--the young, the uneducated, the newbies. The ones who even, Lord help them, may be a little too disabled to make such decisions for themselves. I've been following a certain plagiarism incident which you can find out more about here.

Allow me to state for the record that someone somewhere needs to give Victoria Strauss and her compadres medals for all that they do. But I must admit--I don't get it. How could anyone possibly be that dense after all the help they received from viable and respected sources across the world???? I just don't get it. At any rate, back to the story...

So the moral of this story is, children, RESEARCH. Always research ANY move you make in regards to your intellectual property, even when (as is becoming apparent in this particular case) it's only partially your own. Because you know, hidden out there in the world of cyberpigs there's always someone who wants to take your money. What happened to Celina, you ask? Don't worry about her. She did just fine. Trust me. Just fine.