How Not to Die Alone vs Something to Live For
https://richardroperauthor.com/how-not-to-die-alone-vs-something-to-live-for/
When my first book found publishers on both sides of the atlantic, a
discussion came up about the title. The original, HOW NOT TO DIE ALONE, was
deemed too dark for my own British lot, but the US loved it. In an ideal
world, we would have found a title that suited both, but time was of the
essence and so the book was published in the UK as SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR –
which is the title of a song that means a lot to Andrew in the book.
At the point I got particularly stressed about not having the same title in
both countries, I had to remind myself of a couple of things. Firstly, how
bloody lucky I was to be publishing a book in the first place! Secondly, that
there are loads of books that get published under different titles every
year. It wasn't like I was the first.
Cut to Spring 2020, and the world is a very different place. The darkly comic
US title now seemed almost too dark. And then I was presented with an
opportunity too good to turn down in the US (which I can't talk about just
yet), which was only possible if I agreed to change the title to the UK one
for the paperback publication. And so, after all that, the book is now called
SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR everywhere . . .*
*Oh, apart from Sweden, and Germany, which both have different titles. My
point is, coming up with a title is really hard and even when you do it
you're not thinking that a global pandemic will mean you have to change it
again…