Phil: Big announcement time – we have changed the title of our book !
Yes, the manuscript previously called “Seeds of Change” will hereafter be known as “Kate vs The Dirtboffins”. Well, until we change our collective minds again anyway. Needless to say this has entailed a great deal of work for me. The blog header has been modified so you find us staring even more intently at you. I think that might be a bit scary so perhaps it’s time for another session with the camera.
Anyway, there is one person to blame for all this – Esther Freud.
A few weeks ago we were sat in a secret underground bunker at the Writers Conference and Esther was on stage telling us all how she got her first book published. Apparently her agent had spotted the title “Hideous Kinky” in the slush pile and it leapt out at her.
From this moment the idea formed in both our heads that perhaps “Seeds of Change” wasn’t a jump out title. It is a good title as it refers to the changes taking place in Kate’s life, the lives of those as HIA and of course as this is a vegetable research place it gently satisfies my love of puns. As a chick-lit title I can see it on the shelves amongst the other books. We took quite a while bashing this around when we started writing, for weeks the book didn’t have a title at all, and eventually picked it from a list of candidates.
So it was a few weeks ago I raised the subject over tea and cakes. I’ll be honest, I can normally float any idea without fear of immediate injury but this time I felt the subject was a bit more sensitive, after all, we’ve been living with this for a year now. I was wrong. Candice had been thinking exactly the same thing. While we had a good title, it wasn’t catchy enough, certainly not in the Hideous Kinky league.
So, there was cake eaten and more discussions. and now we have “Kate vs The Dirtboffins”.
Kate, because a name always helps grab the attention and introduces our main character.
vs to show there will be conflict.
The Dirtboffins because people will say “What !” and dirtboffins is a funny word.
Well I think it is.
nolanparker 
Hmmm…not loving it – it wouldn’t make me buy it I’m afraid – I prefer the former title – it combined your main themes of the story and was a good play on words. The new title sounds like a children’s book, or a book about bygone eras – “boffins” just isn’t chick-lit territory. Maybe, a la Apprentice style, you need to get a focus group (with cake, of course) to look at the name….
Also, use http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search/ref=sr_pg_1?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Achick+lit&keywords=chick+lit&ie=UTF8&qid=1311687529 to find out what titles seem to work, how they match their synopses etc. I think you need somewhere between your two titles. While Seeds of Change is good, it tends to have me thinking of the slightly more smaltzy, Hallmark tv-movie kind of chick lit, rather than a feisty funny Devil wears Prada-esque novel.
My suggestions-
Kate and the Veg Plot
Cucumber Kate
What Kate did Next
Vegging Out
Woman’s Power
The Veg Plot
Down and Dirty with Kate
Dirty Kate
Dirty Deeds
Pearing Off
Dirty Deeds was on the list when we brainstormed alternative titles so great minds think alike.
Cucumber Kate sounds like something from an Ann Summers catalogue so there is a spin-off opportunity there I think. Maybe from the Down and Dirty with Kate range.
But Kate and the Veg Plot – now THAT is inspired. Well it made me ROFFLE anyway !