Novel What's your opinion on naming chapters?

Marketing specialists at publishing companies. They look at what sells and what doesn't, they assemble focus groups, and they even cruise forums like this to take the pulse of potential readers.

These become recommendations to the editors who work with the submitting authors. The editors then look for these factors in submitted manuscripts. Depending on the type and strength of the recommendation, they either reject manuscripts that would require too many changes, or request changes from the authors.

 

That's the crux of the argument.

I could write a book about vampire elves, name each chapter, dangle participles heretofore unknown in obscure Sicilian trapist chants and use a picture of Fabio on the cover, and still sell the book if Oprah backed it.

The hook is a profit.

Look, I tried to read The Hunger Games. I thought the work was a tad simplistic. It doesn't matter. It is very marketable, and millions love it.

Heck, I wish I owned a dumpy saloon. I'd tell Lady Gaga that her and insider group of Little Monsters could drink there for free. One picture in the tabloids and I'd own ten Harleys.

In our present society, money trumps everything. In fact, I think that's a good name for my next chapter...

 

I wouldn't say money trumps everything but publishing is, after all, a business. And authors who seek publication, whether they admit it or not, are after sales. Sales means people are reading their stuff. Sales of some books also mean that publishers can take chances on other books which may not sell quite as well. But no business stays in business if they have product nobody wants. So if elves and vampires sell, publishers will want books with elves and vampires - and that gives them leeway to take on books with pirates and Don Juans as well. Businesses cater to the customer, and they watch to see what the customer is buying, not only from them but from their competitors. And they also watch for that needle in the haystack that pops up now and then and sells fairly well, and they go looking for more of those needles.

But if there wasn't something about those elf and vampire books, they wouldn't sell well. It can seem cliche, or like "just another one of those" but there is something the author is giving the reader that the reader wants.

 

Shadow, while you have me with 90% of your rebuttal, I offer a one word remise.

"Borders."

I don't know if literature is still reeling from the advent of the cyber age, or if the economy is so bad that even the simple joy of reading is now anchored in "disposable entertainment dollars spent." But clearly something is afoot.

The reason I bring this up is my 'adult job.' Buttressing up failing businesses was my job. And the cost of staples, atrium care, parking lot re-paving and washroom cleaning all make or break the viability of successful enterprises.

Many times the biggest problem I had in dealing with failing execs was to demystify. For example, during the early 1970s Harley-Davidson almost went belly up. However, to the family and clients of this brand, they were "iconic, harkening back to bikes built of iron for men made of steel."

As much as I love them, they are a recreational transportation company.

Smith & Wesson has been sold four times that I know of. Heck, just as AMF almost destroyed HD, a company called Bangor Punta almost closed down S&W after 125 years.

I think that "writing" is in this category. Because we love literature and stories we 'assume' that the world loves books. I would proffer that the world loves selling books. Most of us would like to sell our stories. That means someone has to buy them--and that would be a corporation that has cash. In other words, a business.

Hurtful as it might be, a good well crafted book has no better chance of earning money than some schlock piece of semi-plagiarized drek. It has to make money.

For example, have any of you read a short story published in 1962 entitled "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"?

If not, perhaps you might know the opus that really made some money from this story. It was a movie called "Total Recall," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Considering the financial realization, it makes "naming chapters" look like no problem, at all.

 

Forgive me if I'm not straying from the topic... but for myself, I find that when the book is good, I don't even see the chapter title. The story has drawn me on with a great enough magnetism that I don't care what the chapter is called, I just want to read the dang text, and it could be called something totally irrelevant for all I could know. I find this a mark of a good book if I don't notice the chapter title.

 

I don't mind them but I don't pay attention. Usually if I am working on something that I might be working on for a while I'll write something that is vague yet still reminds me of what the chapter is supposed to be about. For instance "Birthday", "Lost, Now Found", "The Hunter" or "The Monster's Moon". For me personally working on the two novels whose chapters I've mentioned it's enough to work as a trigger for me to remember 'Oh yes, this and this and that happens during this chapter' while still leaving an air of mystery for my reader (hopefully!) if I decide that I do want to keep the chapter titles in.

 

I write chapter names for my (planned) novel simply because I enjoy coming up with titles that reveal just enough.

E.g, if one of my characters is associated with the sun, and another with the moon, and the moon character outshines the sun character in a chapter, I might name it "Eclipse". A clever reader can guess the theme of the chapter, but not how it ends, and after having read it, they'll be able to connect the chapter contents to the title.

Perhaps editors and readers will think my chapter titles are inane, or perhaps they'll see it as a tongue-in-cheek way to add some depth to the stories. But streamlining myself for the market would take the fun out of writing, and what's the point then? It's not like I'm going to make millions on it anyway.

 

That's not straying, it's a perfectly valid statement because it deals with the topic and you're honest opinion. You even offered a rebuttal in a polite, informative manner.

I don't always read the titles, myself. But I do consider them sort of an insiders view into the story.

For example, sometimes in movies, there's a scene after the credits roll. It might not be endemic to the plot, but it's kind of a reward, or even a nice little joke. Same thing here.

And BTW, what kind of a short-sighted publisher, after reading a story he wishes to purchase, would turn down a chance at millions in book sales and a movie deal because he doesn't like your chapter names or the fonts of your headers and footers?

I doubt that any story makes it to print without revisions.

 

What publisher in his right mind would risk losing thousands if dollars in a new writer who is so arrogant as to think he or she is too artistic to be bothered with manuscript formats or making changes that could increase the marketability?

If an established cash cow author wants to break the rules, or submit an absolutely atrocious manuscript without taking any editing suggestions, he will probably get away with thing no new writer would ever get accepted with. It happens all the time - look as several recent novels by Stephen King. And that is a major reason why "World famous author Soandso writes this way, so it must be okay" is a dumb argument.

The presence or absence of chapter titles will probably not cause a manuscript to be rejected. Arguing with the publisher who asks you to remove the chapter titles, on the other hand, very well might. Publishers deal with enough arrogant buttheads on a daily basis -- they certainly don't need it from an unpublished author who thinks he knows more than the publisher.

 

amen to all that!

 

Personally, I don't mind them and often they can be really quirky and insightful. I don't think there're any rules (as people have said above) and it comes down to personal preference. I think that gimmicky titles and titles with spoilers are a little childish though.

 

Exactly. If you titled a chapter something like..."A Meeting in the Dark", then you'll have to force yourself to alter the plot so your characters can have a meeting in the dark. Well, what if you changed your mind midway and decided to have the meeting be in some plaza in broad daylight while they're sipping Elf Pepsi and eating McElf Cheeseburgers? Because you named it "A Meeting in the Dark", it's kinda difficult to sway from it.

If you're gonna name chapters, it should be one of the last things you do, because, again, you may change your mind about how events play out during the course of the story.

Though, personally, I'm not a fan of chapter titles. They come across as cheesy.