Anton Chekhov wanted to call his first volume of stories “Buy This Book or I’ll Smash Your Face In.” It was published in 1886 as as Motley Tales.
I laughed when I read the above! How funny is that! I am struggling with a title for my novel at the moment. In fact, I struggle with Proper Nouns in general. Character names, place names, book names… they are equally difficult for me. So much so that when I find a character name I like, I tend to use it in any new stories I write. This is fine while they are sitting unpublished on my computer, but if they make it out into the big wide world then a little originality would not go astray!
I wonder what the sales of Chekhov’s book would have been, if he had published under that title, and whether it would be remarkably different from his actual sales?
Heather Ewings 