Annoying/Misleading changes to books

[Witty Username]

There's a very interesting (IMHO) and informative blog post "On changing book titles and covers" by thriller writer J.F.Penn here.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by issybird

The paperback edition I read with popping eyes as an adolescent had Mike Rossi, but years later I came across a book club hardback with Tomas Makris. I looked into it then and came up with the libel suit explanation, which I verified at Wikipedia before I posted, FWTW.

He'll always be Mike Rossi to me!

When I listened to the Audible version last year, I thought, who the heck is this Tomas person? Then I looked in my hardcover (which was a thrift store purchase, not the paperback edition we passed around in high school with the "good parts" marked), and was surprised to see Tomas again. I only remembered Mike Rossi.

In looking for more info, I found that the New York Times reported the filing of the libel suit on March 15, 1957, and the settlement on November 27, 1958. (The full articles are behind a paywall.) The change must have been made somewhere in that time span--the movie, using the name Mike Rossi, came out in December 1957, before the suit was settled.

Now I'm wishing I could watch the TV series again and see Ed Nelson as Dr. Rossi!

[mbkimberley]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's silly when we get the same book with different titles in the US and UK. The publishers are idiots to think the US public won't understand the UK title when the book is written by a UK author.

completely agree!

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's silly when we get the same book with different titles in the US and UK. The publishers are idiots to think the US public won't understand the UK title when the book is written by a UK author.

Here's a list of books in a series by Sophie Hannah, per Fantastic Fiction:

Culver Valley Crime
1. Little Face (2006)
2. Hurting Distance (2007)
aka The Truth-Teller's Lie
3. The Point of Rescue (2008)
aka The Wrong Mother
4. The Other Half Lives (2009)
aka The Dead Lie Down
5. A Room Swept White (2010)
aka The Cradle in the Grave
6. Lasting Damage (2011)
aka The Other Woman's House
7. Kind of Cruel (2012)
8. The Carrier (2013)
9. The Telling Error (2014)
aka Woman with a Secret
10. The Narrow Bed (2016)

It's absurd--who can keep the titles straight? And it's not like there's something confusing about the British titles for an American audience, or vice versa.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's silly when we get the same book with different titles in the US and UK. The publishers are idiots to think the US public won't understand the UK title when the book is written by a UK author.

I am sure that happens (Sorcerer's Stone vs Philosopher's Stone being the big one I know of) but I expect that in many cases it is just one publisher wanting to do it their own way regardless of whether it is better or makes sense.

It is still stupid but they feel they "know best".

I remember one client who made sure her changes were always the final changes to any document. Nothing we did would be good enough even if it was exactly to her specifications. This is paraphrased but not exaggerated: After going through her comments to a presentation and incorporating them she says "That green is the wrong green, can you change it?" She then had us go into the color palette (in Powerpoint) and change the green value in the RGB color to 1 higher. She was perfectly happy after that change. The original green was her company standard color. The new one was just so she had the last word. At least it was an easy change to make.