Title Troubles. Is it Normal?

[issybird]

My reaction in reading this thread is to think it's probably a truism that the better the writer, the more likely he is to believe there's always room for improvement.

I'm also reminded of a story about Thomas Mann, who initially objected to Knopf's retitling his Lotte im Weimar as The Beloved Returns, rather than using the direct translation. When he was told that Americans would be less likely to buy a book if they were uncertain how to pronounce the two key words in the title, he immediately withdrew his objection.

[David910]

Originally Posted by ApK

p.s. in reading some of your responses here, I feel compelled to point out that you solicited advice on how to encourage readership of this particular work of yours on a public Internet forum.
I don't see anything particularly offensive or disrespectful in the responses.
If you disagree, and whether anyone read the whole work or not is irrelevant.
They see what any prospective reader would see and are telling you what it communicates to them.
Whether you see those comments as constructive or not, in these conditions you might want to limit any reply to something like "Thank you for your opinion" and leave it at that.

I have learned from this thread that "Thank you for your opinion" is probably the best response, especially if I vehemently disagree with what's been posted. The novella seems to be pretty polarizing, so I should probably get used to it. What I found particularly disrespectful is the notion that I am bringing down the quality of ebooks, which definitely seems to not be a universal opinion, considering my two reviews are a three star and a four star and neither of them are friends/family. Thank you for taking the time to respond. - David

[David910]

Originally Posted by issybird

My reaction in reading this thread is to think it's probably a truism that the better the writer, the more likely he is to believe there's always room for improvement.

Hi issybird. I know there is some things to be improved in this novella, but any improvements would be for a future work, as I am not changing anything other than spelling errors/egregious grammar errors. But things that are a part of the style of the work, I'm not gonna change. I made a decision when I first started writing this that this was how this particular story needed to be written and I stand by that for this work. But, I am always open for changes to style for future works.

A reader of the novella said he/she would give me feedback and I sort of hinted that I already knew she would say it would be good if I reigned it in a bit. The reader actually responded saying that the style was actually enjoyable and that I didn't need to reign it in, in this regard, at all. Again, the novella seems to be pretty polarizing. Thanks for the response. - David

[issybird]

Oy. You have a glaring grammatical error and a spelling error (repeated) in the above. It doesn't fill the gentle reader with confidence.

OK. You've said, several times, that you wrote the exact story you wanted and that it's perfect as is and can't be improved. There it is, then. Carry on.

But since you refer to a three-star and a four-star rating as affirmation, I'm going for the reality check. Aside from any stylistic issues (you say style, other posters say just wrong), I think the story is quite bad. I read the preview and it's preposterous, frankly. A worker in a homeless shelter decides on her own authority to place a stray child who just showed up in a foster home? Are you serious? What about the police? What about child welfare? Is this an alternative universe and it's just not apparent yet? Because this is not how this world works. Even if I thought your style the equivalent of Proust's, I would call foul.

[David910]

Originally Posted by issybird

Oy. You have a glaring grammatical error and a spelling error (repeated) in the above. It doesn't fill the gentle reader with confidence.

OK. You've said, several times, that you wrote the exact story you wanted and that it's perfect as is and can't be improved. There it is, then. Carry on.

But since you refer to a three-star and a four-star rating as affirmation, I'm going for the reality check. Aside from any stylistic issues (you say style, other posters say just wrong), I think the story is quite bad. I read the preview and it's preposterous, frankly. A worker in a homeless shelter decides on her own authority to place a stray child who just showed up in a foster home? Are you serious? What about the police? What about child welfare? Is this an alternative universe and it's just not apparent yet? Because this is not how this world works. Even if I thought your style the equivalent of Proust's, I would call foul.

Thank you for the response. Perhaps I should make this part of the description more clear. In the story, the possibility of a foster home is the only thing that's brought up and the worker at the homeless shelter calls to make sure there's a place available, if needed. Of course there are many, many steps to be taken between then and actually going into a foster home, but you are seeing the situation through the child's eyes. The point of view of view from the adult is totally different, but the boy convinces himself that he is definitely being sent to a foster home and runs away without really thinking the situation through. I don't want to give anything else away, but another factor to consider is that a lot of what is going on is very wishy-washy. I'll leave it at that, but you really have to read it to find out what I mean, and even then, what's really going on is up for debate.

Hope this clears it up. I'll re-read the description and see if it's unclear in this regard. Thanks. - David

[issybird]

Just, no. The first thing the shelter worker would do is call the police.

[David910]

Originally Posted by issybird

Just, no. The first thing the shelter worker would do is call the police.

She called a bunch of family members first and no one picked up, because she saw there could be a foster home situation, she called the foster home. And presumably afterward she would make even more phone calls to others, but we don't even get to the point because the child automatically assumes he's going to the foster home and runs away. It's also very hard to predict what would happen in a situation like this, and arguing over who's called in what order seems a little petty and like you are looking for problems. In addition, I don't want to give anything away, but it's just all a little wishy-washy.

However, I want to thank you for your thoughts regarding this part of the story. - David