December 01, 2008

Battling Book Titles (A ‘Writers 365’ Bonus)

On this day in 1850, novelist Elizabeth Gaskell expressed concerns about her publisher Edward Chapman's choice of title for her next title:

My dear Sir,

I do not at all like the title you have chosen. . . May it, please, be December Days, which is much more suggestive of the quiet tone of the story. . . . I will disown that book if you call it The Fagot; — the name of my book is December Days —

Yours very truly,

E. C. Gaskell

Eventually, they compromised on "The Moorland Cottage." Not that it helped matters. In a letter to another publisher a few years later, Gaskell admitted that while she was paid a royalty and given 2,000 copies of her novel, the publisher had lost money on the deal.

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I finished the Moorland Cottage a few days ago.  I can’t imagine why anyone would want to call it either The Fagot or December Days. Rosemary, Gaskell’s original title, makes more sense, considering the ending, but I think they ultimately agreed on the best title for the book.

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