How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?Visit Michael Idov's website.
None. I should be completely honest about this. The editing notes I receive on the Cormorant Trilogy are mercifully light; in return, I pretty much let the publisher title the books for me. It's probably wise, too, because I'm terrible at it. I had originally designed a whole convention where all three titles would be these ambiguously German/Russian K-words. The first novel would be called Kosmopolit, the second Konservator, etc. Then I was gently reminded that the people buying the book at a store should, as a rule, be able to pronounce its title.
That said, I did mount a brief campaign to call this one Gray Actors: a political term for people or institutions with unclear or complicated intentions, which describes its plot pretty well. But The Cormorant Hunt is snappier, and retains some of the same ambiguity because it's the character named Cormorant who's...[read on]
Writers Read: Michael Idov (October 2009).
Q&A with Michael Idov.
--Marshal Zeringue
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