Q&A with Jon St. Denis

From my Q&A with Jon St. Denis, author of Killer Art: A Novel:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Titles are always hard for me. Not hard to come up with, but hard to weed and finally come up with the right one. Killer Art was no different.

I am reluctant to list its initial title—so utterly bland, so non-descriptive.

Pictures at an Exhibition.

See what I mean? I just could not come up with something more specific, and besides, the music to that Mussorgsky piece sticks with me. So guilty twice: bland, non-helpful title plus plagiarism (though titles do not have copyright—in which case, why didn’t I just call it War and Peace?)

I stuck with that bland title for several months, opening the file daily to those dreary words at the top of the MS. Adding a tweak here and there to the body, wondering why it was so hard to sell this one.

Then it just came to me, something with more zip that could actually give the reader an idea what the book is actually about.

Killer Art.

Using ‘killer’ in its double meaning. Good art and literally deadly art. Which is at the very center of the novel, Killer Art. Once I was there, I also toyed with Art to Die For, but…

I immediately felt that this new title could give readers a better idea about what the novel is about, where it’s going. And publishers clearly felt so, as well. Repackaged with a new title, Killer Art sold within a couple of weeks. It didn’t hurt the book also has an AI angle to...[read on]

Visit Jon St. Denis's website.

The Page 69 Test: Killer Art.

Writers Read: Jon St. Denis.

Q&A with Jon St. Denis.

--Marshal Zeringue