What We Did to Ask Your Opinion

[mrissa]

Please note that I am aware that most of you have not read this book, so you are not being asked to comment on whether the title works well for the specific book I've written. (Although if you have read it, feel free to e-mail me with opinions on how the title worked for you.)

[Poll #1294645]

Also, if you ran across a book called What We Did to Save the Kingdom, what, if any, preconceptions would you have about it? (Funny, serious, high fantasy, swashbuckling, sword-wielding protagonist, lots of boats, whatever.)

Comments

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

I voted neutral because I really like the title, but it feels strongly childrens or YA to me.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I think it sounds YA. but I also think it sounds different and memorable, so on the whole, yes.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

My reaction, too.

[columbina.livejournal.com]

If I saw that title with no other context I would assume that it was a piece of humorous light fantasy riffing on some known mythological context or other set of tropes (Arthurian lore, etc). I would then further check to see if the words "Tom Holt" or "Esther Friesner" or "Craig Shaw Gardner" appeared in conjunction with it. Et alia.

[poeticalpanther.livejournal.com]

This.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Hang on, question. How YA unsuitable is it? I mean, is it full of things that kids would be bothered by or bored by? Because these days adults are reading YA anyway, so a YA-ish title without a YA cover would seem OK for that, but if it's something that encourages kids to pick it up and then they hate it -- well, I'm never going to forgive Thomas Mann or Kafka for giving The Magic Mountain and The Castle such alluring titles and then having those books inside.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Um. As much as I'm a free access absolutist when it comes to kids and literature, I have to say that my guess is that very few parents would want this to be their 12-year-old's first exposure to the fantasy genre.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I was, and continue to be, charmed by the title.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I would expect funny, with possible buckled swashes. Nothing there evokes lots of boats for me.

Cover art and copy could revise that expectation considerably.

And yeah, what Jo says about YA versus contents . . .

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The boats were my attempt at making people think outside just the immediate adjectives provided: Boats, what, boats? No way, I think of ______.

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

It does sound YA-ish to me, but not necessarily strictly YA. Also, it sounds as if the book inside would be closer to, say, Good Omens than The Lord of the Rings. More funny than serious.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

It's not a bad title, no, but it does sound YA to me. I would expect it to be humorous, probably a bit of a parody, set in a "medieval-lite" world.

[moiread]

> Also, if you ran across a book called What We Did to Save the Kingdom, what, if any, preconceptions would you have about it?

Whimsical bit of children's fluff. Possibly Early Reader enough that it still needed large print.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Do not try to sell novels on this theory. There are otherwise perfectly sensible children's and YA editors who will reject novels they say they love because they are "too political." By which they clearly did not mean "too tied to contemporary politics," but rather, "too focused on a political situation."

[mkille.livejournal.com]

I would think Magic Kingdom for Sale--Sold!

[ex-kaz-maho.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't necessarily see it as a YA title. It could be, but I think my first thought was an adventure story for adults - possibly high fantasy, but with a contemporary voice/style. Maybe a bit tongue-in-cheek.

[tewok.livejournal.com]

As an adult title, I'd expect it to be pseudo-Medieval that was intended to be humorous, but while funny wasn't quite as funny as the author thought. If I was wrong and it was funnier than expected, I'd be searching out more from the author.

As a YA title, I think it works.

Regardless, I do like the title.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I voted neutral, with slight leanings towards "Not really, sorry" because as others have pointed out, it does sound very YA-ish.

Also, the preconceptions would be that the tale would be light-hearted in tone, probably with lots of humor and wit.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

I agree with papersky about expectations about the YA content.

I'd expect it not necessarily to be lighthearted but to contain some humour, especially at the start. I'd be more likely to pick it up if the cover suggested that the idea of 'saving the kingdom' is looked at from different angles (as opposed to 'Kingdom needs saving, small band of plucky people save it, everyone lives happily ever after'), and less likely if the cover suggested something by Robert Asprin or Tom Holt.

I think that the title (in the absence of other information) suggests that a secondary-world fantasy with a roughly Medieval Mid/North European monarchy is the most likely of several possible options, but I wouldn't find it particularly odd if that wasn't the option chosen.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

As most are saying: as adult, I'd expect it to be humorous, although not quite as screwball as many of the 'humorous' SF/F writers out there right now. (The cover would push that opinion further one way or the other, obviously.)

As YA, it might be almost anything, from contemporary with no fantasy whatsoever to a James Bond knockoff, to medievalesque fantasy, although I'd expect a light, breezy tone.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

I like it, but I suspect a marketing department will hate it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I have had similar suspicions, which is why I raise the question.

[adb-jaeger.livejournal.com]

You sure it's not really a book about the Financial Bailout?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Um...it's all a metaphor, is what. For the Financial Bailout if you want it to be! Sure! Why not!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I'd be intrigued; I'd expect fantasy, but from a sideway perspective in some way. Funny, or very self-aware. Swashes might be buckled, but I'd be disappointed if the bucklers weren't conscious that that was what they were doing.

The YA / not YA question hadn't occurred to me until I read the comments. This may or may not be because so much of the fantasy I read is YA (including most of the best of it).

Of course, I'm British and reading primarily what gets published in the UK (this is always an issue, but particularly with reference to the paragraph immediately above).

[marydell.livejournal.com]

What shewhomust said. Since kingdom-saving is a standard fantasy thingy, meaning that many classics could have this as an alternate title, I'd pick it up expecting irony of some kind. I do like the title, though; it has a nice ring to it.

[mkhobson.livejournal.com]

It sounds literary and slightly tweedy in a pre-1960s egghead kind of way ... like "The Beautiful and the Damned" or "It Can't Happen Here." If I didn't know it was fantasy, I would guess it was something to do with evangelical Christianity. But overall, I like it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Sigh. I wish other people were saying the first part of this, because I kind of like pre-1960s eggheads.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

I quite like the title. It does, by default, suggest to me a book that is humorous, or at least very self-aware in tone. In addition to the usual cues of publisher, cover design, etc., I think it might make a difference to me whether the book was in first person or third. If it's in first person, then the title is the sort of thing a slightly wry and self-aware narrator might give to their own story, which would suggest positive things to me. If it's in third person, then that tilts the title in the direction of being arch. Or cute. Which could be good or bad, depending.

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, my first reaction (and it's first thing in the morning for me) is that it would be something along the lines of the "Left Behind" books, some sort of "Kingdom of Heaven" crap. And I would avoid it like the plague, unless I saw a very familiar author's name. Even then, I might be afraid that they had turned or come out as fundie. But I guess that's just me, looking at the rest of the comments. And if the cover was silly, I probably wouldn't jump to that conclusion.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

God's Kingdom doesn't need saving. So you'd be safe.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

What We Did to Save the Kingdom would lead me to expect either humor, or possibly some flavor of contemporary fantasy. Or at least, fantasy with some contemporary component, such as a Stasheff-esque modern protag in a fantasy setting.

I guess modern marketing has lead me to expect a serious fantasy to have a name like Kingsaver Chronicles or something. :)

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

I'm not awake enough/too vertiginous this morning to have preconceptions yet. Plus I peeked at the comments so now I can't get shake loose from my brain the question of whether it sounds YA or not and I honestly don't know. FWIW I totally love YA fiction so that's not a problem necessarily.

It does sound kinda self-aware, but I don't know whether I would assume earnest people surmounting insurmountable obstacles, or whether it'd be smart and funny. Or whether it would involve a lot of people voting Democrat FINALLY. It would depend on the cover art.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

No ballot boxes on the cover. I know authors don't get to control cover art, but I promise, it would be completely insane to put ballot boxes on the cover of this and would represent a psychotic break on the part of the art department of whatever fine publisher chose to buy it.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

My preconceptions are:

-funny, but not necessarily goofy funny, just maybe a little self-referential humor and lightness in tone; I say this because I do not like goofy funny fantasy much, and since I've been lusting after the book that I imagined goes with this title since you first posted it, it must not be goofy.

-swashbuckling, but not necessarily tons of it

-fantasy for sure; no preconceptions about what kind

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

I would expect a humorous book. I voted no, sorry, because I think this title is a near miss to whatever title that you want. For some reason the "What we did" construction is just not working for me. I keep thinking, "What I did on my summer vacation." But the "Save the kingdom piece" is definitely on the right track.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You may well be right on the pieces there.

The title is of the necklace, but necklace stories don't have to have the same titles as their necklaces.