If you look up WILD LIFE on any of the book-buying sites today, you may notice something different: a subtitle!
The book’s full title is now Wild Life: Dispatches from a Childhood of Baboons and Button-Downs. It took us (me, my agent, and editor) months to come up with this, and it was a much harder process than even doing the line edits (no, seriously). Typically, titles make a splash but may not tell you what the book is about. That is a role the subtitle often fills.
How would a reader know it was a book about a kid having adventures in Botswana, but also living in the US? Would they know it was about monkeys? How would search algorithms pick it up?
Right from the beginning my editor liked “Dispatches from” as well as the idea of making it alliterative, but then the search to find the right two words to fit into the phrase “Dispatches from a Childhood of X (something to do with Botswana) and Y (something to do with the US)” took literally almost three months.
Monkeys and McDonalds? No, “monkeys” wasn’t specific enough and ew to “McDonalds.” Hippos and Hockey? Well, there are a lot of hippos and I do play field hockey, but “field hockey” is two words and that didn’t fit our mold or make the subtitle alliterative.
Finally, we all agreed that “baboons” had to feature prominently. Solid decision, I think, but that left the gap of what word could be descriptive of private school and started with a “B?” We literally poured over dictionaries trying to find the right word (ah, the glamour of publishing!) but eventually decided that “button-downs” hit all the right notes: a good contrast to “baboons”, makes you think of something straight-laced and mildly stuffy, and lets the reader know that at least part of the book doesn’t take place in Botswana.
So! After a process that started way back in November, I’m pleased to announce that WILD LIFE’s shiny new subtitle has appeared. I hope you like it, and don’t forget to pre-order while it’s fresh in your mind! Only six months to go, and LOTS of exciting news still to come!