Next Noble Pen Meeting
April 30th, 2015 at 7 pm
Scott’s Family Restaurant
1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids
News
A debate is going on about the Hugo Awards (Wikipedia) for science fiction and fantasy. Some claim that the awards are being given on the basis of stories pushing a social viewpoint or the author’s ethnicity or politics, rather than on being good stories. Factions have formed with claims going both ways. See typical arguments here.
Victories
Cassie had a good trip to a book festival. She did some rewrite on a novella, made a dent in the first draft of a new novella, and did plotting for another.
Ciuin is writing an article on Noble Pen for City Revealed magazine and will be doing reviews of local authors’ books.
Bill tried to do outlining and organization for his SF novel idea.
Education
How do you pick the title of your novel? If you go through a traditional publishing house, you probably don’t. The marketing department will pick the title, replacing your working title. If you use a smaller house you may have some say in it, and if you are independent it is all up to you.
Here’s some advice on ways to come up with a title. This post suggests brainstorming methods. Here is more advice. You probably should have alternative titles and ask as many people as possible which ones are most likely to catch their interest.
Your title should be distinctive but not distracting and somehow connected to your story and genre. You should search for similar titles and avoid any that will get confused with a classic or appear to be riding the the tails of a currently popular book, movie, or song. It is not smart to name your book The Games of Hunger. On the other hand, it is permissible to use a title that already exists, and this happens frequently. Titles have little legal protection, and if the other book(s) is/are relatively unknown and not similar you are probably okay.
Upcoming Schedule
Apr 30
Cassie
Aimee
May 7
Laura
Open slot
May 14
Ciuin
Open slot
May 21
Open slots
May 28
Open slots
Keep Writing,
Bill