OK - Three editors like my proposal. The problem is getting it past the committees, and the Senior editor thinks we need a better title. Conveying what the book is about trumps Euphony or cleverness. The current title:subtitle is "Cooling a Fevered Planet: Beyond Market Tinkering - An American Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis".
The book's argument is essentially that the climate crisis stems from inequality - not only contributes to it but actually is caused by it. That is the same economics factors that cause unequal distribution of wealth and income also cause the particular kinds of waste that lead to climate change.Thus for various good reasons, putting a price on carbon is NOT the primary solution to global weirding, in spite of the conventional wisdom. Instead the primary solutions are reducing inequality, and compensating for past effects via public investment and rule based (non-price) regulations (such as efficiency regulations, and Renewable Energy requirements for utilities). Now obviously I can't say all this in the title, but my editor thinks I need to convey some of it. Also, she doesn't want to me rely on the subtitle. She wants as much of it as possible in the main title.
Senior Editor seems to think the right title is important in getting through the committee. So any thoughts would be welcome.
(I'm not sure the reasoning is right in terms of what title is for. But I'm also sure the Senior editor knows what she needs to sell the committee and I would rather it get published with a bad title than not published with a good one. So again suggestions that fit the requirement of conveying a lot about what the books is about are welcome.)
In thread if you think a game of "title the book" would be fun, or my profile addy is good otherwise.
Is there a target audience or tone? Academic or popular?
Sort of in between. Library and institutional sales. Big publisher, but inprint targets libraries and institutions and specifically not bookstores because this type of title does not reach a big enough audience to make a profit with the deep discount, high return rate and slow pay. Yeah, libraries are really a growing market with all the budget cuts.
My thoughts so far:
Windmills, not weapons. Why spending money on clean American energy will buy more national security than money wasted on stupid wars.
Clean Energy, not Stupid Wars. Why diverting most of the military budget into clean energy will keep us safer and make us richer and protect the environment besides.
Probably using the word "stupid" in the title is a bad idea. But I realized that diverting military spending to clean energy is really kind of core. Only place to get the level of public spending needed.
What about some take on "They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore."?
Swords into Windmills: How Waging War on Climate Change Will Make Us Safer and Richer
Yes. that is a good suggestion. Can people keep ideas coming? I don't know what my editor really wants so I'm planning to throw a lot of titles at her and see if one of them sticks.
My slight modification
Swords into Windmills: How Clean Energy Will Make Us Safer, Richer and Healthier than Dirty Wars
So do I but the Editor doesn't. Once I've sold them on buying the book I can try to talk them into a better title. My current thought.
Clean energy, not dirty wars: How diverting military spending into clean energy can make America Safer, richer and healthier.
Do you need to get the war thing into the title? Is that more important to you than the issue of market-driven reforms? I ask because your argument sounds like the reforms issue was more central, but you seem to be dropping that from your title now.
