Contest Winner

Wasn't really counting on it -- I mean, it seemed like a fun idea at the time, but who knew an actual winner would show up here?  Amazingly, one did.

To recap: when the folks at Shaye Areheart, the imprint at Random House that bought my novel, informed me that the title of my book -- Making Up -- would have to change, I went to work on new title ideas... and before long suffered a major bout of brain fatigue.  Nothing I came up with was hitting the spot, and the clock was ticking.  What's a modern-day author to do?  But of course: I held a "Name This Novel" contest on my blog.

The contest post garnered an astounding 75 comments -- in itself a record for the relatively obscure Living the Romantic Comedy -- with literally hundreds of novel titles generously offered up by readers.  Ideas ranged from the fairly inspired to the totally ludicrous.  Some contributors who thought long and hard about the title search shared the intricacies of their process with us.  And often it was what people said about how they arrived at their titles that stirred the most provocative playing-with-words on my end, as the search continued...

...And continued.  I got so used to fielding new titles on a daily basis that I nearly forgot there was an ostensible end to this; it seemed the game might just go on, existentially, forever.  Thus when the winning title showed up one morning, I was truly startled.  There it was, the real thing -- announcing itself in that way that "what works" usually does: you see it, and you know it.  Inexplicably but undeniably, something just goes click in your consciousness, and you think, riiiiiiight.  There it is.

Before I spring the new title on you (I use this term provisionally, as I'm still waiting for the publisher powers-that-be to approve it), I thought you might enjoying seeing some that came close and some that went far afield.  And before I get into that, let me re-pitch the story, so the titles will have a context.  Here's the gist of what The Novel Formerly Known as Making Up is about:

Desperate to win back his estranged wife, a man invents an imaginary lover to make her jealous... and then gets into real trouble when this fantasy woman becomes real to him.  The man is a teacher of romantic comedy; the wife is Italian; the imaginary lover is a kind of muse.

Got it?  Good.  First, here's a bunch of titles from Living RomCom readers that I found perversely delightful (or delightfully perverse) but that wouldn't really... do.

TOP TEN NOVEL TITLES I'D USE IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE:

Boy Loses Mind

Teaching RomCom 101: Ensure Your Lover Exists

I Fell in Love With a Vision From Myself

I Love I Think You

Whatever Happened to Billy Mernit

The Joy of Made Up Sex

But I Was Thinking of You

I'm With Cupid

A Thin Air Affair

Real Women Have Fleas

Thank you Chris, Dave, E.C., Audrey, John, W.C., Mike, Olaf, and MaryAn (#s 9 & 10) .  Now here's the batch that came close.

TOP NINE RUNNER'S UP TITLES:

Boy Meets Muse

Love and Fiction in L.A.

The Makeup Artist

Living the Romantic Comedy

Real Love

Making Up Naomi

Match

Make You Up

Me Without You

Thank you Chris, Christina, Brooke, Amy, Piers, Duncan, Alan, and Sam; the last of these was my own self-penned contender, which is all the more reason why I was particularly pleased when the winning title showed up, namely (drum roll...):

IMAGINE ME AND YOU

Rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it?  "Says the story," do it not?  And what's real neat is the fact that you don't have to be familiar with the song it comes from (the phrase is the opening line of the immortal Turtles tune, Happy Together), but if you are, the title gains an additional ironic resonance.

The winner (should Random House agree), who'll be getting an acknowledgement in the published book, a free autographed copy, and bragging rights for life (unless the book tanks, in which case she might have to pay me to stop telling people she titled it) is one ANNA HAILEY from Anderson, Alaska -- a town of less than 700 people, where this "stay-at-home mom and military wife" lives with husband, daughter and dog.

Anna, whose on-line handle is blurkerbunny, is in the Advanced Screenwriting Professional Program at UCLA.  She's in the process of finishing up her third rom-com script, after being script editor,1st AD and UPM on an independent feature called That Day.

...So I thank Anna profusely, with all fingers crossed in the hopes that my editor signs off on this, and thank all the many Living RomCommers who participated.  You rock.

Now: maybe you'd like to write my one-sentence author's bio for the jacket copy...?

Meanwhile, Living the Romantic Comedy is going on hiatus for a week.  See y'all here on Valentine's Day!

Comments

[E.C. Henry]

You're right, "Imagine Me and You" is a good fit for your novel. Hope its rewrite is going well.

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

[writergurl]

Ohmygawd, that IS perfect!

Hope you have fun on vaca from the blog!

[Christina]

Yeah, it's perfect. Your contest worked. Can you run one to name my next script? (Just kidding!)

[binnie]

Mazel Tov, indeed!!!
LOVE The Turtles...I can already hear the opening credits in the film version.

[anna hailey]

So glad I could help! If you can't use it, Billy, are you hosting another contest?

[HuckleCat]

That's a great title! Hope your book is better than the movie with the same title, though...

Hey, when you get back on VDay, can you include a last-minute, totally original, romantic idea that I can steal?

[Alan]

nice. light with pull -- and a cool theme song for a romcom

[duncan]

excellent choice, sir. congrats, anna. and thanks for the "thanks". can't wait to read the book!

[jess]

now that song is stuck in my head.

great.

;)

[Dave]

I'm away for a couple of weeks and I see integrity is winning over pure greed. Very disappointed Billy, you know the JA title would have you on the NY Best Sellers list :)
Title does sound perfect, great choice.
cheers
Dave

[Brooke]

Love it!

[MaryAn]

Brilliant. Dammit.

[mernitman]

Hey EC, WriterGurl, Christina, Binnie, Hucklecat, Alan, Duncan, Jess, Dave, Brooke, MaryAn and most of all Anna: Thanks for signing off on the new title -- I'm glad you approve -- and the late-breaking news is: Random House just okayed it this morning! So the now totally official, alert-the-media name of the novel is: IMAGINE ME AND YOU.

[Piers]

Nice.

And how 'bout "Billy Mernit exists."

[uhjim]

lol