Tuesday, January 18, 2011

HOORAH! The New Novel Has Been Named! Let us celebrate with pretty charts and SCIENCE!

All respondants
I received a phone call yesterday from my dear friend and Publishing Bigwig Sarah Atkinson, who was calling to let me know that the name of my next book has officially been declared: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD CHRISTIANS.  Yay!

We have generated hundreds of names trying to make sure that the name we landed on was the best one (in fact, it may be a bonus feature in the future... some of the titles were hilarious but unusable).
People who had not read Imaginary Jesus
The three charts at left (you can click on them to see them in all their glorious biggeryness) show how people voted. The first chart is the survey overall, the second chart is only the people who had not read Imaginary Jesus, and the third is only the people who had read IJ. Many of you had strong opinions about the title, and in fact I have heard rumors that you guys made some people at Tyndale cry. For shame!
People who had read Imaginary Jesus.
Anyway, I'm thankful that Tyndale takes the title seriously and is hard at work making sure this book gets to the widest audience possible. IN FACT... the rumor on the street is that work on the possible covers starts tomorrow! I am excited.

In the meantime, if you're an information junkie, you can see the full survey with all the responses (minus contact information) here.

Thanks to all of you for participating in the survey. You are, of course, now obligated to buy ten to twelve copies each so you can give them to friends and say, "I helped title this book." Gracias.

Feel free to share your insights and opinions about the different populations and why you think they may have voted differently than others.

6 comments:

  1. From the survey results, it seems like you need to do a better job in the over 65 crowd. Zero? Really?!? You are missing a large audience that has time on their hands and reads (or listens to books on tape). Perhaps you should publish large print editions, do a book signing at the local Senior Citizen Center, work for a positive review by a Geriatrics Magazine and /or make you a hero a lovable old geezer.

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  2. I meant make 'your' hero a lovable old geezer.

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  3. I actually read Imaginary Jesus right after taking the survey (and you, Matt, are a very gifted writer). Thing is, reading IJ changed my thinking about the title of the second book. I like the title NOTLDC, but it seemed a little too cute. Now, having seen how you balance humor and serious content and fuse genre types, etc, in Imaginary Jesus, NOTLDC seems to be a good fit. The title NOTLDC certainly sets you up to do that kind of work again, but in a fresh way. Looking forward to it.

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  4. @OneBigHappy - You might try listening to the author read the book on cd next time. Even better!

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  5. Nice! The results came out in the order in which I like them! :) But I didn't see my comments in the overall report. Sniff. :(

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  6. pongboy2:59 PM

    YES! I'm so very happy to know that the original title stays! It's perfect! Your publisher is very wise (or should I say your fans are very wise)! You're gonna get a lot of curious book browsers with this title. :D

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