#lunacon

- Titling short stories is a totally different thing from titling movies, and this is a mistake that many young writers (including me) make. Call a movie “The Revenant” and you have a brand anchor at the end of the trailer that locks people into the visual experience that they were teased with and makes them seek out the product. On the other hand, a story title doesn’t go in a poster or a trailer. A story title is there to do one thing: make someone read the story. Calling a story “The Revenant” tells no one anything about what your story is and doesn’t pique interest, not really--it’s a noun. Calling a story “Sixty Thousand Dollars Per Hour” does pique interest. Calling a story “A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide” or “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making” or even “The Hunger Games” does a lot more for it than calling it “My Prosthetic Arm,” “Fairyland,” or “The Games” would do. Meanwhile, the latter would actually make fairly decent film titles.  Basically, a film title and a short story title have something in common, in that they help sell the product, but they have different goals in their purpose within the greater marketing strategy. That’s something to keep in mind.  Hat tip to Alex Shvartsman for provoking this line of thought in a conversation.

- Always always always mention to an editor that you met them at a convention when you’re submitting a story, provided that you actually met and spoke to them at a convention. Editors want to remember you, and they want to give your story a fair chance. But they are also busy people and they are also people. Account for this. Remind them who you are and that you spoke. The fact that you showed interest in them will help them to see how motivated you are, and that usually bodes well for your output.

- Naomi Novik is a boss.