On Wed, Aug 14, 2002 at 03:57:11PM +0800, Andrew Bailey <andrew at networkharmoni.com.au> wrote: >>Who's going to have trouble pronouncing it? Not the >>returning book buyer. >>They're going to know how to spell it as well. >The sales clerk when being asked about new books, perhaps. >Basically anything that helps Steve sell more books is a good >thing:) Not when it reduces their quality. Not that this is such a significant change, but "The Enchantress of Dzur Mountain" is IMHO clearly the better title. "Sethra Lavode" is harder to pronounce and spell, even. I mean, think about it... clueless reader sees one book with each title. Clueless reader A has NO idea who or what Sethra Lavode is, and ignores the book. A does, however, know what an "Enchantress" and "Mountain" are, and can make a reasonable guess that it's a fantasy novel about an enchantress who lives in, or comes from, a mountain. "Dzur" works just fine taken as a proper name, even unrecognized. Clueful reader B, however, will recognize both titles, and buy the book regardless of title. Thus, I don't really see anything gained by the new title. Anyone have any real idea what the clue percentage of SF novel buyers is? That is, of a given novel, what percentage sell to people with clue and what percentage sell to people who pick up the cover, say "Oooh, shiny!", and fail their saving throw vs marketing? -- Matthew Hunter (matthew at infodancer.org) Homepage: http://matthew.infodancer.org/index.jsp Public Key: http://matthew.infodancer.org/public_key.txt