Bluesman Mike Lindner Wrote:Paul, among his many excellences, doesn't write-down to his readers. He throws in allusions that any educated person will understand
I'm not sure hat you're implying here...that the title
Harbingers will appeal to a more intelligent audience?
I know you didn't respond to any of my quotes directly, but since I seem to be the only one who dislikes the title, I don't know who else this would be directed at. My dislike of the title has nothing to do with my understanding of the word. Do I think that Harbingers is just too obscure a word to use as a title? Absolutely not. Am I floundering around a dictionary trying to decipher the meaning? Again, a resounding no. Anybody smart enough to read a novel, even a genre novel, should either already know what the title means or be able to find out with relative ease.
What I don't like about the title boils down to what I've already said.
I think its a clunky term.
Rick Moody just came out with a novel called
The Diviners, and I don't like that title any more than I like
Harbingers. Does that make me less intelligent than Martha Mulligan down the street who absolutely loves the title? That's absurd thinking...in my opinion.
This leads me to my next point, which is bound to be unpopular, but as someone, somewhere once said, "Who gives a flying f*&k?"
I think Paul has a problem with exposure (There, I've said it!). Whether that comes from his publisher, his editor, or his publicist, I don't know. Maybe it comes from Paul himself. Maybe he's content with where he lies in the publishing world, but if I were an author, I sure wouldn't be.
Most of us agree that Paul is a highly skilled and professional writer. He's prolific, he's talented, he's multi-faceted. He can write a medical thriller better than Robin Cook. He can write a mainstream thriller better than James Patterson. He can write horror better than, oh I don't know, Robert Mcammon or John Saul or even (in my opinion) Dean Koontz. So why doesn't he get the publicity? Why don't more people know his work?
Now, I know he's highly regarded by nearly everyone associated in his field. The small presses love him. Anthology editors want him for everything. Lately, he's even returned to doing comic book work.
So where's the publicity work from his publisher? Why are there rarely more than a couple of copies of his books on the shelf of bookstores, chain, major market store or small town indys? Why don't bookstore managers know who he is? Well, the answer to this last one is obvious if you've ever worked in a bookstore. Not all bookstore managers are readers. Not all bookstore employees are readers either...(I've found most bookstore employees in my neck of the woods to be teachers who can't find a teaching gig) So don't be surprised when you go into B&N and ask for Paul's latest if the clerk looks at you like you're an alien and says, "Uhhh, Who?" This is forgiveable though, there are a lot of authors out there...thousands and thousands. No one can know them all.
Where the F#@K am I going with this, you ask? Well, putting a clunky title like
Harbingers out there for the masses isn't going to help Paul's exposure at all. If anything it's going to hurt it. Kissing ass and licking boots and saying things like "Oh, I just love that title" no matter what I really think, is not how I operate. If I were putting out a book and asked if everyone liked my title, and everone said they did just to appease me, and I put the book out, and guess what, the title sucked after all, I'd be more than a little dissapointed with my crew. Paul deserves a little honesty here, and I for one am going to speak up.