Alternative title (publishing)

This article is about the practice in book publishing. For the marketing strategy, see Alternative title.

An alternative title or alternate title in book publishing refers to a title that is presented alongside the primary title. It often uses a semi-colon or the term "or" in book titles, typically seen in the form "Title: or, Subtitle."[1][2] This was a practice that started in the 17th century, and was common in both English and American literature. During this period, many books aimed to appeal to a broader audience by using more descriptive subtitles.

Title page of the 1859 edition of On the Origin of Species

As an example, Mary Shelley gave her most famous novel the title Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, where or, The Modern Prometheus is the alternative title, by which she references the Greek Titan as a hint of the novel's themes.[3] More examples are On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life and Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. This is contrasted to a subtitle, which is a portion of the title itself.[1] The subtitle is considered to add extra explanation for the title.[4]

This convention started to decline in the 19th century as book titles became more concise and marketing strategies evolved.[4]

When Scholastic Corporation bought the U.S. rights to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, they thought that a child would not want to read a book with the word "philosopher" in the title and,[5] after some discussion, the American edition was published in September 1998[6] under the title author J. K. Rowling suggested, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.[7] Rowling claimed that she regretted this change and would have fought it if she had been in a stronger position at the time.[8] Academic Philip Nel, who specialises in children's literature, has pointed out that the change lost the connection with alchemy.

References

  1. ^ a b Dym, E.D. (1985). Subject Analysis Methodologies. Books in Library and Information Science Series. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780824773540.
  2. ^ Maxwell, Robert L. (2004). Maxwell's Handbook for Aacr2 : Explaining and Illustrating the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules through the 2003 Update (4th ed.). Chicago: American Library Association. p. 10.
  3. ^ Cantor, Paul A. (1985). Creature and Creator. CUP Archive. pp. 103–104. ISBN 9780521313629.
  4. ^ a b A.L.A. Catalog Rules: Author and Title Entries. Chicago: American Library Association. 1941. p. xv: Alternative title. A subtitle introduced by "or" or its equivalent.
  5. ^ "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". The Harry Potter Lexicon. 2 April 2006. Retrieved 12 January 2009.
  6. ^ "Meet Author J.K. Rowling". Scholastic Inc. Archived from the original on 2013-12-12. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  7. ^ Eccleshare, Julia (2002). "The Publishing of a Phenomenon". A guide to the Harry Potter novels. Continuum International. pp. 7–14. ISBN 0-8264-5317-1. Retrieved 15 May 2009.
  8. ^ "BBC "Red Nose Day" Online Chat Transcript". BBC. MuggleNet. 12 March 2001. Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
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