So you’ve finally completed your masterpiece, edited and re-edited it into perfection and then you hit the big question- what are you going to call this thing? Hosts/Authors Steve Diamond and Larry Correia discuss the various ways of naming your work, some of the pitfalls and problems, and examine what they’ve done right and what they’ve done wrong.
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This week’s episode is brought to you by Servants of War by Steve Diamond and Larry Correia
The war between Almacia and the Empire of Kolakolvia is in its hundredth year. Casualties heap even higher on both sides as the conflict leaves no corner of the world untouched.
Illarion Glaskov’s quiet life on the fringes of the empire is thrown into chaos when tragedy strikes his village. When he is conscripted into the Tsarist military, he is sent to serve in The Wall—an elite regiment that pilots suits of armor made from the husks of dead golems.
But the great war is not the only—or even the worst—danger facing Illarion, as he is caught in a millennia-old conflict between two goddesses. In order to triumph, he must survive the ravages of trench warfare, horrific monsters from another world, and the treacherous internal politics of the country he serves.
Servants of War by Steve Diamond and Larry Correia is available on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3OaWznG (affiliate link)
Yay! I missed you guys last week.
Sometimes I appreciate the updates on your projects as much as I do the writing advice. Steve, my oldest daughter is obsessed with “Residue.” She’s read it six or seven times now, and shows no sign of not reading it again. So days when I get to come home and tell her the latest news on “Parasite” are days when I’m her hero.
How do you spell “gobbit”?
Also I can confirm that Castlevania and Vampire: The Masquerade both used “Bloodlines”, and that has about tapped out all the vampire series I know.
Someday I want to call a book “Bob” or “George.” Or maybe do a parody called “Mary Sue” (so readers know what they’re in for.)
Bob and George was a great webcomic.
I read this title as “Titties and why we suck at them” for anyone who needed a good laugh.
The Right has flocked to Twitter to condemn all the previous shadow banning as corrupt and cowardly.
Made me think of you baby.
You know you’re my favorite coward.
Hijack? Nah, this will never get past moderation. Besides, you don’t deserve courtesy after shadowbanning me for complaining that Hoyt had borne false witness against me and ignored all attempts to clear my name. Like mentioning it in public was the greater sin.
Has it been your experience that “trolls” offer up their DLs and DD214s to set the record straight?
When your banning software fails (I think she just hit the wrong button) do trolls offer to abide by your intent and self -ban themselves until you come to the realization that you wronged an innocent, and keep their word for 2 years?
That earns them no consideration at all? You just amp up the friendly fire with the ammo you reserve for Nazis?
Oh I know – that was rhetorical – you’re a busy man, those Principles you advertise on your blog are for your persona, to sell books. But all those articles you wrote about the Hugos when you founded the Sad Puppies – they had a lot of principles I admired – was that all a lie too?
Because Hoyt has begun to amuse herself with more witch hunts, burning innocent people at the stake for being glowies. And is exercising no due diligence to confirm their guilt or to correct the record afterwards. You claimed to care about her, do you think this is going to end well ? You grew up rough – what happens to those who falsely accuse you of being a snitch?
And yes I’m aware of how this looks – “stalker contacting via shadowban” – but you set it up this way not me, this is your fantasy not mine. I didn’t come here to find out what juvenile snark a best selling author can come up with. I came here to give you a heads up on your friend Hoyt.
Because I’ve always wished someone had done that for my friend. And because God eavesdrops and is a jackass.
If you’re annoyed by some surge of guilt, relax – you’ve already shown me who you are when no one’s looking. There’s no redemption arc. Keep the shadowban up, it reminds me that just because the Marxists attack people doesn’t necessarily mean they are my people. And thanks so much for that. Now I get to deal with not only the Marxists surrounding us on all sides, the treacherous NeverTrumpers betraying our camp, GOPe leadership taking dives to preserve their Vichy estates, all the Grifters flocking to us like buzzards and… whatever the fuck you represent. Outstanding.
Touch some grass bro.
You’re not going to have anything left in reserve if something not pretend happens to you.
I don’t even know who you are, dipshit.
Nor do I care.
And I don’t really know what you’re babbling about.
So fuck off.
I can tell you’re crazy because a normal person would be too embarrassed to say something like this out loud.
I think he thought is wouldn’t get through moderation?
I’m oddly reminded of the story about the person who, apparently, poured their heart out to the Microsoft Word Office Assistant thing. Apparently a lot of the folks in the MS Office group knew about them, but because they actually had effectively anonymized the data, they had no way of figuring out who it was, just following whatever was going wrong in their life.
Then one day, they just stopped.
“Moderating” this blog is the easiest job you can imagine- is it spam? No- cleared for takeoff.
The one exception to this that I’ve had to add is the commenters who post nothing but threats and insults.
The number of people who want to insult not only Larry but his family- his wife, his children- is low, but not zero.
These comments I nuke on sight.
You can come on and say how much you hate his writing, his politics, whatever- you can spout just about any nonsense you like but I’m not going to let you spew your hate at his family.
Kooks gonna kook.
JUSTIFY THE MOON FERRETS!
Welcome back, and yes, we suck at titles… sigh…
One suggestion not mentioned clearly: Pick something easy to internet search for, being both easy to spell and unique. An odd combination of relatively common words (“eye of the world”), or combined such words (“Grimnoir”, “Frostgrave”) both work for this purpose while keeping the title easy to grasp. Nothing is worse than a title that’s hard to search for even with additional operators (“book”). This helps loads with marketing and watching reception.
The WORST case I’ve seen of this being done badly is a UK based WW2 wargame called Bolt Action (no, no subtitle). It’s REALLY difficult to find unofficial resources for this game because of how its named. At least adding “Steve Diamond” or “Baen” or “diamond book” can get sensible results out of “Residue”.
And another recommendation from a computer prospective: If your title has multiple words, make sure it doesn’t suffer from the “Pen Island problem” if spaces and capitalization are removed. It’s common to see a title written that way in hashtags, URLs and file names. It’s not a super common problem, but when it happens, it’s not pretty.