Revisions and Title Changes
Oct 16, 2011 
Well, I’ve gone a really long time without updating you guys. Sorry! I’m a bad blogger! Part of that is that there hasn’t been much to say–there’s only so many times you can say “Working on revisions!” “Still revising, guys!” “Yep… still working on revisions…” But also with all of the revision, drafting, and critique work I’ve been doing over the past couple of months it’s hard to find the drive to add blogging to that. Especially over the past month or so I’ve been working like an absolute fiend. (Just finished work on something that I hope I’ll get to update you on soon!) At some point I’ll find a good balance, I hope, because I always forget when I’m NOT blogging that I actually quite enjoy it when I do.
For now, though, I finally have some news to share about THE IRON WOOD. Some of you may have seen my announcement a couple of days ago on Twitter about TIW’s title change, but just in case not everyone did: THE IRON WOOD is now titled SKYLARK!
A few people have asked me why the change, so I figured I’d explain a little about that.
THE IRON WOOD was a working title that stuck. I first thought of it when the image of the Wood itself came to me as a half-formed idea, and I knew that was where Lark was trying to go before I even really knew why. I intended to find a new title before I queried, but after a week of constant brainstorming I couldn’t find any that worked for me, and so I decided to go ahead and query with the old title, and worry about it before submission. Well, as it turned out, my agent liked the title, so we went out with it as is, which worked out pretty well for me, in fact.
Eventually, though, my editor pointed out the problems with the title. There are a ton of YA books called “The Iron _____” — THE IRON KING, THE IRON FAE, THE IRON THORN, THE IRON WITCH, etc. And one thing a lot of those “iron” titles have in common is that they’re about faeries in some way. Since my book doesn’t involve faeries at all, my editor was worried there might be some confusion.
TONS of brainstorming later, we finally found a title we all like. I think SKYLARK is short, simple, evocative, and suits the story and struggles in the book itself. Plus, I think the word just sounds pretty. Never underestimate my superficial love for things that are just pretty. 😉
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In other news, in case anyone missed it, I’m on various internet things now–you can find me (and SKYLARK) on Goodreads here, and you can find my author page on Facebook here. Come say hi!
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Thanks for the update. Love the new title!
Thanks! I’m pretty pleased about it. 😀
I really like Skylark. You don’t want to associate with THOSE books anyway. Nyeh. Actually those are pretty fun fluff books, but in my biased interest I shall stick with my sentiment. =D
Haha! There’s nothing wrong with fluff, definitely. Mostly I’d hate for someone to pick up my book thinking “faeries!” and then be disappointed. I want people to pick up my book and go “HOLY YEAH MAN!” (Or, you know, at least enjoy it.)
Oh I love SKYLARK!! And yeah, Iron ___ does make me think of a fae novel, so it’s good you found such a pretty title that suits yours better 🙂
Thanks!! I totally agree. As soon as my editor pointed it out I was all “…duh.”
I like the name Skylark. It is a pretty title!
Good luck on your continuing revisions.
I love the new title! (It reminds me of the color blue?) So fresh, and I love how it fits with the MC’s name. Are the sequel titles changing, too?
Also, I never noticed that most “Iron” books have to do with faeries. Haha.
=)
I just love SKYLARK! It’s such a graceful name, and it suits the story so well. It’s goign to look gorgeous on a cover!
The new title sounds so beautiful. *Rereads the synopsis on GR* It really seems to suit it.