NOTES FROM THE MARGINS

When I first started work in nonfiction book publishing, one thing surprised me more than anything else: What goes into choosing a nonfiction book title. I was (and still am) a more avid reader of fiction than nonfiction so my internalized knowledge was that book titles were aesthetically pleasing allusions to the story that would be made clear by reading the book. I quickly discovered this is not true of nonfiction.

Many authors I worked with on their nonfiction books were equally surprised that we, the publisher, didn’t automatically defer to their title of choice because they too, preferred a beautiful instead of functional title. That was a hard conversation every time it happened. But nine