Greg Mortenson, author of the New York Times Bestseller Three Cups of Tea, spoke at a BYU forum a few weeks ago and shared an interesting story.
The subtitle for his book is One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time. It's about how education--and especially educating women--is the best way to bring peace to a country riddled in war. When he brought the book to the publishers, they changed the subtitle to One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism... One School at a Time.
He objected. They said, Trust us--they'll eat it up. He objected still. But in the end, they're the publishers, and the book went to press with the edited subtitle on the hardcover edition. But Mortenson had worked out a deal: If the book doesn't do well in its first run, then we change the subtitle back to its original name.
And you know the rest of the story: hardcover edition did poorly, paperback was published with the original title, and, lo and behold, millions are sold.
Turns out we Americans really do believe in peace.
2 comments:
I like this story. Well, the ending. Nice to see an example of how the media is trying to create a new "red/russian/commie" scare. I don't know how to spell commie so sorry if that's wrong. It may burn your English majoring retinas. The title doesn't even sound like it makes sense. One man's mission to fight terrorism. looo. sers.
The word "terrorism" has been long manipulated by some to instil fear in us all and it was a success for a while. It has been juiced up though. I like the word "PEACE" so much better!!!! Good for Mortenson!
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