Why do certain books have two names?

[Hari Seldon]

Asimov has a few and some others. It gets confusing when trying to complete my collection of certain authors. I have actually bought doubles not realizing that the books were the same with just different names. Tiger! Tiger! to The Stars My Destination is another one though I think the second title might be slightly revised. I only read it under the second title name.

Who is usually responsible for this?

I assume it is the publishing company looking for a more marketable name but I'm not sure.

It is no big deal except for curiosity.

 

[The Ace]

Sometimes the publisher doesn't like the author's name, sometimes it's renamed for a different market, sometimes the author has enough clout to get his name restored after the publisher changed it...... the list goes on.

David Eddings planned a trilogy, 'Garion,' 'Ce'Nedra,' and, 'Torak (In The Tomb of the One-Eyed God),' but Lester del Rey changed the layout to five standard-sized paperbacks (something to do with pricing) and introduced the fantasy/chess titles by which the volumes of, 'The Belgariad,' are now known.

 

[Lith]

There have been a number of Zane Grey's novels under multiple names in the last decade or so. In his case, his estate is publishing early versions of novels his publishers made him change before their original publications, so the name change makes sense.

 

[Hari Seldon]

Thanks for the reply. Just the information I was looking for.

It is sometimes annoying when a book is released under one name then later re-released under a different title. That is where it can get confusing.

 

[j d worthington]

Quite often, as Ace mentioned, it had to do with different markets. For example, there are several of Agatha Christie's books which were renamed for the American market, while Asimov and several of the other "Golden Age" writers had theirs renamed for the UK market.

There are also writers such as Moorcock, who have had some books retitled for new editions, either because there has been considerable revision, or because of a rethink on which title actually fits the book better. There are several cases of something being published as a set of shorter stories that, when combined into a novel or collection, the title of one was chosen over another; after time, one of the other titles may be chosen instead. This happened with "The Sundered Worlds"/"The Blood Red Game", which for a long time as a novel was given the title of the first, but then the second was chosen and is actually much more in tune with the theme of the book.

In other words, there are several reasons this happens; but in most cases, if you check the copyright page, it lists the alternate title. This also frequently appeared (at least in older books) on the title page as well, and with paperbacks, it sometimes appeared on the cover in small print....

 

[Dozmonic]

The one that annoys me the most is that the same editor who changed JK Rowling's Philosopher's Stone book to the Sorcerer's Stone is the same one who Northern Lights into the Golden Compass. That editor should be made to stack shelves in the busiest WH Smith store we can find for a few years, look at the titles of books this side of the pond, and then fired to the moon to contemplate what his murdering of book titles has done ;-)

 

[Omphalos]

Frank Herbert's first book was called The Dragon in the Sea, but I have found it titled The Dragon Under the Sea, Under Pressure and 21st Century Sub. I always wondered why, but it seems it was just the decision of the various editors.

 

[sloweye]

David Eddings planned a trilogy, 'Garion,' 'Ce'Nedra,' and, 'Torak (In The Tomb of the One-Eyed God),' but Lester del Rey changed the layout to five standard-sized paperbacks (something to do with pricing) and introduced the fantasy/chess titles by which the volumes of, 'The Belgariad,' are now known.

Didnt the same thing happen with Stephen kings Green mile? i think that was planned as a single volume then split into smaller paperbacks. knowing me i'm wrong

 

[The Ace]

Dunno, don't read much King. Errrr, 'The Philosopher's Stone,' was the original title, the publishers changed it because they didn't think the US market would know what a philosopher was.

Every so often such decisions are made because we don't think Americans are very bright.

The trouble is, that when we don't take such a patronising attitude we get things like the invitation for Jane Austin to do a lecture tour, Hollywood wanting to film PTerry's, 'Mort,' but leaving Death out, or the travesty of, 'The Dark is Rising.'

We just can't win.

 

[j d worthington]

Frank Herbert's first book was called The Dragon in the Sea, but I have found it titled The Dragon Under the Sea, Under Pressure and 21st Century Sub. I always wondered why, but it seems it was just the decision of the various editors.

I'm not sure about the rest, but Under Pressure was the title of the original serialization in Astounding, Nov. 1955-Jan. 1956....

 

[HoopyFrood]

Didnt the same thing happen with Stephen kings Green mile? i think that was planned as a single volume then split into smaller paperbacks. knowing me i'm wrong

No, I'm quite sure King wrote it with the intention of doing it in sections. He wrote six (I think) small volumes and then it was later put together and sold as one book.

 

[sloweye]

Ah, ok. i knew i had seen it it both format just got them the wrong way round.

 

[ktabic]

No, I'm quite sure King wrote it with the intention of doing it in sections. He wrote six (I think) small volumes and then it was later put together and sold as one book.

Yeah, it was published as six small volumes originally. My Mum has the first four (but managed to miss the last two).

 

[Wiglaf]

Dunno, don't read much King. Errrr, 'The Philosopher's Stone,' was the original title, the publishers changed it because they didn't think the US market would know what a philosopher was.

Every so often such decisions are made because we don't think Americans are very bright.

The trouble is, that when we don't take such a patronising attitude we get things like the invitation for Jane Austin to do a lecture tour, Hollywood wanting to film PTerry's, 'Mort,' but leaving Death out, or the travesty of, 'The Dark is Rising.'

We just can't win.

They didn't think we knew what a philosopher's stone was; its a different thing. As for The Dark is Rising, if you are talking about The Seeker, it doesn't matter what you name it (or write in it for that matter) when dealing with Hollywood. Perhaps they thought "seeker" would attract quidditch fans?
Personally I liked most of Agatha Christie's original titles better than the later ones. I belive that many British titles were later changed to the American ones. Of course I could be wrong apart from Murder on the Orient Express/Murder on the Calais Coach.

 

[j d worthington]

Personally I liked most of Agatha Christie's original titles better than the later ones. I belive that many British titles were later changed to the American ones. Of course I could be wrong apart from Murder on the Orient Express/Murder on the Calais Coach.

No, I'd say that the original titles were (usually) the more evocative ones; though one can understand why people would balk these days at the original British title of And Then There Were None (see below):

And Then There Were None - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[The Ace]

In the book, Will Stanton was the seeker, but it was an aside. The book was brilliant, largely because Will was pre-teen and the youngest of a large but close-knit family.

 

[Omphalos]

I'm not sure about the rest, but Under Pressure was the title of the original serialization in Astounding, Nov. 1955-Jan. 1956....

Ive seen paperback with all four titles on them in the past.

 

[Taltos]

No, I'd say that the original titles were (usually) the more evocative ones; though one can understand why people would balk these days at the original British title of And Then There Were None (see below):

And Then There Were None - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

j.d. we just had a "storm in the teacup" about this one here, when the latest release was under the americanized header - with the explanation that the Christie estate likes this heading now. About the different headers - you have no idea how bad it is to search something - when not only the name has changed but the name has been translated as well - or rather when the name was regenerated instead of translation.

 

[iansales]

The classic example has to be Brian Aldiss' Non-Stop. The whole point of the story is that it's set aboard a generation starship but the protagonist - and the the reader - doesn't discover this until near the end. So, of course, for its publication in the US, it was retitled... Starship.

Van Vogt is a difficult one to collect because many of his books appeared under different titles, or were expanded more than once from an initial short story, or stories appeared in several different collections. Undercover Aliens, for instance, was originally pulbished as The House That Stood Still. But there's also a third edition - a "spiced up" version published by Beacon Books titled The Mating Cry...

 

[Omphalos]

The classic example has to be Brian Aldiss' Non-Stop. The whole point of the story is that it's set aboard a generation starship but the protagonist - and the the reader - doesn't discover this until near the end. So, of course, for its publication in the US, it was retitled... Starship.

I never see it titled Starship any longer. Just so you know that the idiots eventually caught on that it gave too much away.