[Sasquatshhh]

Does a publisher notify you before changing the title of a book? Beacause you thought up the OG title, and they changed it for branding/whatever? (P.S. I get changing "Something Fishy At McDonald Hall" to shorten title/not get it confused with Beware The Fish!, but "All-Mars All-Stars" was a better title)

Hi, Sas,

Book titles often come from me, and just as often are the result of something the publisher prefers, and I usually agree. What's in a name, after all?

Point: THE ALL-MARS ALL-STARS was the name of the 2nd book in the SLAPSHOTS series.                                --GK--

[Raymond Jardine]

@Sasquatshhh, I think you're right that publishers sometimes find reasons to change a book's title when they re-release it. I'd guess it's usually a marketing thing--the publisher believes a new title will be more appealing to readers (or, just as importantly, to book retailers/merchandisers).

The two most recent versions of the Bruno & Boots/Macdonald Hall series have rebranded, like you said. The "Macdonald Hall" series name has been made prominent on the covers and spines--making it less necessary to repeat the school name in the title of the books that had included "Macdonald Hall."

So, THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING AT MACDONALD HALL! became MACDONALD HALL: THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! in Scholastic Canada's 2003 editions with covers by Yüksel Hassan. (That probably bothered someone important, though, because the title was reverted to the original in Scholastic's 2011 edition with cover art by Jennifer Taylor.)

And while the series was being rebranded for the 25th anniversary release, THE WIZZLE WAR and LIGHTS, CAMERA, DISASTER! and THE JOKE'S ON US all got refreshed titles. There was probably a consumer research poll conducted that indicated the updated titles were more appealing to a new generation of readers.

I don't have any inside knowledge, but it wouldn't surprise me if the title SOMETHING FISHY AT MACDONALD HALL was also seen as too much of a clue about the story's central mystery. (Trivia: According to an old letter GRK wrote to a fan, the seventh Macdonald Hall book's working title was BRUNO & BOOTS MEET THE PHANTOM JOKER. So THE JOKE'S ON US is at least the third title!)

I assumed ALL-MARS ALL-STARS got changed to THE DREAM TEAM because readers were confusing the original title with the title of the first book, THE STARS FROM MARS. That's a lot of "stars" and "Mars" going on.

I always thought the title and cover design of SON OF THE MOB: HOLLYWOOD HUSTLE were hard to distinguish from the first book in that series, and probably caused a lot of fans to not realize there even was a sequel. When the book was released in the U.K., it was just HOLLYWOOD HUSTLE (which also wasn't ideal, because that made it hard to tell it was a sequel as well!).

One other GRK book I know has been retitled was NOT THIS TIME!, a reissue of OUR MAN WESTON. I've seen only one copy of this edition--as I understand it, it was a limited release for elementary schools in Canada.

I'm not counting SAVE MACDONALD HALL as a retitle of BEWARE THE FISH! because that was an adaptation rather than a reissue.

One final note since I've already gone overboard: At least two early GRK titles have intermittent exclamation points. I'm not sure I'd count them as retitling, but it's fun to see the evolution and to know there were probably heated discussions between a marketer and an editor when the "bang" disappeared in both THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING AT MACDONALD HALL(!) and I WANT TO GO HOME(!).

[Sasquatshhh]

I haven’t heard of SAVE MACDONALD HALL. Is it like a graphic novel or something ?

[Raymond Jardine]

@Sasquatshhh, the book SAVE MACDONALD HALL is a shortened adaptation of BEWARE THE FISH, meant to meet curriculum requirements for elementary school students. I haven't had a chance to compare it to the source, so I'm unsure whether it's just condensed or if it has more substantial revisions of the original story. The book has a few illustrations but is still in older chapter-book or MG Lit format, not a graphic novel.