Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The Importance of Covers, or What’s in a Name?



by Sarah Raplee
Whilst working on ideas for the title and cover for our upcoming anthology, Judith Ashley, Diana McCollum and I have discovered how easily titles without covers can be misinterpreted. Which is one reason we need cover art: to help set the tone and genre of the story in the reader’s mind.

Just for fun, I’ve put together a list of real titles of tv shows, along with alternative descriptions that fit the titles about as well as the real shows’ descriptions.
See what you think!

Lab Rats – Two children rescue a group of what they think are rats from a testing laboratory, only to discover the “rats” were created from fertilized eggs to which Labrador retriever genes were added.


Two Broke Girls – A transvestite buddy comedy.

Under the Dome – A creatively-daring new show about the three parts of a genius inventor’s personality, portrayed by three actors, who vie for control of his thoughts and actions inside the man’s bald head (which looks like a round video game parlor.)

Merlin – A nature documentary about the life cycle of these fascinating birds.

Game of Thrones – A royal trivia game show.

Warehouse 13 – A historical drama about the early days of the Longshoreman’s Union.

Lost Girl – A romantic comedy-adventure about a beautiful martian stranded in the Wild West during the California gold rush.

Mad Men – A documentary series about insane men throughout history.

Continuum – Real-time news coverage of Congress in action.

Longmire – Medieval travelers lose their way in a seemingly-endless marshland and must depend on one another in order to survive.

Can you think up a fictitious show for one of these titles?
Falling Skies
Downton Abbey
Elementary
Psych

7 comments:

Judith Ashley said...

My best shots:

Falling Skies: A retrospective of the life and times of Chicken Little.

Elementary: An historical review of elementary education in the United States.

Thanks for a fun post, Sarah.

Judith Ashley said...

Oops, should read
Falling Skies: A retrospective on the life and times of Chicken Little.

Too early to catch the details before clicking 'publish' or 'send'.

Lynn Lovegreen said...

Elementary: a sit-com based in an elementary school faculty

Downton Abbey: a drama about monks and nuns based in a modern abbey

Diana McCollum said...

Hilarious post, Sally!

Naomi Baltuck said...

Very fun post, Sarah! I have been having fun thinking up titles every time I do a blog post. It's great practice.

Sarah Raplee said...

Thank you for posting your ideas, Judith and Lynn! Very funny!

Sarah Raplee said...

Glad you enjoyed this post, Diana and Naomi! Thanks for stopping by.