Rioting Rivers

[sleigh]

I was reading Ben Aaronovitch's book RIVERS OF LONDON as a possible novel to use for the class in British Fantasy Andy Miller and I are teaching in London over the winter break. Andy had given me his copy, purchased in the UK, to read. I thought I'd pick up a copy for myself, but when I went to order it, there was no such title being offered over here. What I eventually figured out was that the American publisher had changed the title. Here, the book is called MIDNIGHT RIOT.

OK... Why? RIVERS OF LONDON is, to me, a more intriguing and evocative title. Why muck it up? What about MIDNIGHT RIOT makes it a better title for American readers?

It's rather like the first Harry Potter book, whose UK title was HARRY POTTER & THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, being titled HARRY POTTER & THE SORCERER"S STONE here in the States. Are American readers considered too uneducated to understand the meaning of the Philosopher's Stone? Is MIDNIGHT RIOT a better U.S. title because it sounds violent?

Aargh!

Comments

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

Weird, eh? I'm over here now with British titles so when I went to recommend this book to US friends, I found this same issue. All I could think of was that the US publishers might have thought that American readers would think that Rivers of London was a geography book :->

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Changing titles is bad enough, but what bothers me more is the subtext of some of the changes I've seen, which seem to say "American readers aren't very bright or well-educated, so let's dumb down the title. Oh, and they're really all thugs over there who love guns and explosions and carnage, so if we can hint at some violence with the title, that'd also be a plus."

Which is even more troubling if such changes result in excellent sales... *sigh*

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

OH -- do British publishers do the same with American titles? If so, what kind of changes do they make in order to appeal to the UK audience?