Let’s Try a Little “Crowdsourcing,” Shall We?
Okay, people. I can’t say I’m wild about the whole crowdsourcing concept — but I’ve also never tried it. And now’s the perfect reason to do so.
Here’s the deal: As some of you know, I HATE the title my publisher gave my forthcoming book.
IN BEEF WE TRUST:
AMERICANS, MEAT, AND THE MAKING OF A NATION
The problems with it are a) it sounds like it’s only about beef, but the book cover beef, pork, and poultry (as well as cattle, hogs, and chickens); and b) the word “history” is nowhere to be found and this is a book work of history. (I should say there that I definitely don’t hate the subtitle. It’s okay, although obviously it would be better if it included the word “history.”)
That title, in turn, spawned an equally icky proposed jacket design (hardly surprising that the one followed from the other).
First “draft” of the jacket design. January 2013.
I REALLY didn’t like the title or the jacket, so I had a convo with my agent and he it turn talked to my editor. The upshot is that my editor indicated that she’s willing to change the title IF I come up with something better. By which she apparently meant something better than the dozen-plus titles I’ve already run by her.
So. Want to help?
Here’s a brief description of the book:
The unexpected history of meat in America and how consumers, entrepreneurs, farmers, and food activists wrestled with the land and each other to build the world’s most elaborate, and controversial, meat supply system.
Here’s a slightly longer description:
The moment European settlers arrived in North America, they began transforming the land into a livestock and meat-eater’s paradise. Even before revolution turned colonies into nation, Americans were eating meat on a scale the old world could neither imagine nor provide: an average European was lucky to see meat once a week, while even a poor American man put away about two hundred pounds a year. In BOOK TITLE, Ogle takes readers from that colonial paradise to the urban meat-making factories of the nineteenth century to the hyper-efficient packing plants of the late twentieth century. From Swift and Armour to Tyson, Cargill, and ConAgra. From the cattle bonanza of the 1880s to modern feedlots. From agribusiness to today’s “local” meat supplies and organic counter-cuisine. Along the way, Ogle explains how Americans’ carnivorous demands shaped urban landscapes, midwestern prairies, and western range, and why the American system of meat-making, for so long a source of pride, became a source of conflict and controversy.
Okay, people: give me a new title. If I decide to use any or all of something you suggest, you get your name in the acknowledgements. Right, right. Not a big deal, I know. But, hey, it’s all I’ve got.
36 Responses to “Let’s Try a Little “Crowdsourcing,” Shall We?”
“Cattle Prodigies: Americans, Meat and the Making of a Nation”
Meat the Ancestors?
OK, so sorry for that, I realize it’s really quite terrible. This is really a tricky one; as someone with lots of cattle-farming relatives (largely driven out of the additional pig business by agribusiness), I’m really looking forward to learning more of the history behind it. It really is a hard one to capture.
Livestock Wonderland?
Clearly, I need to put on my thinking cap for a while longer, but I’m very curious to see what others come up with.
The Evolution of Meat for America
Just thought I’d try.
Cover should be busts of a chicken, hog/pig, and cow around your badge; inside badge: “America Devours Protein” or “America’s Love of Protein”. Ribbon below: “History of Steaks, Chops and Legs from Natural to Organic.”
Maybe a little long but without the big bull and cow on front you have to fill space and not have white space. I would have said steaks, chops and breasts but the uproar would have drowned out the title…
You’re killing me!
Interestingly I’m working on coming up with a front cover for my book. Going by the advice I’ve been given, I would lose the second animal. Need one compelling graphic that entices the buyer to pick up the book. Why not use the word history in your title? In Beef We Trust doesn’t tell me a thing about what’s in the book. I hope some day soon I can be as clear headed about my own cover!
You’re talkin’ like I have any control over the cover design! I have NO control (nor, frankly, do I want any. I have no visual sense at all). I thought I was doing good to get them to reconsider the title. And I agree about the current title: it’s worse than useless.
MEAT: The Protein That Built A Nation
or
Moos, Clucks & Squeels – The Animals That Fed A Growing Nation
or
Steaks, Chops & Drumsticks – The Food A Nation and Her People Grew Up On
or
MEAT – It Wasn’t Always Pink Slime …
In Meat We Trust
A History of Americans, Meat, and the Making of a Nation
Larry, they don’t like that version. Don’t ask me why, ‘cuz I don’t know.
Good ideas, all, although I doubt any of them will fly! But keep the ideas coming, PLEASE.
Meatspace.
Oh, wait–no: Meatspace of Desire.
(Worked for Pollan)
All Hail the Meat
American Meat.
America Runs on Meat.
A Meat in Every Pot.
As American as Meat Pie.
Also why can’t it just be: MEAT: An American Love Story
Meet America’s Meat
Animal Magnetism – Americans and their love affair with meat.
Or The United States of Meat.
For what it’s worth, I think the subtitle clearly implies “history”. What is the “making of a nation” if not history? Shoe-horning “history” into it makes it sound awkward.
“In Beef We Trust” is snappy but yes, does exclude poultry/pork/etc. so I can see why you dislike it.
I have a terrible love of puns, currently fixated on the “Star-Spangled Spammer”, but I really don’t think that’s what you’re after
Thanks for that on the subtitle. I do like the subtitle (which I came up with) and had to work hard to resist working “history” into it. Star-Spangled Spammer is hilarious, but…. Puns and I are not friends, you know? Which is kind of a problem: I married into a family of pun-lovers. Oh, the puns I know….
How about “Insatiable – The Story of American Meat” OR “American Appetites” or “Carnivorous” or something like that… these are just initial brainstorm ideas to get away from just beef but also to entice a little with the idea of devouring, insatiable, appetite, etc. (My 2cents!) And congratulations for finishing. I know you must feel like a million bucks!
Now this I like. The word “insatiable” is so rich! I have come up with one that uses a variant of “carnivore.” I just sent it to my agent. But now maybe I like something with insatiable…. Hmmm. THANKS! And although I’m not *quite* finished, I’m so close my sweat is dripping on the finish line. And yeah, I feel like a million bucks. Maybe even a zillion.
Here you go… just came to me while I was eating breakfast:
Carnivoracious – American’s Insatiable Appetite for Meat
Oh, I like CARNIVORACIOUS. I like that a lot.
Happy to help out!
PS I am so proud of you and in total awe! Not just that you have done it – written a complete, compelling and accessible history of such a huge and important subject, but that you’ve done it for the THIRD TIME! Kudos!
This is the fourth book. Bur who’s counting?
For the cover, I am visualizing something from the Mad Men era with people dressed in fancy clothes eating enormous cuts of prime rib at a swanky restaurant. Just like any of a hundred similar scenes we’ve actually seen in Mad Men. Oh, but if Don Draper could be on the cover your book… Swoon! Swoon!
okay, you didn’t like the first run:
A BIG red heart on cover:
” An Insatiable Love Affair with Meat
Taking Stock of Steaks, Chops and Drumsticks”
Just borrowed from all your friends to put a compellation of comments
The problem is that this doesn’t convey what the book is about. It could be a cookbook, right?
Well, there you go, the original title can’t really be a cookbook, right?
just get rid of that swayback cow!
dave
Carnivores in Paradise: The History of American Meat.
Tom, that is SO perfect. And too late. (HEY! WHYJAWAITSOLONG????)
Sounds like a plan! Well, a title is chosen, what does the cover look like???
We do now have a title and a new jacket design (although I’m waiting for the final version before I post it). (EVERYTHING in publishing takes a VERY VERY VERY long time.)
The title is:
In Meat We Trust: The Unexpected History of Carnivore America
Doggoneit! Maybe the British version can have my title…look forward to the book, though!