Annoying/Misleading changes to books

[Mort1997]

I have just been browsing Amazon UK for books I don't really need but that doesn't stop me.

I looked at the recommendation 'Ghostsight: A Malcom Chance Dark Fantasy Thriller (Malcolm Chance Book 1) by Joseph Hutton' which look interesting but increasing familiar as I read the blurb - then at the bottom of the synopsis - 'Originally published in the United States as Eyes To See by Joseph Nassise'

So it has been re-published with a different title, different author name and the main character has been re-named (originally Jeremiah Hunt).


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghostsight-M...5714294&sr=1-1

I have not seen this before (different title yes but not all these changes) but found it very annoying. Has anyone else seen this sort of thing before?

[meeera]

I don't know - it's irritating, but they're within their rights to change titles and even author names when publishing in a different country. At least it is disclosed.

Personally I'd avoid that book based on the Amazon reviews alone, but YMMV.

[Dr. Drib]

Would you like this to be an invitation to contribute further instances of title changes? Or to keep it closed (which is perfectly fine, as you're the OP) to this one title as a general topic of discussion?

Thanks.

Don
(Moderator)

[Mort1997]

I am quite happy for the conversation to go off on a tangent if people are interested enough to post .

My initial post simply covers my surprise at the changes in the book - it may well be a relatively common occurrence and I was just not aware of it. A change in title between countries is common but annoying esp if you buy before you realise/ spot the warning.

I think the thing that got me was changing the main character's name on top of everything else - not something I have knowingly encountered.

I'd be interested if this has happened before (possibly in books translated from one language to another?)

[ebusinesstutor]

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" become "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the US.

Perhaps they thought Americans would't know what a Philosopher's stone was.

Omnibus editions also do this - they pull together 2 or 3 books and give it a new overall title and if you aren't careful, you are rebuying books you already own.

For example, "Cordelia's Honor" by Lois McMaster Bujold is really two other books, "Shards of Honor" and "Barrayar" just pulled together into one book.

[Dazrin]

It is fairly common and not at all a new phenomenon for books to have different titles when they are published by different publishers in different countries but the example you have of changing the title and the author and the main character names is the first time I have seen that. You would think that the author would want it to be found easily and that amount of change is confusing. Of course if the original book got rotten reviews maybe they are intentionally obscuring the source.

There are a few other times I have seen a book change titles or authors too, normally associated with going from traditionally published to indie published.

The first few (possibly all) of the John Rain books by Barry Eisler all have new titles now but he does provide the original title clearly. Apparently when they were first published the publishing house wanted the titles to be themed, "Rain Fall", "Hard Rain", "Killing Rain", etc. and when got his rights back he went back to the original titles he had wanted for the books rather than the themed ones that didn't have much to do with the actual story content.

Another example would be JA Konrath changing the name on some of his pseudonym's books back to JA Konrath instead of the pseudonym. Although in most (all?) cases I think he left the original pseudonym and make them "... and JA Konrath" so that they could be found by searching for either name. Again, this was a change made when going from traditional publishing to indie publishing and also to make sure his books were all easily discoverable.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

It is fairly common and not at all a new phenomenon for books to have different titles when they are published by different publishers in different countries but the example you have of changing the title and the author and the main character names is the first time I have seen that. You would think that the author would want it to be found easily and that amount of change is confusing. Of course if the original book got rotten reviews maybe they are intentionally obscuring the source.

There are a few other times I have seen a book change titles or authors too, normally associated with going from traditionally published to indie published.

The first few (possibly all) of the John Rain books by Barry Eisler all have new titles now but he does provide the original title clearly. Apparently when they were first published the publishing house wanted the titles to be themed, "Rain Fall", "Hard Rain", "Killing Rain", etc. and when got his rights back he went back to the original titles he had wanted for the books rather than the themed ones that didn't have much to do with the actual story content.

Another example would be JA Konrath changing the name on some of his pseudonym's books back to JA Konrath instead of the pseudonym. Although in most (all?) cases I think he left the original pseudonym and make them "... and JA Konrath" so that they could be found by searching for either name. Again, this was a change made when going from traditional publishing to indie publishing and also to make sure his books were all easily discoverable.

If you are talking about Jack Kilborn, then yes I think all of those books now have JA Konrath on them.
Not sure about his other pseudonyms.

[eschwartz]

The OP already said he's seen titles change before. These things happen, sometimes for good reason.


Once the main character got changed, I know something fishy is going on though.

[issybird]

In Peyton Place, the high school principal was originally named Tomas Makris, but there was a real Tomas Makris who worked with Metalious's husband, who sued for libel. The name was changed to Michael Rossi in subsequent editions.

The character was called Michael Kyros in the UK editions; my guess is that it was an easier change from the original since only the name had to be changed and not all the references to being of Greek origin as well.

[Catlady]

Here's one apparent title change that's confusing: Lisa Ballantyne's Redemption Road and Everything She Forgot. Audible is showing both titles, with different narrators, different lengths, and different publishers. Both titles are also listed separately at Fantastic Fiction. But since the descriptions are similar, apparently these are the UK and US versions.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by issybird

In Peyton Place, the high school principal was originally named Tomas Makris, but there was a real Tomas Makris who worked with Metalious's husband, who sued for libel. The name was changed to Michael Rossi in subsequent editions.

The character was called Michael Kyros in the UK editions; my guess is that it was an easier change from the original since only the name had to be changed and not all the references to being of Greek origin as well.

I thought the name change to Mike Rossi only occurred for the movie and then was retained for the TV series. I just checked both my hardcover book club edition of Peyton Place and the Audible version I listened to last year, and both use the name Tomas Makris.

[DiapDealer]

Maybe not exactly the same thing, but I hate when I buy a new book from an author I like, only to find out it's simply a fleshing-out of a short-story of theirs (that I've already read) with a new title.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I thought the name change to Mike Rossi only occurred for the movie and then was retained for the TV series. I just checked both my hardcover book club edition of Peyton Place and the Audible version I listened to last year, and both use the name Tomas Makris.

The paperback edition I read with popping eyes as an adolescent had Mike Rossi, but years later I came across a book club hardback with Tomas Makris. I looked into it then and came up with the libel suit explanation, which I verified at Wikipedia before I posted, FWTW.

He'll always be Mike Rossi to me!

[Cinisajoy]

How about Trilby and Svengali? The author had to take an entire chapter out of Trilby because James Whistler thought it was about him.

[JSWolf]

It's silly when we get the same book with different titles in the US and UK. The publishers are idiots to think the US public won't understand the UK title when the book is written by a UK author.