where the writers are

Isadora Alman Entertaining information on sex and relationships

Reconsidering the Title


bibliomaniac

Amazon.com

  paperback
Amazon.com

Barnes & Noble

  paperback
Barnes & Noble

Powell's Books

  paperback
Powell's Books
More booksellers coming soon!

July 29, 2009, 11:58 am

My first book was a fictionalized version of my experiences with the revolutionary Training and work on the phone lines for San Francisco Sex Information - the odd assembly of folks who volunteer for such a job and the even odder assortment of folks who call in anonymously with their sex and relationship questions. Our original title was Aural Sex & Verbal Intercourse.  After many interviews in which I consistently had to spell the first word (perish the thought that a book about sex might suggest a blow job) and correcting those who thought the book was about mystical sex with auras, the publishers retitled the second edition: Sex Information, May I Help You?!

So, reader, I ask you: wherein lay the misstep, with the original title or the second edition?

Charles Purdy

Charles Purdy says:

Hmmmmm.

I wonder where you think the problem lay! I like both titles, to be honest -- I think the second edition's title "scans" better. (Though the fact that you went to a second edition at all says that the first title worked pretty well.)

Thanks for sharing the story, Isadora.

Best,
Charles Purdy (Red Room)