The other day, I mentioned that in order to greatly increase your chances of getting a book published and have it become an immediate and longstanding success, you have to have a prepositional phrase in your title. All my stories (The Change, The Complex, The Guardian…) don’t have them, so naturally, that’s the (only) reason that I’m not a world-famous author by now.

Seriously, though, think about it. There are a ton of books, plays, and songs out there (with real merit) that have great titles that include prepositional phrases. And they’re much better titles for it, too. Would you read/listen to the following works?

1. The Wild Call
2. The Rye Catcher
3. Innocence Age
4. Alice’s Wonderland Adventures
5. Huckleberry Finn’s Adventures
6. Kavalier and Clay’s Amazing Adventures
7. The Western Front is All Quiet
8. Murder Anatomy
9. Green Gables Anne
10. A Salesman’s Death
11. Eighty Days World Trip
12. Dorian Grey’s Picture
13. Tiffany’s Breakfast
14. Champions Breakfast
15. Terabithia Bridge
16. Time’s Brief History
17. The Hat-donned Cat
18. Boots-clad Puss
19. The Narnia Chronicles
20. Grass Leaves
21. The God City
22. The Shrew-Tamer
23. The Moon’s Dark Side
24. The Locust Day
25. Eden East
26. Las Vegas Fear and Loathing
27. A Geisha’s Memoirs
28. Wind Gone
29. The Wrath Grapes
30. A Two Cities Tale
31. Darkness Heart
32. The Rings Lord
33. The Hitchhiker’s Galaxy Guide
34. The Baskervilles Hound
35. Dr. Moreau’s Island
36. The Mohicans’ Last
37. Kill License
38. Mississippi Life
39. The Light Brigade’s Charge
40. The Flies Lord
41. The Oz Wizard
42. The Iron-Masked Man
43. Martian Men, Venusian Women
44. Good and Evil Garden Midnight (wow! two?)
45. 34th Street Miracle
46. Elm Street Nightmare
47. The Avalon Mists
48. La Mancha Man
49. Scandal Notes
50. Cuckoo’s Nest Over-flier
51. Solitude’s 100 Years
52. The Species Origin
53. An Indian Passage
54. The Christ Passion
55. The Opera Phantom
56. The Apes Planet
57. A Lady Portrait
58. The Tidal Prince
59. The Red Courage Badge
60. Fire Chariots
61. Storm Riders
62. Corn Children
63. The Time Sands
64. Fools Ship
65. A Small German Town
66. Solomon’s Song
67. Dead Speaker
68. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’s Strange Case
69. All Fears’ Sum
70. The Stone-stuck Sword
71. Crypt Tales
72. Darkside Tales
73. Fourth Grade Nothing Tales
74. Endearment Terms
75. Tess D’Urberville
76. Dolls Valley
77. Fear Valley
78. A Viewful Room
79. The Worlds War
80. The Willows Wind
81. The Eastwick Witches
82. A Time Wrinkle
83. Thrones Game

Some authors must’ve subconsciously latched onto this idea and have made their titles prepositional phrases only:

1. About a Boy – Nick Hornby
2. As I Lay Dying – WIlliam Faulkner
3. As You Like It – Shakespeare
4. On Golden Pond
5. In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
6. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
7. On the Road – Jack Kerouac
8. Out of Africa – Isak Denissen
9. Through the Looking Glass – Lewis Carroll
10. Of Human Bondage – William Somerset Maugham

Tell me, tell me who…who wrote the love book?