Gray Area

Draft Manuscript

Today was a feel-good day for me. I took my USB stick to Kinkos and had the draft of my novel printed out so that I can pass it onto my Beta reader this week. I was so excited that I think the people in Kinkos thought I was manic. I might have grinned a lot. Maybe giggled. This is just finally becoming more real.

I finished my round of heavy editing by my self-imposed deadline: before my wrist surgery. Literally, right before my surgery. Like, 11:30pm the night before 🙂 But I got it done. Now I can rest and recover while my Beta reads it over and edits.

However, there is one major dilemma that has been bothering me: the title. The title is, as you see in the photo at left, Grey. I started this book many years ago (too many years to state, it’s embarrassing) and I always loved the name Grey as a first name for a man. So that is my main character’s name, but it also has a double meaning that ties directly to the plot: it stands for the gray area between life and death.

But then came along 50 Shades of YOU KNOW WHAT and now I’m questioning if this title is not wise to have anymore. Will it have negative connotations? Will people initially think it has something to do with that series? Or am I over thinking this and it’s not a big deal?

Would love your thoughts on this, dear blog readers.

6 replies added

  1. Ron Garnett December 10, 2014 Reply

    It is a dilemma, and somewhat hard to predict what the masses would do. In case you do decide to change, perhaps a variation, like:
    Fade to Grey
    Grey Area
    Grey Knights

  2. Anne December 10, 2014 Reply

    Hmmm. How about ‘The Color In Between’? I dunno. That’s a tough spot.

  3. Suzi Senesac December 10, 2014 Reply

    I hate to say it, but the first tho’t that came to my mind was, is this related to 50 shades? It’s hard to know how that will affect your book. 50 shades has a huge following, but maybe that’s not the readers you want to attract to your book. Could there be a subtitle under Grey? If it’s a suspense novel, maybe add something in the subtitle to hint to that.

  4. Richard December 10, 2014 Reply

    I think you should wait to hear from your Beta to suggest what action you should take if they think a change should be made

  5. Kendall December 13, 2014 Reply

    Toughie…I’m with Suzi (and Richard). Before I started reading the post my eyes hit the picture, and the prominent word and the very first thing that hit me was “50 shades of YOU KNOW WHAT”. Perhaps the beta reader will have a great sense of a title after they finish.

    I can’t wait to read your novel. Congratulations on taking another major step!

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