OK, I need your help, but it takes almost no effort and you get something cool for your time!
See, I’m writing the first book ever about fan films–it’s coming out next year from Continuum Books, and knock on wood, it’s gonna be pretty darn good. Mostly it’s going to be the history of fan-made movies, from the 1920s to today, but I’ll also cover what fan flicks mean for society, the changing roles of fans in pop culture, copyright issues, fan productions as protests, and more. I’m pretty happy about how it’s coming along so far–except for the title.
Right now, it’s called “Homemade Hollywood: The Fan Film Phenomenon.” I kinda like the “Homemade Hollywood” part, but the subtitle is pretty Blah. I don’t think it really says anything about the book, and since most people don’t know what a fan film is, if they just see the book spine in a book store, they’re going to think it’s a book about crazy movie fans and ignore it.
So that’s the contest: Help me come up with a better title.
I’m mainly looking for a better subtitle, but if you wanna rewrite the entire thing, go right ahead. You can enter as many titles as you like, invite your buddies to take a shot if you want, etc. No titles like “Steaming Pile of S—;” my wife already cornered the market on those (JK). Whoever comes up with the best title gets a ‘thanks’ in the acknowledgements page and a free copy of the book from moi when it comes out.
THE RULES (MADE UP AS I GO ALONG): It’s just me running this, not my publisher, so it’s all very unofficial and probably legally suspect. Whatever. I alone choose the winning title; if nothing floats my boat, I reserve the right to not choose one at all–although I’d rather have a hard time picking the best one instead! If two people suggest the same title and that’s the one I want to use, the person who suggested it first wins. If I mix and match two different titles to come up with the one I want, both people get a book. If I hate all the titles, come up with my own and then it turns out it’s similar–but not identical–to something someone suggested that I overlooked, dude, you’re SOL. If I pick a winning title, tell the publishers and they veto it, you get the book and the ‘thanks,’ but we both lose because it doesn’t have your cool title. There–I think that covered every situation I could think of.
THIS PART IS IMPORTANT: I need the titles by the end of Labor Day weekend (that’s Monday, September 3); that’s the drop-dead date because they’re going to start working on the cover the week after that, so that they can put it in their next catalog even though it’s not coming out until 2008.
HOW TO ENTER: Go over to my book’s MySpace page, sign up and then send me a message with your entry/entries. “What?” you ask. “Your book wants to be my ‘friend’ when we don’t even know each other?” Well, it’s a very friendly book; just don’t let it near your snack drawer or it’ll eat all your Fritos. The book’s MySpace page is www.myspace.com/fanfilmbook.
(For those who hate MySpace–and believe me, I really do understand–my using it for this contest is yeah, partially to build up a contact list, but mainly to make sure that all entries wind up in the same place so that I don’t accidentally overlook someone’s entry on a forum or website.)
Anyway, that’s it–hope you guys flood me with titles, ’cause I need the best one possible. Thanks!
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