
 |
|
Nov. 6, 2009
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How
to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Nov. 5, 2009
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking
Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker
With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater?
With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change
With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Oct. 29, 2009
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our
Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
JWisdom.com Why what we wear
impacts who we are
With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love
With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks
With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness
with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really?
By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A
Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious
By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things
By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices
By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 15, 2009
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
|
| |
Jewish World Review
March 14, 2006
/ 14 Adar, 5766
Finding fun in rejection
By
David Grimes
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Awards have been handed out for the Oddest Book Title of the Year, and once again none of my submissions made the cut.
Bookseller magazine gave first place to a self-help book on being haunted titled "People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It."
Second place went to "Rhino Horn Stockpile Management: Minimum Standards and Best Practices From East and Southern Africa."
I have sent far better prospective titles to book publishers over the years and, needless to say, all of them have been rejected. I attribute this to a lack of imagination among the publishing elite and an inability to "think outside the box," as today's motivational speakers are so fond of saying.
One of my first rejected book titles was "Pug Incontinence: How to Make Your Living Room Smell Like the Men's Room at Raymond James Stadium in Under a Week." My prospective publisher said that too few book buyers were interested in pug incontinence and that those who were were probably more interested in correcting it than modeling their home décor around it. This struck me as a very narrow viewpoint, but starving authors have very little clout in today's publishing world, or so it seems.
| BUY THE BOOK |
|
Click HERE to purchase it at a discount. (Sales help fund JWR.).
|
|
Another of my rejected titles was "How to Avoid Killing Your Spouse While Playing Endless Board Games During Hurricane Season." I tried to make it clear that I didn't mean "killing" in a literal sense but rather as a euphemism for a light strangling. But my prospective publisher, who apparently could drive past a plane crash without swiveling his head, thought that the title was too "strong" for today's market and asked me to redo the book's theme to something that celebrated the joys of shared canned tuna fish.
Artists like me cannot be bullied in that way, so I simply filed "Board Games" in my desk drawer with all my other rejected book titles.
These include:
- "Phantom Flossing: How to Trick Your Dental Hygienist Into Thinking You Really Care About Your Gums."
- "Cell Phone Etiquette: Why Ordering Pizza in the Middle of a Crowded Movie Theater is a Constitutionally Protected Right."
- "Why I Love Ballet: A Primer in Under 25 Words."
- "How to Destroy Your Lawn Without Really Trying."
- "100 Good Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Called Upon to Kill Spiders the Size of Manhole Covers That Have Taken Up Residence in Their Bathrooms."
- "Improve Your IQ by Watching More Daytime TV."
- "What the Health Fascists Don't Want You to Know About Beer."
- "Lose Weight the Elvis Way."
- "Are You Allergic to Sex?"
- "Lethargy: Nap Your Way to a New You."
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor David Grimes is a columnist for The Sarasota Herald Tribune. Comment by clicking here.
Archives
© 2005, Sarasota Herald Tribune
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Michael Barone
Dave Barry
Tony Blankley
Andy Borowitz
David Broder
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
John Fund
Frank J. Gaffney
Lloyd Garver
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Lewis Grossberger
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Laura Ingraham
Cheri Jacobus Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ed Koch
Ch. Krauthammer
Michael Ledeen
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Dick Morris
Bill O'Reilly
Jim Mullen
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Jonathan Rauch
Celia Rivenbark
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Pat Sajak
Debra J. Saunders
Culture Shlock
Roger Simon
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
Lisa Benson
John Branch
Gary Brookins
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holber
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Ranan R. Lurie
Jimmy Margulies
Rick McKee
Michael Ramirez
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Ed Stein
Danna Summers
John Trever
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters

How 2
Lori Borgman
The Savvy Consumer
Elder matters
Fixit
Dr. Peter Gott
GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
Richard Lederer
Tech Maven
Every Monday Matters
Nutrition Myths
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
How Stuff Works
|