SEX, BOMBS & BURGERS

The big news of the day is that my book has officially had its title changed. The new name, as you can tell from the above banner, is Sex, Bombs and Burgers: How War, Porn and Fast Food Shaped Technology As We Know It.

The story behind the title has seen many twists and turns (and we may not be done yet). Penguin Canada has had some trepidation about it since we signed our deal early last year, but the understanding was we'd keep the original name - Bombs, Boobs & Burgers - as a working title, and see if something better emerged.

Allen & Unwin, my publisher in Australia, also didn't like it, and the editors there spelled out why. They said it sounded "Benny Hill," which for a while I couldn't quite understand. It was through Ricky Gervais, and his show Extras, that I finally figured out what they were talking about. On Extras, Gervais plays Andy Millman, who's a self-centered actor trying to make it in film as, of course, an extra. He finally lands a starring role in a sitcom, but the show is all low-brow humour based on his character, who wears a funny wig and glasses and continually spouts his one catch phrase: Is he 'avin' a laff?

There's one episode of Extras where Millman is at the Baftas, which is kind of like the UK's Emmy and Oscars all rolled into one, and he realizes that he gets no respect from his peers. While everyone there considers themselves serious actors, they see Andy as a hack who's lucked out by appealing to the lowest common denominator.

I think this is what Penguin and Allen & Unwin were thinking. They believed that I'd written a serious book, yet people may not take it seriously with the word "boobs" in the title. The alliteration also didn't help.

The problem was, Bombs, Boobs & Burgers was also a very memorable title - it wasn't one people were likely to forget if they heard about it on the radio or TV, or whatever. So the trick was to come up with something that didn't sound low-brow, but that was also memorable.

Many people (myself included) tried for many months, and we all failed. Finally, the folks at Allen & Unwin came up with Sex, Bombs & Burgers, with the subtitle a variation from something I had in the original proposal. Pretty much everybody agreed that this is a worthy compromise name - it has enough of the original idea, it's still memorable and it's a little less "Benny Hill" (which I think is a fine show, by the way). In the interest of a unified title, Penguin is also going with the Australian name.

The book is being pitched to U.S. publishers this week. I've heard that a few are interested, but they also didn't like "Boobs." I hope they like the new title, or it could be back to the drawing board.

By the way, if you're in Canada and have already pre-ordered the book on Amazon.ca or Chapters.ca, I'm told the title change will have no effect. If you haven't pre-ordered, well what are you waiting for?!?