Wow! It’s Wednesday! Molly Ringwald Wrote Back…

So if you’re new to Fierce and Nerdy, and haven’t been keeping up with the saga, which is trying to get my novel published, here’s the short version of the story so far: I wrote a novel and titled it A Molly Ringwald Ending. Then I got an agent, who wondered if the title was legal copyright wise. Talked to a lawyer, turns out names — even the really iconic ones — aren’t fair-use in titles, so I wrote Molly Ringwald a heartfelt letter about how much the title meant to the plot line of the book. That’s where we left off.

copyrightinfringementAnd yesterday, Molly Ringwald wrote back — or at least her lawyers did. They said absolutely not. I’ve no idea if they even showed Molly Ringwald my letter, before shooting down the title.

Of course I am bummed about this. However, there is a lot of brightside to this story:

1) I don’t have to keep on waiting to find out if Molly Ringwald is going to let me use her name in the title. That was not fun, as I’m not the kind of person who likes having to get permission for stuff.

2) If the novel does get picked up by a publisher, I have a great author interview story. As it is, I’ll probably mention it in the acknowledgments and thank yous. Thank you, Molly Ringwald, for at least turning me down quickly. I was afraid this situation would drag on for months, and I had my answer in under three weeks. I’m seriously grateful for that.

3) Guess who gets to crowd-source a new title for my book. You do!

So here are the options that I’m looking at:

a. The Perfect Ending [this was my original alt title choice but worries have been brought to my attention — does this sound ironic enough or do we think people will actually mistake the book for chick lit’]

b. Sixteen Years Later

c. How it Ends

d. 32 Candles

e. I don’t like any of those choices. I’ve read the first three chapters of your novel and I think you should name it ___________

Thanks in advance for your help with this!

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flickr.com photo credit: Eduardo Simioni