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I'm planning to title a book "Taiwan Seek."

The book is about starting a classified ads website in Taiwan. So I thought about short words that are related to classified ads: want, seek, looking for etc. I didn't want to use want because "Taiwan Want" sounds horrible.

I wanted to have a word that is both verb and noun at the same time.

I was wondering if it would be a bad title since "seek" sounds similar to "sick"

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    I don't know if you're looking for criticism of the title, but "seek" isn't a noun. Maybe "Taiwan Search"? "Taiwan Seeking"? "Taiwan Classified"? The structure feels a bit awkward to me, unless it's meant to be the name of the website. (Even then, maybe it's worth considering not titling the book after the website. I don't know that I'd pick up a book titled Face Book or Slash Dot or Boing Boing...)
    – Standback
    Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 9:07
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    Vote to close ... this seems to be more of a question for English SE than Writers SE.
    – Craig Sefton
    Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 9:36
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    @Craig Sefton I thought English SE was for English usage. My question is not about English usage but about how people will respond to what I've written.
    – wyc
    Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 9:45
  • @alexchenco - my first impression is that this is not about writing, and more about whether one word can be linked to another because of a similar sound. English SE may not be an exact match for it (perhaps a better fit would be something about linguistics but I don't think there's a SE site for that) but it just didn't strike me as being really related to writing. Just my opinion on it, and if no-one else votes, then I'm wrong :)
    – Craig Sefton
    Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 10:05
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    He's asking how this works as a book title. I think that's perfectly fair.
    – Standback
    Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 10:55

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I see no reason for concern. The two words don't look the same, or even really sound the same. I don't see any reason anybody would get the two confused, certainly not on a scope that should worry you.

Maybe if your novel gets turned into a multimillion dollar film, "Taiwan Sick" could be the title for the MAD Magazine lampoon :P

Now, this isn't what you were asking, but I feel obliged to mention that "seek" is not a noun. Perhaps "Taiwan Search"? More on this in the comments.

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  • @Standback Well, I'm looking a word with 4 letters. I can't think of anything else. (By the way, isn't "gold seek" a situation were seek is working as a noun?) PS: So it would be a good name for a website but not a book?
    – wyc
    Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 9:45
  • I'm not familiar with the phrase "gold seek." Even if it exists (google's first hits don't present the phrase as anything other than a name), it's hardly well known... You seem to have a lot of restrictions - are you sure you need to apply those all to the title? The title doesn't give you the space the novel will to explain and make use of all those details. People who haven't read it yet won't know the title is carefully constructed. If it doesn't interest them - with zero understanding or context- they might never open your book. So: are you sure this phrase needs to be the title?
    – Standback
    Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 10:52
  • Also, if you're hoping to be published professionally, I wouldn't sweat the title. It's kind of mostly up to the publisher - though if he likes your title, it'll stay.
    – Standback
    Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 10:53
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    @alexchenco - Are you perhaps confusing "gold seek" with "gold rush"?
    – Craig Sefton
    Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 11:16
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    Tawain Rush - @Craig, that's what I call a title.
    – John Smithers
    Commented Jun 20, 2011 at 12:46
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"Seek" is only noun in highly technical senses. If someone said "Taiwan Seek" to me, I would think "Taiwan Sikh?"

How about

  • Taiwanted
  • Taiwan Hunt
  • Taiwan Classified

(I like the last because "classified" also means "secret" and so the title suggests LA Confidential or High-School Confidential.)

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  • Taiwanted is taken, I don't want something longer than 5 words. I think Taiwanhunt is a good choice, I will consider it.
    – wyc
    Commented Jun 21, 2011 at 10:42
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You may be confused because of accent: to native English speakers, sick and seek are very distinctive, and could not be confused, but to speakers of many other languages, these two vowels are difficult to distinguish. (See also, ship and sheep, shit and sheet, bitch and beech.) If your book is targeting native English speakers, this will not be a problem. (However, as others have said, the word seek there is a little odd anyway.)

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