Writing Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for the craft of professional writing, including fiction, non-fiction, technical, scholarly, and commercial writing. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I have a title for a novel, however, it would lose its zeitgeist if I couldn't include the F-word. I can't go in to details without giving away the title.
Would this limit the potential audience significantly? or would publishers simply refuse to accept a title with the F-word in it?
Would a censored version be acceptable like F#%$ ?
There are 3573 entries on Goodreads with the word "f***" in the title (I only splat it for this site, not for my own sensibility). The titles contain the full word, spelled out.
2744 entries with the word s*** in the title.
And so on.
It's just not an issue with many publishers. It may be for others but those others likely wouldn't publish your book even if the title was G-rated.
The Netflix show The End of the F***ing World is commonly cited with the exact spelling I give here. But it's actually spelled correctly, no splats. Splatting and similar spelling changes are a way that many publishers, bookstores, and etc making the titles more generally acceptable.
Write the book first. Worry about the title later. Your publisher, should you be lucky enough to get one, will work that out with you.
