No big story! We changed editors between the hardback and the paperback, and the new editor decided that the book wasn’t really centrally about AI. She felt that it was more about the rationalist community, so she wanted to change the title to reflect that. I know sod-all about the publishing industry and I trust her judgment better than mine, so I said “fine”.
If I’m starkly honest with myself I think it’s probably because the sales weren’t great and she thought this would help, but I don’t know.
The positive impacts I guess will be if it sells more copies, but one negative impact is that a few people thought I’d written a new book. I hope no one accidentally buys a second copy but I imagine it might happen.
(It’s not that unusual, I don’t think. At least two of my journalist friends have books with different paperback titles to the original hardback titles.)
No big story! We changed editors between the hardback and the paperback, and the new editor decided that the book wasn’t really centrally about AI. She felt that it was more about the rationalist community, so she wanted to change the title to reflect that. I know sod-all about the publishing industry and I trust her judgment better than mine, so I said “fine”.
If I’m starkly honest with myself I think it’s probably because the sales weren’t great and she thought this would help, but I don’t know.
The positive impacts I guess will be if it sells more copies, but one negative impact is that a few people thought I’d written a new book. I hope no one accidentally buys a second copy but I imagine it might happen.
(It’s not that unusual, I don’t think. At least two of my journalist friends have books with different paperback titles to the original hardback titles.)