Alternative title (publishing)

This article is about the practice in book publishing. For the marketing strategy, see Alternative title.

An alternative title or alternate title in book publishing refers to a title that is presented alongside the primary title. It often uses a semi-colon or the term "or" in book titles, typically seen in the form "Title: or, Subtitle."[1][2] This was a practice that started in the 17th century, and was common in both English and American literature. During this period, many books aimed to appeal to a broader audience by using more descriptive subtitles.[citation needed]

Title page of the 1859 edition of On the Origin of Species

As an example, Mary Shelley gave her most famous novel the title Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, where or, The Modern Prometheus is the alternative title, by which she references the Greek Titan as a hint of the novel's themes.[3] More examples are On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life and Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. This is contrasted to a subtitle, which is a portion of the title itself.[1] The subtitle is considered to add extra explanation for the title.[4]

This convention started to decline in the 19th century as book titles became more concise and marketing strategies evolved[4].

  1. ^ a b Dym, E.D. (1985). Subject Analysis Methodologies. Books in Library and Information Science Series. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780824773540.
  2. ^ Maxwell, Robert L. (2004). Maxwell's Handbook for Aacr2 : Explaining and Illustrating the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules through the 2003 Update (4th ed.). Chicago: American Library Association. p. 10.
  3. ^ Cantor, Paul A. (1985). Creature and Creator. CUP Archive. pp. 103–104. ISBN 9780521313629.
  4. ^ a b A.L.A. Catalog Rules: Author and Title Entries. Chicago: American Library Association. 1941. p. xv: Alternative title. A subtitle introduced by "or" or its equivalent.