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If You Love Your Idea, Let It Go
How to release control when collaboration changes everything
When my agent and I were meeting with publishers, pitching them my book, Works Well With Others, the working title was The Impostor’s Protocol.
It sounds like a lesser John le Carre novel, I know. But in my head, that was my book. I felt like something of an impostor in my career (“Impostor”!), and I loved coming up with certain rules and guidelines for how to overcome that feeling at work (“Protocol”!).
But every editor I met with asked some version of, “Are you open to changing the title?” A couple of days after I signed the contract with my publisher, my editor sent me an email: “I think we can come up with something better. The Imposter’s Protocol doesn’t do enough to convey the book’s tone and what you’re going to get out of reading it…”
She was on my side, and I trusted her, so I didn’t think anything of it. We settled on one of the many titles I sent her: Works Well With Others.
I like that title. But I don’t love it. Which, in some way, makes it perfect.
