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3%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thank you!
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6->'''Meg:''' You wrote an article about me?\
7'''Brian:''' They wanted a story about a typical teenage girl.\
8'''Meg:''' ''[opens magazine]'' Is it ''A Fistful of Bacne: Tale of a Teenage Loser''?\
9'''Brian:''' Yeah, they make the title.
10-->-- ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS8E11DialMegForMurder Dial Meg for Murder]]"
11
12When the title of a work [[ExecutiveMeddling is chosen by the publisher or someone else who is not the author]], and the author may not even ''like'' the title. See also MarketBasedTitle.
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15!!Examples:
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17[[foldercontrol]]
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19[[folder:Arts]]
20* ''Art/GirlWithAPearlEarring'': Creator/JohannesVermeer's inventory did not provide a title for this painting, so after a while, it was just decided by art academics to give it a very descriptive name and leave it at that.
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23[[folder:Comic Books]]
24* Archie Goodwin, a higher-up at Creator/DCComics, came up with the title ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween'' for the classic Franchise/{{Batman}} miniseries.
25* The title of ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'' supposedly came down from the publishers, and gave Creator/AlanMoore and David Lloyd a new impetus in crafting the graphic novel.
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28[[folder:Comic Strips]]
29* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' was descended from a similarly warped gag comic called ''Nature's Way''. Gary Larson didn't mind the change at all - "They could have called it ''[[WordSaladTitle Revenge of the Zucchini People]]'' for all I cared".
30* Newspaper publisher Joseph Patterson was famous for his "hands-on" management of comic strips, including choosing the titles such as ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' and ''Terry and the Pirates''. One story is that Milton Caniff was a bit baffled when Patterson chose this latter for the title of his new comic strip, because initially, he hadn't planned to include any character named "Terry", and also hadn't planned to include any pirates.
31* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' was named by the syndicate. Charles M. Schulz ''hated'' the name. Given that his choice was ''ComicStrip/LilFolks'', the Syndicate clearly did him a favor, even if he didn't appreciate it. "Peanuts" is a WordSaladTitle (despite being only one word). Someone at the syndicate was under the impression that it was another word for "kids", because of the term "peanut gallery".
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34[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
35* The title of ''Film/FieldOfDreams'' was changed from the original book's title "''Shoeless Joe''". Ironically, as director Phillip Alden Robinson found out, "Shoeless Joe" in itself was the publisher's title for [[Creator/WPKinsella Bill Kinsella's]] novel. His title: [[HilariousInHindsight "Dream Field."]]
36* The title of ''Film/OctoberSky'' was chosen by a producer who came up with it by making anagrams of the book's original title "Rocket Boys". Homer Hickam doesn't seem to have minded too much, as he let the book be marketed as "October Sky" after the film was released.
37* When filming the 1986 version of Thomas Harris' ''Film/RedDragon'', Michael Mann changed the title to ''Film/{{Manhunter}}''. His reason was that because the original title might lead potential audiences to think this was a [[MartialArtsMovie Kung Fu Movie]].
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40[[folder:Literature]]
41* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' titles were all publisher-chosen.
42* Creator/IsaacAsimov:
43** Many of Asimov's Literature/BlackWidowers stories got their titles changed on their initial magazine publication. His compilations generally change them back -- with the occasional AscendedFanon.
44*** "Literature/TheAcquisitiveChuckle": Dr. Asimov originally titled this story simply "The Chuckle", but the magazine editors who bought the story renamed it, and Asimov liked the change enough to keep the new name when he inevitably reprinted the story.
45*** "Literature/PhAsInPhony": The magazine changed the title to "The Phony Ph.D." because Dr. Asimov's title was too similar to a series of stories written by Creator/LawrenceTreat. For his own collection, however, he prefers his title and apologizes to Mr. Treat in the ''Literature/TalesOfTheBlackWidowers'' afterword.
46** "Literature/InAGoodCause": This story was republished with the title "Ideals Die Hard" for ''Magazine/AuthenticScienceFiction'' (issue #78, March 1957).
47** ''Literature/IRobot'': This collection's title was not a name he picked or wanted, since it belonged to [[Literature/AdamLink a short story]] by a different author.
48** "Literature/{{Strikebreaker}}": His own opinion for 'worst publisher title change'. Originally published with the publisher-chosen title of "Male Strikebreaker". (Swapping random character's genders would in no way affect the story.)
49** "Literature/BuyJupiter": The WorkingTitle was "It Pays", but when the magazine published the story, Dr Asimov found that it had been renamed to "Buy Jupiter". The story features aliens that attempt to purchase the use of Jupiter to make a stellar billboard. Because he loved puns, this is one of the few title changes that Dr Asimov kept when adding it to his own collections.
50* David Eddings wasn't thrilled with his publisher putting a ChessMotif in the titles of the ''Literature/{{Belgariad}}''. If he'd had his way, the last book would have gotten the title ''In the Tomb of the One-Eyed King'' instead of ''Enchanter's Endgame''.
51* When Creator/CJCherryh's publisher asked her for the title of the third book in her Literature/ChanurNovels series, she jokingly replied: "The Kif Strike Back". The publisher took her seriously, and the title stuck.
52* Creator/PhilipKDick is an odd case; for the most part, the titles of his stories remained untouched, but the names were often changed when they were adapted; for example, the short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" became the film ''Film/{{Total Recall|1990}}'', while "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" became ''Film/BladeRunner''. He admitted, though, that even he didn't think the original titles were very good. Overall, however, Dick is perhaps a very strong aversion of this, given his oft-noted penchant for seemingly {{Word Salad Title}}s that tell one [[NonIndicativeName nothing about the story itself]].
53* Barry Eisler found himself stuck with various rain-pun titles in his series about hitman Literature/JohnRain. Then the books had titles based around the word "assassin" whether or not they fit what was in the book. He's now had them re-released with his own titles.
54* And then, of course, there's ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'', a CulturalTranslation for the American market -- it has the original name, ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'', in most of the rest of the world. Supposedly the idea was more "American children would be scared off by the term 'philosophy'" than "Americans wouldn't understand what the title meant." However, it's not like Creator/JKRowling expected children to get the alchemical reference, as it's clearly spelled out in the text.
55* When it was submitted for publishing, Fujino Omori sent ''Literature/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'' under the more neutral title ''Familia Myth''. His editor instead went with the title the story had as a webnovel.
56* The names of the volumes of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' were not chosen by Creator/JRRTolkien. Tolkien never even wanted it to be a trilogy. It was originally envisioned as a six book series. Supposedly the book was broken up into three volumes because, in the early 1950s, Britain had not sufficiently recovered from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII paper rationing to publish the whole thing at once. Thus LOTR being the TropeMaker for the whole modern idea of a "trilogy" is entirely accidental.
57* Creator/FrederikPohl, then the editor of ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' magazine, thought that most of Creator/CordwainerSmith's original titles were bland. His solution was to take new titles from the text, e.g. "Think Blue, Count Two". The technique worked very well, and Smith didn't change any of the titles back.
58* The first Literature/RepairmanJack novel by F. Paul Wilson was called ''The Tomb'' by the publisher who wanted people to think it was a sequel to his earlier horror book, ''The Keep''. No actual tomb appears in the story. (Ironically, Wilson later decided to [[CanonWelding retrospectively link]] the two books as sharing a continuity.)
59* Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheShining'' should have been ''The Shine'', but the publisher told him that "shine" was also a slang term for a Negro ("shoeshine boy"), and that, since a moderately important secondary character in the book was an African American, it could have had some UnfortunateImplications.
60* Stephenie Meyer's original name for ''Literature/{{Twilight|2005}}'' was ''Forks''. Her agent made her change it, and most people would probably agree with her that ''Forks'' is not a great name for a paranormal romance.
61* The sixth book in the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' subseries ''Power of Three'' was originally going to be called ''Cruel Season'', but the publishers thought it was [[MoralGuardians too depressing]] and changed it to ''Sunrise''. They never seem to complain about the actual ''[[FamilyUnfriendlyViolence content]]'' of any of the books, though...
62* Justified with Toni L.P. Kelner's ''Where Are They Now?'' mystery series. The original book was released in hardcover by one publishing company under the title ''Without Mercy'', but when Kelner switched publishers to Berkley Prime Crime for the paperback reprint and sequels, they'd recently published a different book under that name and, to avoid confusion, retitled Kelner's book to ''Curse of the Kissing Cousins''. (Which actually makes sense as in-universe, it's also the title of an article the main character wrote, referring to how two of the stars of the long-ended show "Kissing Cousins" have suffered fatal accidents recently.)
63* Donald Wollheim of Ace Books was notorious for changing titles he didn't think were "science fictional" enough, usually into something really pulpy and juvenile. A joke usually attributed to Terry Carr was that if Ace under Wollheim were ever to put out a copy of the Bible, it would be a double-sided cover called "War God of Israel" [[note]]Or possibly "Master of Chaos"[[/note]] and "The Thing with Three Souls."
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66[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
67* ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye'' was supposed to be called Aventuria, after the world it is set in. The publisher Schmidt Spiele changed the title to ''The Dark Eye'' and [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Palantir]] like artifacts were quickly added to account for the title.
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70[[folder:Magazine]]
71* ''Magazine/{{Analog}}'': In the [[Recap/Analog1941 April 1941 issue]]'s "In Times To Come" column, the Chief Editor explains that one of the next month's stories, [[Creator/RobertAHeinlein Anson MacDonald]]'s "Literature/SolutionUnsatisfactory", was [[WorkingTitle originally submitted]] as "Foreign Policy".
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74[[folder:Music]]
75* The albums ''Music/{{Paranoid}}'' and ''Vol. 4'' by Music/BlackSabbath were originally called ''War Pigs'' and ''Snowblind'' respectively. The record company changed the name of both before releasing them, the first to avoid offending people involved in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar and to capitalise on the single's popularity, and the second because of the drug reference.
76* Music/DavidBowie's third album, ''Music/TheManWhoSoldTheWorld'', was recorded under the name ''Metrobolist'' (a reference to the film ''Film/{{Metropolis}}''), which was kept so late into production that it's still listed on the master tapes; Creator/MercuryRecords changed it to the final title at the last minute without Bowie's permission. Bowie then attempted to retitle the album ''Holy Holy'' in the UK[[note]]the album was released [[ShortRunInPeru a year early]] in the US[[/note]] after a non-album single he put out at around the same time, only for Mercury to call it ''The Man Who Sold The World'' there too when the single flopped. Eventually, the ''Metrobolist'' title would be restored for the album's 50th anniversary remix in 2020.
77* Singer-songwriter Music/VanessaCarlton faced this with her debut single. She wanted to name the song "Interlude," as it had appeared on her demo tape. However, the president of her record label at the time, who also produced the song, refused to release it under that name due to its NonAppearingTitle. His nephew suggested a new title: "A Thousand Miles." The result? A #1 hit on the pop and adult contemporary charts, a platinum-certified debut album, and the single becoming one of the biggest radio hits of the 2000s.
78* Russian classical music example: At the beginning of the 19th century, composer Mikhail Glinka wrote his famous opera "Ivan Susanin", about the eponymous Russian hero who sacrificed his life to save Russia from Polish invasion. But censors forced Glinka to change the opera's name to "Life for the Tsar". In the Soviet times, the originally intended name was restored.
79* Music/{{Megadeth}}'s ''The System Has Failed'' was intended as a Dave Mustaine solo album but the label put the name Megadeth on there instead of his name because they thought it would sell more copies. They were right.
80* Music/RedHotChiliPeppers have two examples from their early career. "Blowjob Park" and "Party On Your Pussy" were retitled "Battleship" and "Special Secret Song Inside" respectively.
81* ''Tenement Symphony'', the title of Marc Almond's 1991 album, was chosen by his then current record company, who also chose the overall look of the album. At the time, Almond was physically and emotionally exhausted following difficulties during the recording of his previous album, ''Enchanted'', and did not raise any objections, though he did later say he felt like "a guest on his own record".
82* Music/WeirdAlYankovic was forced by lawyers to name his ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies''-themed "[[Music/DireStraits Money for Nothing]]" parody [[Music/UHFOriginalMotionPictureSoundtrackAndOtherStuff "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*"]], exactly as written (slash and asterisk included), a decision Al has expressed his ''extreme'' displeasure with. (For that matter, this also applies to the movie the parody was written for, ''Film/{{UHF}}'', which had the title ''The Vidiot from UHF'' forced on it for certain international markets. Al wasn't happy about that one, either.)
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85[[folder:Theatre]]
86* Creator/AynRand titled her first play ''Penthouse Legend'', but producers first renamed it ''Woman on Trial'' and then ''Theatre/NightOfJanuary16th''.
87[[/folder]]
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89[[folder:Video Games]]
90* ''VideoGame/AceCombat'':
91** ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'' and ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'' (both titles chosen by their Japanese developer Creator/{{Namco}}) were re-dubbed ''Ace Combat: Distant Thunder'' and ''Ace Combat: Squadron Leader'' [[MarketBasedTitle in the PAL regions]].
92** Similarly, ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizonLegacy'' was originally ''Ace Combat 3D: Cross Rumble'' in Japan, with the game having no real relation to the recently released ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon'' (save for a Maneuvers system similar to the Close Range Assault mechanic in ''AH'') -- it's actually [[VideoGameRemake a remake]] of ''VideoGame/AceCombat2''.
93* Creator/{{Bungie}} originally intended their first Platform/{{Xbox}} FirstPersonShooter to have the OneWordTitle ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''. However, marketers at Microsoft felt that "Halo" alone was not sufficient to convey the game's military theme, so they added a subtitle and the game was ultimately released as ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved''.
94* ''VideoGame/SoulcaliburV'' director Daishi Odashima said he intended to name the game "''Soul Edge II''", indicative of its SoftReboot status within the ''VideoGame/SoulSeries''. However, [[Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment Namco]] wouldn't have it and insisted he continued using the ''Soulcalibur'' name. With ''Calibur''[='s=] [[SequelDisplacement widespread recognition eclipsing the popularity of the original game]], calling [[VideoGameLongRunners the sixth installment of the series]] that without the subtitle of "''Soulcalibur V''" would've been [[SequelNumberSnarl somewhat]] [[OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo silly]].
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97[[folder:Web Comics]]
98* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'': When the first volume was published by Creator/SevenSeasEntertainment, they kept the series title, but added the distinguishing subtitle "The Price of Magic". Author Creator/MaryCagle jokingly speculated that the next volume would be called [[TheXOfY "The Radness of Friendship"]], but overall seemed to approve of the title.
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101[[folder:Western Animation]]
102* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'': The first of Creator/GeneDeitch's shorts, ''Switchin' Kitten'', had its title made up by the honchos at MGM. Deitch wanted to name it ''Dog My Cats'' (since it involved a dog and cat swapping minds), and he hated the title it got.
103[[/folder]]

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