Why call it “The Mayonnaise Murders”?
Because of that look you have on your face right now.
I’m not the first one to say this by a long shot, but I do believe it is important for us authors to make our work stand out in any way that we can. There are thousands and thousands of new books being traditionally published and self-published every week, and it wasn’t hard for me to figure out that if I didn’t do something to grab a reader by the throat then this would be just another neat little story floating around out there in space. Just think about the last time you were in a bookstore (remember those?) and there were those few books up front that were being heavily promoted while the rest were stocked away on shelves deeper in the store where you were only likely to discover them if you were looking for them.
Yeah, well when you’re publishing your own stuff it’s worse than that in certain ways because us self-published types don’t have gigantic marketing and promotional teams – let alone gigantic marketing and promotional budgets – to help shove our work in front of the public and convince them to buy it. Furthermore we don’t have agents to shove our work in front of publishers who then shove our work in front of their marketing and promotion folks who then shove it in front of the public and (hopefully) convince them to buy it.
All we have is our own determination to make something happen, which is where the title “The Mayonnaise Murders” comes in. Just about everyone who has asked me what was the title of my book (after I just happened to mention to them in casual conversation that ‘hey guess what I’m writing this book see and…)has at least broken into a smile, if not outright laughter, upon hearing the title. It catches them off guard. Because not too many people tend to associate mayonnaise with murder. Tuna fish salad? Sure. Murder? Not so much.
Which is exactly what I wanted. I wanted folks to do a double-take when they heard that title. I wanted to get their attention. Because I knew that once I got someone’s attention, I had an even chance of getting them to slow down just long enough to read a few sample grafs, or to say to themselves “Why not?” and buy themselves a copy.
Another reason gets back to that look you have on your face right now; that curious half-grin. The title gives a clue as to what to expect. It lets you know that this is likely to be entertaining and funny, and if entertaining and funny is what you’re into then just maybe this one is worth a try.