Name My Book!

[Doctor Emmit Brown]

This past weekend I read the entire archives of the comic strip Retail, which makes me giggle like a schoolboy because of all the jobs I've had since I was 16, the majority of them have been retail jobs. While reading this comic, I looked up the author on wikipedia and found out that the author/artist, Norm Feuti, is a stay at home dad who used to work as a manager at seven different stores. The strip is a sort of vengeance for everything he put up with, from coworkers, to employees, to employers, and especially customers. Knowing that all this was all true (and even some of the stories who were inspired by emails from fans) I thought to myself, "I should write a book about my own experiences."

Later that day, I was talking to my sister, who is an English major, and causally mentioned that I had the idea to write a memoir of my experiences in retail, and she started giving me advice about how to do it right. Stunned, I thought about it some more, and thought, "yeah, I could probably do this after all," and started to write an outline of what I would include, splitting up my anecdotes by which job it came from: The grocery store in high school, the dry cleaners in my first couple of years of college, the mall bookstore at christmas, and the campus bookstore after that.

My problem is that I have no idea what to call it. I came up with the name "Wage Slave," but it was correctly pointed out to me that for what will hopefully be a humorous book, that seems like a bit of a grim title, and that I had to come up with something a little more lighthearted. There's no hurry as I've only mostly finished the outline (I know there has to be a few anecdotes I'm forgetting), but it's something that's been nagging me for a while now. So, what would you call it?

[Asaryu]

I don't have an idea for a witty title, but I would suggest that your anecdotes be split up thematically rather than by job title. It'll make it less like a biography and more interesting and readable for your audience. It loans the book a less vengeful quality and makes it a different kind of readable. And you'll be less likely to cause past employers to wish to get out their litigation stick by sticking every poor experience you've had with them in one big lump.

[Bear]

You should probably co-ordinate with DnE on this one given his retail related anecdotes...*nods sagely*

Name-wise... I suck at names.... Could be best to name it after the biggest dumbass comment in one of your anecdotes... something like 'Do we sell X item', and the cover being a very obvious image of a store that defiantely does sell X item.

[Doctor Emmit Brown]

Yeah the idea would be to lump similar anecdotes together rather than just do it chronologically. I only made my outline such to organize my thoughts since it's easier to think of it that way.

Actually Bear, that's not a bad idea, but in reverse. I once had someone ask if we sold bait at the grocery store.

[Bear]

That was plan B... have it at a store that defiantly doesn't sell the item

[Eight]

Wage Biatch?

[Radbaron]

If you've ever worked in a bookstore, or sold magazines...

A bright yellow cover, with these words in black....

Is This Book In Stock?

[Doctor Emmit Brown]

HA! Yes! I worked at 2 bookstores in fact, so that one is great.

[MadCat]

Actually, I think "Wage Slave" is a good name for a humorous book. It seems to have a certain sardonic wit to it that I like, and adds another layer/type of humor to the mix. (I envision it with a cover featuring a slightly blurry picture of someone shown from the neck-down in a generic retail-worker shirt with a nametag that says something like "Cog" or "Minion" or like Eight said, "Biatch.")