Help! Parents Need to Eat Too needs a new title

Yesterday I was at an indoor playspace with Harry and some friends, when my phone rang. I struggled to hear through the ear-piercing shrieks erupting from the kids, but eventually realized it was my editor, calling to say that HarperCollins’ sales department thinks my cookbook’s title isn’t funny/fun enough. I admit, my chapter titles are pithier. And I’ve always wondered if the full title: Parents Need to Eat Too: 150+ Simple, Healthy Recipes for Frazzled, Sleep-Deprived New Moms & Dads isn’t a bit too, um, wordy. Plus there’s the fact that I spent nearly two decades in book marketing, and I asked authors for new titles more times than I can count. Turnabout is fair play, as they say…

Anyway, now I’m trying to think up something fun, fresh, lively, maybe even edgy. Something that gets across the idea that this is a book for new parents, all about how to help them feed themselves when there’s an infant in the house. How to juggle that baby with all those fifteen-minute naps, diaper changes, and marathon nursing sessions and wield a carrot peeler without missing a beat. So I turned to Facebook. On Words to Eat By’s fan page, I asked for some crowdsourcing help. And boy, did you guys deliver. As I write this, we’re up to nearly 90 comments, many of them with truly inspired suggestions.

So far, I think my favorite might be something like Holy Shiitake, I Have to Make Dinner? Recipes, Tips, and Techniques for Frazzled New Parents. I’ve also been playing with What to Expect to Eat the First Year, but I suspect there might be copyright issues with that one.

What’s your take on it? Join the conversation on Facebook, or start one here.