Sorcerer stone v Philosopher Stone WAS: Hermione

[sistermagpie]

 > Magpie:
> > Well, the Philosopher's Stone is an object sought by real life alchemists, right? So I would say that Sorcerer is a more obvious link to wizardry. They wanted some reference to magic in the title. Nobody's trying to turn base metals into stone in the book, and there are no alchemists.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> What do you mean there are no alchemists in the book? Who is Flamel then?

Magpie:
A wizard who exists off-page and whom we never meet.:-) The kids aren't studying alchemy.
   
> > Alla:

> And you know what the irony is? I WISH that with JKR getting more famous she would listen to editors more not less, because I do think that last volumes needed it, but hey, maybe the reason why JKR refused to listen more and more is because she had such an unpleasant experience of people stepping too much on her creative ideas in the early years?

Magpie:
Hopefully it didn't turn her off listening to editors in general (the books were a success in general, after all)--but I wouldn't be surprised if it made her more stubborn about sticking to her guns if she felt like it was the same kind of situation. 

To use a personal experience, I did a book where the editor had a ton of control and made a lot of decisions that drove me crazy and I hated it. I remember a little boy reading a book I did and I felt completely vindicated when he pointed to a line that I hated the most and made exactly the same objection to it that I did. But it didn't make me less open to editorial changes than I was before. That change was bad from the beginning and I always felt confident that it was a bad change. But with a good editor it's a gift to have their suggestions to consider. Arthur is a very good editor, though I think the title change was a lame request and PS works just as well. 

Grrr. I hated that book experience of mine. Festival of awful decisions by editor with all the control over the writer. (The artist may have had more freedom since she wanted the book as a vehicle for him, but if so she encouraged bad ideas there too!)

-m