Tagestraum - Title Makeover?

[tlbodine]

I've received a handful of comments about my book from people on forums, and it's gotten me to wondering if the title may be a bit off-putting or misleading.  I honestly give very little thought to titles, and in Tag's case it was an issue of a working title that I decided to keep. 

In the book, Tagestraum is the name of the faerie world where the MC ends up while searching for a missing child.  The world runs off of dream energy; minor dreams are burned as fuel or can be refined and incorporated into technology while major dreams (those that were especially vivid/strong and whose dreamer believed in them) are corporeal and can walk around.  It's also sort of a place where lost/forgotten people/things end up, and it keeps doors open for children to come and go/escape from the real world. 

Anyway, it started off as a Nanowrimo novel and I ended up naming it by going to Babelfish and just plugging in various different words and languages until I found something that looked cool.  I then promptly forgot that "Tagestraum" meant anything in any real language (or, close enough -- I don't think that's actually how it's spelled in German)

In hindsight, I wonder if Tagestraum needs to be re-named to something totally made-up.  I don't want to give anyone the wrong idea about the genre or anything from some careless babelfishing.  If my title is (by virtue of the query letter subject line) the very first thing an agent sees, maybe I should put more thought into it. 

Thoughts?

[MittensMorgul]

I assume you were looking for something along the lines of "daydreaming" or something like that for your title? It would probably only be confusing to people who spoke enough German to guess what you were going for. That being said, you might want to at least tweak the name enough so it isn't recognizable as an actual word, but not so much that someone might not see the "hidden" meaning in the name?

[tlbodine]

Basically, yeah.  My (extremely un-scientific) process was such:
1. Open Babelfish
2. Type a bunch of key words from the book concept (children, dream, memories, fairies)
3. Run it through several languages until something looked cool
4. Smash together a couple cool-sounding words into a new cool-sounding word
5. Yay title! 

The whole process was terribly arbitrary. 

[violet]

I stumbled over the name of your title, so....I might consider making the change.

The title is pure marketing, so it should be catchy, at least for the agent. Once it's bought by an editor, they will most likely change it anyway.

[tlbodine]

That's exactly why i never give titles any thought -- I assume they'll probably end up getting changed later.  But even if the title gets changed, the name of the world in the book is still Tagestraum unless I name it something else. hmmm.

[MittensMorgul]

Whatever your title is, if you're happy with Tagestraum as the name of your world, that's all that really matters. If an editor/agent/important publishing person tells you it's awkward in the story, that's another matter entirely.  I personally don't have a problem with it (but I know enough German to have deciphered the meaning on my own), but maybe it sounds weird to other ears.

I think a lot of Americans might stumble over the "au". Have you tried it as "Tagestrom?" Maybe that's easier for some people? I don't know. I'm no linguist, but I think it's fine either way.

[Mere Joyce]

I think the name is fine, and I like that it actually connects with something within the story.  Especially if that is the name of the world, the title makes sense...even if an agent or editor wants to change it later, it has some meaning now, and it makes sense to me why you chose it as the title!