First of all I'd like to say thank you to all those highly creative people who played "Name the Book." If you haven't already seen all the title suggestions, I suggest going back to have a look. Some of them are hilarious!I've chosen my top 4 favorites (a tough task), checked Amazon.com to make sure there wasn't already a book published with that same title (sadly, some of the good ones you suggested were taken), and put together a little poll.

"Hey! Why didn't my title suggestion make it to the poll?!"

I don't know. Maybe it was just too silly. Or maybe it was a brilliant title for a book I haven't written yet (some of them seemed like good cookbook titles). I know it wasn't fair asking you to name a book you haven't read, but you did great.Chinese titles (like the name of this blog) won't work for the book title because I think the market includes people who haven't learned any Chinese and might say, "I don't want to learn Laowai Chinese, I want to learn Mandarin Chinese." If you already speak some Chinese and want to take it to the next level, you're still in the market for this book. I just didn't want to exclude beginners with an esoteric title.Also, I would like to also emphasize that I, as the author, only have partial control over the actual title that gets printed on the book. It's possible that the publisher will veto my title suggestion and pick their own (although it's usually collaborative). That's another reason I want to do this poll, to show some objective data about what the potential market thinks of various titles (that's all of you).

"So What Happens Next?"

1. Cast your vote below for the title you think best goes with the subtitle above the poll (newly updated).
2. Check back on this site or subscribe to receive updates via email or RSS for all news related to the publication of my book including the winner of the "Name the Book" contest.
3. Enjoy the other posts (like the Tone Changes one I just put up).

Vote Here

Here's the subtitle that will go under the title:

A Handbook of Strategies for Speaking and Understanding Mandarin Chinese

By Albert Wolfe[poll=2]