Choice of title.

The confusion between readers on the other side of the 'Pond' and UK as to the meaning of the word 'Carer' highlights how readers whose first language is not English must sometimes be bewildered by the choice of title. This especially when one considers how we go about choosing the title. I for instance try to make it intriguing or amusing or wry or subtle, or a mixture of any or all. A minor matter perhaps, but since, in my case at least, it is the phrasing of the title that draws me to read the story, it becomes more important.Some terrific stories with poor or non-tempting titles appear to attract few readers. I am aware that there is not a simple relationship between title and reader as many readers choose yarns from particular authors. Probably the subject has been discussed in the past prior to my joining this august body. I've not been a member all that long. If it hasn't ???

What do the Americans think carer stands for then?

I think you are correct Nibra that, when English isn't a first language, some titles could be misleading or otherwise confusing for people. It is also true that people appear to be drawn to certain types of titles.

When I write, the title usually just jumps into my head as I am writing.

I for one, had never heard of the word 'carer' before this story. I have come to understand it means what we Canucks would call a 'caregiver'. Before I learned, and perhaps I should have guessed after reading the story, but it struck me as a possible spelling mistake when I first read it. After reading the story I really never thought about the title until after hearing from the author.

There are differences in the way we say things even regionally, never mind across the great pond.

I had no problem with the word "carer", but don't get the subtle meaning of "trainng".

I knew exactly what it meant, since I was a 'care giver' for my mother for quite some time and until her death.

The word 'carer' has now moved over to 'care giver' when working with social services and hospital type situations in the US. When I first started taking care of mom, I was asked if I was the 'carer' of this person. I looked at her kind of funny I guess, and she smiled and said, "care giver."

It's easy to guess that the word 'carer' was misspelled for 'career' at first glance. The title can be very eye catching to someone who reads a particular story of their favorite orientation.

Especially given the word context of the title "Carer Training", we USA'ns almost universally assume it's a misspelling of the word "career". Given that it was so consistently "misspelled" in the story, I finally looked it up and learned something. The word was totally new (foreign?) to me.

On titles:
Getting back to the point of the thread, many of us have much to learn about title writing. It is indeed the bait that attracts (or not) readers to our work. I would like to hire DrGrace to write all of my titles. I think she is the best title writer in the group. I can usually pick out her titles in any list of new stories.

LOL this has now been... clarified

My experience is that we foreigners often have less trouble with the differences between American and British usage than the British and the Americans, perhaps because we don't expect to understand everything at first glance and are used to looking things up! I wasn't quite sure what a "carer" was, but it wasn't hard to guess and even easier to look up.

As for catchy titles, it is easy to convince oneself by looking at the statistics that stories with titles catering to the fetish usually get more reads than stories with more ordinary titles, at least in the beginning. I am occasionally tempted to try something catchy, but I usually end up giving the story the title that feels right.

I look at titles like trademarks to a degree. It never ceases to amaze me that the most generic and descriptive titles get so much traffic while the less direct titles attract fewer readers. You can see evidence of this in the contest stats. This fact might not be surprising if this were a more general board like Literotica. Readers looking for spanking material would obviously be drawn to a story entitled "Caned in Front of the Class". But here EVERY STORY is a spanking story. So why should titles matter? But generic titles like "Naughty Schoolgirl Spankings" get lots of hits while a title like "Kidnapped" (ahem) does not.

I deliberately reject the notion of using generic and descriptive titles. With my stories the title has to do with the plot or a character or a setting, whatever is important. It has to relate to the MacGuffin of the story. But that can mean that the title does not convey the message that it is a spanking story. But on this board I shouldn't have to do this, should I?

The best titles are, I think, like the best trademarks---suggestive, fanciful or clever without being descriptive. They should be alluring, piquing the interest of the reader so that he/she is intrigued and wants to find out what it is about. At least that's what I do, but it doesn't always work because it has to compete with the "Bare Bottomed Canings" of the world.

It had honestly never occurred to me that carer was not used in the US. I can see your logic of thinking it meant career. Well you learn something every day and this is mine for today, along with when a big horse stumbles badly it really hurts your back lol.