Rhyme or Reason?

Big day yesterday: we took my 434-page book to the Madrid Regional Government and registered the copyright.

The title is “Rhyme or Reason? How ‘catchiness’[1] determines the way English combines words (the euphony[2] of 10,001 everyday English word combinations)” and it basically explores sound parallelisms from every perspective imaginable (similes, binomials, fossils, semantics, pronunciation distortions, eggcorns, phrasal verbs, snowclones, titles and the names of famous people). It also examines the psychology of euphony and how it can be used to stop people thinking rationally (yes, “Make America Great Again” is discussed[3]!). The “big idea” is that how we combine words in English has almost as much to do with[4] how they sound together as what they mean.

Anyway, my next step is to find a publisher, so any suggestions will be gratefully received. I probably need a literary agent with some experience placing books that are more or less academic, right?

Great photo by Marina, right?

[1] catchiness – memorability, euphony

[2] euphony – pleasant sound, (in this case) use of sound parallelisms

[3] to discuss – (false friend) talk about

[4] to have almost as much to do with – be nearly as closely related to