If you’re a filmmaker, the list of movies that you’ve made is called your filmography.
If you’re a musician, the list of albums that you’ve made is called your discography.
But if you’re an author?
The opinions vary.
Some say it’s called a bibliography, which is a stupid choice because:
- A bibliography is also the part of a book – the list of books and references used in the writing of the book – and it’s more commonly known by this definition. You can’t call a collection of books by the same name that we use to refer to parts of those books.
- Filmmakers make films. Musicians produce discs of music. Authors don’t write biblios. And yes, “biblio” means “relating to a book or books” but it doesn’t mean book.
Others have suggested that the word “oeuvre,” which is both pretentious as hell and quite possibly the least cool word in the English language. It’s also the kind of word that makes people nervous to say because of its pronunciation.
One syllable? Two syllables? And how do you pronounce that first (or only) syllable? Is that an O sound or a U sound or something in between?
Oeuvre is a terrible word to say or spell or use.
So as an author, what am I to call my collection of published works? My six novels and two books of nonfiction are my what?
Bookography? Maybe, but it definitely doesn’t sound cool.
If it were up to me, I think I’d choose pageography, which is admittedly not great because of the need for the E in the middle of the word. It looks like someone spelled paleography incorrectly.
Remove the E and you have pagography, which will absolutely be mispronounced and mistaken for some other meaning.
Any other suggestions?
I guess this all makes a lot of sense. Filmmakers are cool. They work with the biggest stars in the world to bring their stories to life on enormous screens in theaters filled with moviegoers.
Musicians are cool. They stand before thousands of screaming fans in leather and denim, strumming guitars, pounding on drums, and singing their hearts out.
Authors? We sit quietly at desks and tables and write books that we almost never see anyone read. Even when our readers laugh or weep or cry out in surprise in response to our stories, we never see any of it. Our work is consumed privately, in beds and chairs, on couches and planes, and even on toilets.
We’re not exactly rockstars.
Still, when asked in an interview about how many books I’ve published (as I was recently), I’d like to say something better than “my collected works include six novels and two books of nonfiction.”
But maybe stuffy and silly is just about right for an author.
