‘A Hard Pounding’: Book Publisher Dishes on Rejecting John Bolton’s Initial Title For Trump Tell-All

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Had John Bolton gotten his way when titling his book, let’s just say people would have a difficult and NSFW time finding it on Google.

That’s because the former ambassador and later Trump National Security Adviser, who wrote The Room Where It Happened, originally wanted to name the book, A Hard Pounding.

I know nothing about book publishing. But I do know that if you want to title your Very Serious Book a phrase that, when entered into Google Search, returns seemingly millions of results linking to porn sites, you need to be a little flexible on that title.

Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp revealed the interesting nugget Tuesday in a YouTube video recounting some notable titles the company has issued, and Bolton’s story was by far the most interesting:

For the original title for that book, Ambassador Bolton wanted to call it A Hard Pounding, which was actually a quote from the Duke of Wellington after the Battle of Waterloo. But we told Mr. Bolton that some people might think that “a hard pounding” had a sexual connotation.

He told us that our minds were in the gutter, and we compromised on The Room Where It Happened. And I think it all worked out a lot better.

Perhaps if Bolton had gone with the Duke of Wellington’s full quote, Simon & Schuster would’ve found it more palatable? Let’s see:

“Hard pounding this, gentlemen; let’s see who will pound longest.”

Never mind. Anyway, that’s the story of The Title That Never Happened.