Titles Tell All by Victoria Chatham

 

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You spend weeks/months/years writing your novel. You type THE END. And then it hits you. You haven’t got a title.

Titles come easy to some, not so easy to others. But how important is that title? In a word, everything. After all those thousands of words in your content, you now must encapsulate them all in a few words. Not as easy as it sounds because choosing a title needs as much attention as your characters, plot, and setting.

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A good title should be easy to remember and be appropriate to the book. It must hook the reader into picking up your book to find out what is between the covers. Is it clear what your genre is? Is there a hint of intrigue in the title, or does it have a hidden meaning such as Nancy Bell’s Dead Dogs Talk or
Stephen King’s It? 

Does your title state who your character is? Think of Connie Vines’ Lynx, or Jane Austen’s classic Emma. 

Place can also be a character, such as Eileen O’Finlan’s Kelegeen or James Michener’s Texas. 

All these book titles tell their own tale and give the reader a clear clue about the content of the book.

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Authors who write a series or link books will often have ‘follow on’ titles as in Mary Balogh’s First Comes Marriage, Then Comes Seduction, At Last Comes Love or Donna Alward’s Larch Valley or Cadence Creek series. The titles of these books set readers up with what to expect. There is no cheating in them and there should be no disappointments.

There are tools to help you, like the any one of several book title generators you can find on the Internet. Or you can create your title from your content, create your own list of possible titles and run a contest for your followers to choose one, or appeal to your fellow writers or critique partners. 

There isn't much doubt about Loving That Cowboy. It's a contemporary western romance and the title says it all. However, no matter how good the title or how attractive the cover, there really is no substitute for a good story. With National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO) looming in November, it's time to get writing the next good story.

 

 

 

 

Choosing a title by J.S. Marlo

J. S. Marlo BWL Author Page

Many years ago, I wrote a three-book series. Though I didn't have any intention of adding a fourth book, I grew attached to a minor character in the third book. I figured if I ever write a fourth book, he would be my main character. Well, over the winter, a story line worthy of him popped into my head, so I wrote a fourth and last book to that series. The first three books are being re-edited and the series will be given a new life, but--I didn't expect a but--I was asked to come up with a new title for the first book. The old one wasn't catchy enough.

To be honest, I really liked that title. I thought it fitted the story to a T. For days I brainstormed a new title, something that would match with the other three titles. When I hit a brick wall, I began searching for four new titles instead of just one. That didn't yield any results either. Actually I came up with four new titles, but my publisher thought they sounded even worse than the title of my first book. In the end, I borrowed a title I had reserved for my next series, Unraveled. I have to admit I really like it, which is the reason I had chosen it for my next series, so now I have to come up with a new series title. At least I have a few months to think about this one...

Choosing the right title is hard. It has to reflect the story, but it also needs to be exciting, suspenseful, easy to remember, and capture the reader's interest. Is there a magical formula that gets you the best title? No, there isn't. I list every word I think is related to my story, then I try combining them even though I favor titles with only one word, and sounding them aloud. I also ask my friends for their opinion or suggestions even if they didn't read the draft of my story to see which one appeals to them. Out of nine books, it was the only title that got rejected. I guess my record isn't that bad after all.

Happy reading!

JS

 J. S. Marlo's Website