Topic: Titles
How much stock do you put into a title. What would grab your attention? Short, one word? Long with a WTF thought as you read the title?
Weigh in.
- Tom Oldman
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Re: Titles
Interesting topic, Janet.
The choice of a title is important to me. But, until I get into the story and develop a solid arc, it might just be 'working title' or similar. Later, I tend to go for descriptive titles that give just a little insight into what the story is about. Failing that, I fall back on puns and word play. But, the pun or word play has to be related to the story.
~Tom
- Norm d'Plume
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Re: Titles
I agree with Tom. They're like book covers. They're the first impression you make on readers out of a sea of books on Amazon. The next step is to have a compelling book summary for the back of the book. I usually advise new writers on the site to write their TNBW book summary as if it were the back of an actual book, so they capture the interest of more potential readers.
4 2015-06-18 03:28:56 (edited by cobber 2015-06-18 03:29:06)
- cobber
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Re: Titles
I think titles are very important. They're part of the overall marketing of the book. Think of your target audience and make sure the title will appeal to them. Short and catchy is best IMHO.
- Janet Taylor-Perry
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Re: Titles
What if the books are books in a series? For example: The Raiford Chronicles is the series I have in print (3 of 4 anyway).
1. Lucky Thirteen (It's the story of the 13th intended victim of a serial killer and the relationship that develops between her and the cop investigating the murders.)
2. Heartless (In this one, our killer is literally removing the victims' hearts.)
3. Broken (The third installment is about broken hearts, broken, spirits, and broken bodies.)
4. Whatever It Takes (On schedule to be released in September. Ray, my MC, has always done whatever it takes to solve a crime, but when the person working to help another solve a crime is his headstrong teenage daughter, his philosophy takes a U-turn. This is the last in the series.)
Dirk, I agree. I like the idea of using the back cover synopsis for the description on TNBW. It gives practice and you can even get feedback on that part too.
- Charles_F_Bell
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Re: Titles
Janet Taylor-Perry wrote:
What if the books are books in a series? For example: The Raiford Chronicles is the series I have in print (3 of 4 anyway).
1. Lucky Thirteen (It's the story of the 13th intended victim of a serial killer and the relationship that develops between her and the cop investigating the murders.)
2. Heartless (In this one, our killer is literally removing the victims' hearts.)
3. Broken (The third installment is about broken hearts, broken, spirits, and broken bodies.)
4. Whatever It Takes (On schedule to be released in September. Ray, my MC, has always done whatever it takes to solve a crime, but when the person working to help another solve a crime is his headstrong teenage daughter, his philosophy takes a U-turn. This is the last in the series.)
Did you look at my "Eating Out with Lesbians" ? Grabbing title, but also teasing with something that is not there. I think your choice of titles is mildly suggestive of Romance genre, and not thriller/mystery/crime, but also not particularly grabbing, rather ordinary, that is a safe route against toying with the reader in promising him something that is not there -- they could be both Romance and Crime, as in an intended pun. Both titles for my novellas onsite is suggestive of something "erudite", no? I have the approach of putting up a gate against those who might look for something I cannot provide (explicit sex, graphic/gruesome violence, potty-mouth characters, derivative unoriginal plots) while also signalling to the curious literate reader writing of a different and still traditional nature. Literary-allusion in the title technique as I have done for Maximilian's Achilles and Patroclus signals both that there is allegory but not by Homer. It is not that someone who has never read the Iliad (or seen the movies) cannot enjoy the story, but that those who have will get a bonus and be amused (or outraged) in what I did to Homer's tale.
In general, I believe that a title should accomplish: (1) Attention Grabbiness while (2) Not Lying and (3) Fairly Descriptive.
