Blogger: Mary Keeley
The Books & Such offices are closed over the Christmas holidays, but we’re re-posting some popular blogs from the past. This one is from a year ago. Enjoy commenting among yourselves. A blessed 2016 to all of you.
An editor contacted me this week to inquire about a client’s proposal. The editorial team is interested in the author’s nonfiction book but asked if she’d be willing to tweak her approach slightly and give it a different title.
Assuming the requests wouldn’t compromise her Christian values or her central theme, you can guess her response to the interested publisher in today’s competitive market: “Sure, I can make those adjustments and come up with a killer title.”
How do you arrive at the perfect title? The most important way to approach titling your book is this:
It’s all about the readers.
Ask yourself these questions: What is your book about really? Putting yourself in readers’ shoes, what will they get out of reading
your book? Your answers will point you to a good starting place for title brainstorming. (Your answers also become your list of reader benefits for your book proposal.) And then begin with a working title, writing down new ideas and provocative words as they evolve in the writing process. Think about what your readers stand to gain from your book.
A title should:
- Tell what the book is about by identifying place in time, a characteristic of the protagonist, or central theme or topic, that parallels the tone of your book (pithy, slang, shock-value, thought-provoking, directive).
- Use simple, reader-friendly language.
- Hint at what readers can expect.
You also want to create some mystery in your title that compels readers to purchase your book to find out what happens or the information your title promises.
Here are a few techniques for creating the perfect title:
- Make it intriguing or mysterious to pique readers’ curiosity.
- Approach the titling process from different perspectives—context, a phrase or quote from the manuscript, the villain, metaphor or imagery of your protagonist, edgy play on words, a contrast or comparison for your topic and the takeaway for readers—until you sense one approach stands out.
- Ask a big question that suggests the reader will find the answer in your book. If you follow through and provide a satisfying answer in your book, readers will learn they can trust you to deliver and will want to purchase other books you write.
- Use a straightforward “How to” in the title of your how-to book. If this sounds too simplistic to you when edgy, intriguing titles appear to be the most popular, remember that your book’s audience is looking for quick, clear instruction on your topic. Those words create the perfect title for the book your intended readers want.
Landing on the perfect title can put you in a quandary, no doubt about it. Title-testing websites like Lulu.com can help or hinder. Don’t assume the results you get are ironclad. For example, 50 Shades of Grey scored between 34.8% and 72.5% chance of being a bestseller, depending on the selections I chose from the questions’ dropdown options.
Another way to test your title ideas is trying them out on neutral parties who don’t know you personally but resemble your target audience. Perhaps a librarian in a nearby town or someone you feel comfortable striking up a conversation with at a bookstore or at church, or your Facebook friends.
What is the best book title you’ve seen recently that made you stop in your tracks and want to investigate further? What about it affected you that way? What is your challenge in landing on the perfect title for your book? We have a great community on this blog. You are welcome to try out two or three ideas on each other here. Give a paragraph description of your WIP, and ask for reactions and suggestions.
My favourite title isn’t from a book. It’s J.M.W. Turner’s late seascape, “Sunrise With Sea-Monsters”, and it’s a painting of…well, a sunrise. With sea-monsters. You can see it here –
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-sunrise-with-sea-monsters-n01990
* My current WIP is a sequel to “Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart”. It’s about Miguel ‘Mike’ Ruiz (the adopted son of BPH’s protagonist), who, as a Marine in Afghanistan, is awarded a Medal of Honour…and refuses the decoration, feeling that he didn’t earn it, that it was given to ‘give America a live hero’.
* He leaves the Corps, and meets and subsequently marries an Air Force officer, Sally Gibson, who is a drone controller, the daughter of a prominent televangelist, and a divorcee with a young son.
* Miguel is at loose ends at leaving the Marines, and drifts along in Sally’s shadow until a drone strike she’s controlling on an Al-Qaeda cave in Afghanistan kills the child of a terrorist leader…and in retribution a car bomb is detonated at their house, killing Sally’s son (along with a family friend) and gravely injuring her. She’s left with no memory of her child, her Air Force career, or Mike.
* Given no prospects for her recovery and needing to earn a living, Mike accepts a job to provide security for an Afghan chieftain who has made an enemy of the Taliban.
* When the Talibs come to call, Mike is trapped, and is offered one chance to live…by taking the Taliban commander’s young daughter to America to give her a life free from war.
* The working title for this has been “Heroes One and All”, but I’ve considered others…
– “Blessed Are The Peacemakers”, which would tie in with “Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart”, but seems clunky.
– “Payback’s A Grace” – a bit too flip?
– “Honour Refused”, to refer to the refusal of the MofH (which has historical precedent)
– “The Mercenary’s Song”, which I kind of like, though it evokes Mailer’s “The Executioner’s Song” from the 1970s…but does anyone remember that?
I vote for Blessed are the Peacemakers. I don’t think it’s clunky. I had it scrolling across my screen saver for most of the years that I was the Medical Staff Coordinator at a hospital (the medical staff was known to be a contentious collection of strong egos).
* I like the “Hero” part better than the “One and All” — I mentally reduce the title of whatever book I’m reading to one word (as in “Where did I leave ‘Blessed’?”). “Heroes” sounds so solid.
Shirlee, thank you…that ‘Blessed Are The Peacemakers’ spoke to you in spite of its non-reduceability (I do that too) seems to be a point in its favour.
I kind of like Blessed are the Peacemakers, too. 😉 It matches the other. Or just The Peacemakers.
And I’m still singing your birthday tune. Where I come from, a birthday needs to last just a bit more than one day.
Thanks, Shelli! Your and Shirlee’s opinions carry a lot of weight with me, and you’ve moved ‘Blessed Are The Peacemakers’ into the lead.
* And thank you for the continued birthday wishes – and song! yesterday ended with something of a frightening physical collapse, and a night whose events I would prefer not to repeat. Your cheerful message has given me a smile!
I think “Honor Refused” is your strongest title. It was most intriguing to me. Yes, blessed are the peacemakers is clunky. But Honor Refused really stands out.
Interesting, Kristen…it was one that came to mind when I came across a book called ‘Honour Denied’, and it does seem to make a statement. I like the way you described your reaction – it is the one I’d like to give. Thanks!
Peacemakers.
And if people haven’t read Blessed Are The Pure of Heart, they NEED to!!!
I like that, too.
Oh, Jennifer…thank you. What you said…I’m humbled, and you’ve just transcender what has been twelve hours or a bit more of abysmal pain and black despair.
* A dark night of the soul and body has dawned in love, and I think I know what arriving in Heaven will feel like.
The most intriguing title I’ve come across lately was “Etiquette and Espionage” and I bought the book. The title promised me a fun YA steam punk with droll humor and a steam-powered dog. Which is exactly what I got, wonderful.
This might be fun…I’ve got 3 unsold manuscripts floating around in my computer…actually 5, now that I think about it, but anyway, I’ll give you the titles of three and see if you guys can guess what goes with what description. This will help show me if I’ve titled in a way that gives a clue about the story.
In no particular order, I have…
A historical YA set in 763BC
A middle grade adventure
A contemporary YA set on a Mexico Mission Trip reality TV show.
and the titles…
The Wandering Wood
Losing My Religion
Daughter of the Decoy King
So…what do you think? Do you know which is which?
I would guess that the historical is Daughter of the Decoy King, the middle grade adventure is The Wandering Wood, and the YA mission trip is Losing My Religion
* I like The Wandering Wood; it reminds me of macbeth’s Birnam Wood, which came to Dunsinane; Daughter of the Decoy King not as much, because of the ‘look’ of the word ‘Decoy’. It reminds me of ‘Duck’, which reminds me of guys with long beards wearing camouflage. Can’t think of a good alternate. And ‘Losing My Religion’ puts me in mind of the R.E.M. song from the 90s, which is fine if you like the band (I do).
Duck, ha! But you nailed it. Daughter of the Decoy King and its sequel “Viceroy of the gods” are historical YA. Losing My Religion is the contemporary YA and yes I thought of the REM song too and it fits my heroines journey, although not in the way that the band intended. “The Wandering Wood” and the sequel I’m revising “The Deep” are middle grade adventures. Glad you could tell what is what, helps me see if the title sounds like what it is. God Bless, Andrew.
Those do sound like cool stories, Kristen – I’m sure they’ll be received well! Blessings!
The really interesting thing about this exercise is counting how many WIPs one has!
* Fiction, complete through at least three drafts:
– “Emerald Isle”, about a chap who meets the virtual twin of his dead fiancee
– “Blessed Are The Peacemakers” (or, perhaps, Honour Refused), described above
– “Ringtones”, about a man who begins getting phone calls from his dead ex-wife
– “The Last Indian War”, about a German POW in New Mexico with the gift of healing
* Fiction, 50% or more through 1st draft
– “Lady Stonewall”, a ‘what if’ Civil War story in which the most powerful Confederate ironclad acquires a woman as captain (the protag is based on a real person)
– “Magic Dragon”, about young American woman who works at an orphanage in Viet Nam, and falls in love with a Vietnamese AC-47 pilot at the time of the fall of Saigon. (The AC-47 was an armed DC-3, nicknamed ‘Puff, The Magic Dragon’)
– “And A Little Child Shall Lead Them”, about a mom in suburban San Diego whose life is uprooted when her ex-husband, who works for a government agency, drops a ten-year-old African child and a wounded German mercenary off at her house…the child is the tribal heir to an oil-rich country run by a dictatorship to whom his existence is bad news.
* And just for fun there are two completed full-length nonfiction –
– “Keep The Vow! – How To Save Your Christian Marriage While Trapped In Babylon”
– “It’s Your Winning Season – How To Find The Heartbeat Of Your Personal Success”
* Most of these reached their present point of completion a coupe of years ago, before my health made extensive writing too hard. But still…I spent WAY too much time at the computer.
Andrew, all of your books sound great, especially the fiction ones. I hope you’ll be able to get them published.
Thanks, Jan…I hope so too, that strength holds out to get them to that point. I enjoyed writing each one; I think that there are people who’d enjoy reading them. I sure hope so.
I guess they could be published when you’re gone, but I’d rather see them before that. You could submit the completed fiction and let the agent suggest changes.
I’d like to see them out while I’m still here too, Jan. I’m a bit reluctant to approach an agent with them; asking someone for whom time is livelihood to take a chance on a writer who may not survive to get through the edits seems a bit ungentlemanly. What do you think?
The agents at Books and Such know you’d have lots of us interested in reading your books, and any sales after you’re gone would help Barbara. I’d say send them a query and see what they think. It can’t hurt to try.
Good point, Jan…and it doesn’t take long to read a query, so there’s an easy opt-out. Thanks.
I’m wondering about the use of subtitles. Do you have any suggestions about those?
To me, a good subtitle – like “Dr. Strangelove – How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb” – can be more memorable than the main title.
* Don’t know how the pros feel, but I just love ’em. (When I wrote my doctoral thesis, “The Inelastic Seismic Response of Reinforced Concrete Pile-Columns”, I had fun making up Victorian-sounding chapter subtitles, to the amusement of my sponsor, a New Zealander who’d had a public-school education in England.)
Andrew, I’m very intrigued by the description of your WIP. My suggestion is to pick a title that best carries the theme of your story. I like “Peacemakers” as a sequel title. Will readers consider your MC a peacemaker? Or does refusing the MOH in the beginning somehow come full circle at the
end? Because I also like Honour Refused. Hmmm. Not sure I was much help.
Lara, the MC is indeed a peacemaker…his character grows into that role, and it seemed to suggest the title (and it was happy circumstance that it fits with ‘Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart”). The only real hesitations I’ve had are the length – I’m more drawn to short titles – and the thought that it might sound too preachy. One of the reviews of BPH on Amazon expressed what seemed to be surprise – and pleasure – that while it’s a Christian story, it wasn’t preachy…given the title. That made me a bit cautious.
* Your comment does indeed help – thanks!
Have any of you ever read John Wyndham’s classic SF novel, “Day of the Triffids”? A book title plays a role in the plot…
* The story is about a ‘cosmic event’ that blinds most of the world’s population, which state is made more perilous by the genetic engineering of triffids, plants that can walk and eat people (stop laughing, it’s SERIOUS!).
* The MC, along with a very few others, avoids being blinded, and in trying to escape a virus that starts killing off the population joins forces with a young woman…and when she tells him her name, he immediately realizes that she’s a famous one-hit wonder of an author, having written something called “Sex Is My Adventure”.
* The interplay is nice; the girl had written a relatively innocent romance, and the publisher forced the steamy title which identified her forevermore in having a presumed personality which was quite the opposite to who she really was. The byplay is charming, making both MCs memorable…and vulnerable.
* “Day of the Triffids” was written and set in the 1960s in England, so a title like “Sex Is My Adventure” was REALLY out there. It’s a nice book, very well-written (he does use…adverbs), and I’d recommend it highly.
I read that years ago and had forgotten it. Thanks for the reminder.