Rebecca Ross's Blog, page 127
March 28, 2017
March 16, 2017
The Hunt for the Perfect Title
Writing a book is hard. Finding the perfect title for a book
is even harder.
When I first began drafting this book (back in the winter of
2015…which honestly feels like ages ago…), the title came relatively easy.
IMPASSIONED. It stuck and it fit the story at the time, and I loved it. But
then came my first round of edits; I essentially rewrote the entire book,
changed a few plots threads, and the heart of the story shifted a bit. IMPASSIONED
would have still fit the book, but there was another issue that my sales team
raised, which some of you might have already thought with such a title.
Is this a romance book?
No. It’s not. It’s an adventure, with a little bit of
romance on the side. And when I looked up the definitions for impassioned, five
out of the twelve definitions are grounded in carnal, physical love. Which is
not the passion I am writing about, of course.
So…it was time to retitle.
I typed up quite a few lists, playing around with themes
from the book, but my word, was this difficult! I not only wanted the title to
stand out, but I wanted it to be unique, I wanted it to roll off the tongue
with ease, and I wanted it to still draw from themes of the book (because there
have been some books I’ve read whose titles leave me scratching my head
thinking…where did that title come from?).
(And let me back up to reiterate: I truly am horrible at
naming things. I AGONIZE over naming my characters, and sometimes, I’ll get
three quarters of the way done with the book and will go back and switch names
out if they don’t fit or if I don’t like them).
Out of the lists I sent, my editor and sales theme selected
two titles, and I got to choose which one I was most drawn to. Which was DAUGHTER
of PASSION and STONE. Yes, it’s kind of a mouthful, but it definitely draws
from the book’s themes. So we went with it, and I made the announcement that
IMPASSIONED had now changed to DAUGHTER of PASSION and STONE.
However…there was yet another hiccup with this title, and
some of you readers might have thought of this right away. Which, I should have
thought of this right away. Anyhow…this title is very similar to another
wonderful book out there. So it was back to the drawing board.
By this time, I was becoming a little frantic, because I
honestly could not think of anything else that was good. I asked my mom. My
husband. My sisters. My agent. And I tried to patch together another list to
hand over to my editor, worried to death that my sales team wasn’t going to
like any of my ideas, and this book was never going to be titled. These
are the sort of things that keep authors up at night.
I was trying so hard to keep passion somehow involved with the title, but I finally dropped it
when I read through my table of contents, thinking I could glean something from
my chapter titles, and I came across the word “rising,” which is obviously a
very important theme for the book. Cue angel chorus. I began to play around
with rising, and sent another list in
to my editor. Sales selected two of the titles (yay!) but then they pitched one
back to me, also playing on rising. And when I read this title, my heart melted
and I thought yes. This fits. This is
perfect. Thank you sales team!
So IMPASSIONED became DAUGHTER of PASSION and STONE, which
has now been transformed into THE QUEEN’S RISING.
(I finallllly broke down and painted a chalkboard wall in my office, so I can doodle and plot and whatnot on the wall while I write. YAY!).
And I have to say I love this new title; it kind of gives me
goosebumps, especially when I saw it on the final cover art (which will
hopefully be revealed soon!).
I also am no longer a Fall 2017 release. I’ve been moved to
Winter 2018, so THE QUEEN’S RISING will be debuting under cloudy skies and
frosty nights and accompanied with mugs of hot cocoa.
And thank you all for your kind words and encouragement,
and, more than anything, your excitement for my book! It honestly makes my day
to hear from readers and bloggers and people interested in this story.
Add it to your Goodreads shelf here! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26939852-the-queen-s-rising
xo
Becca
March 11, 2017
March 5, 2017
February 26, 2017
vaelyane:
Back to our regularly scheduled random shenanigans!...
Back to our regularly scheduled random shenanigans! This is me trying to
improve both my vegetation skills and my black and white game.
~~~~~~
Revenons-en
à nos divagations aléatoires ! Je vous présente donc une tentative
d’améliorer à la fois mes compétences en végétation ainsi qu’en noir et blanc pur.
