Naming a Series

I suspect all authors struggle with titles and blurbs. Distilling an entire work into a paragraph or a few words is much harder for me than writing even a long novel. Titles need to capture the entire essence of the story and be enticing enough to interest potential readers. Personally, I either know instantly what to title a book or I agonize over it, sometimes for weeks after I've completed the manuscript. Blurbs are just as bad. They, too, have to hook readers and hopefully compel them to read the work, but without giving away the entire plot. Knowing just how much to include in a blurb is a delicate balancing act. I've gotten better at them, but I still struggle and I thank the gods for my publisher who does them for me.

Now I've encountered a new challenge: naming my new series at Silver Publishing. Like a title, I felt that the series name should reflect the major thematic elements of the work and hopefully attract readers that enjoy the paranormal/fantasy genres. I also thought it needed to do much more. A series name needs to capture the essence of not one, but several books. I wanted it to be specific enough to be recognizable and memorable, but vague enough that it wouldn't limit where I can take the characters in the future. Talk about rough.

This particular series revolves around Elijah and Dust, two young men who fall in love, become partners, and decide to work as freelance magicians. The first novel in the series is called Epiphany, both after the small town where it begins and the awakenings the characters experience. I didn't want to keep Epiphany as the series name, though, since I worried it would cease to be appropriate once the characters had left that location behind. Their journey has already encompassed a lot of the world. I wanted something that would imply the magical nature of their adventures, and I produced a long list of candidates including words like magic, sorcery, and enchantment. They all rang too cliche and generic to express much about my work, though. Some of them sounded down right silly.

After grilling my friends and staying up all night on thesaurus.com, I finally chose Ensorcelled as my series name. It felt appropriate since both Dust and Elijah are under the influence of various enchantments, and that's unlikely to change. Also, it sounds archaic and magical without giving anything much away. A quick Google search assured me that it hadn't been used before. I'm not sure if it's perfect, but I'm pretty satisfied.

Author: how do you choose the name of a series? Do the rest of you suffer as much as I did?

Readers: What kinds of names attract you to a series? Are there some that grab your interest right away?