New Book! New Title!

Some attentive readers of my coming soon page, bless your hearts, may have noticed something changed over there. Something like, oh, the title of the next Writing Girl Book. Don't look now!

Do you have any idea how many people must approve a title before it's official? Me neither. But it sounds like a lot—editor, publisher, sales team, marketing, all the buyers for the major accounts, etc, etc. None of whom have read the book at this point, because it's still not really written.

This is just a fact of publishing. Some folks get their corsets in a twist because their title, The Secret Seduction Of  The Rakish Rogue's Mysterious Midnight Mistress Of Pleasure perfectly expresses the plot, themes and characters of their novel. Some folks say this won't fit on a mass-market paperback and leave room for some naked man chest, which is what really sells the book, let's face it.

Alas, my first chosen title for WG#3 will not be coming to a store near you. Rest in peace, Brave New Lord!  I am a touch sad, as I did own a certain fondness for this title. Mainly because it's sort of cleverness, if I may say so, makes me giggle. But here's the kicker—we (that big list of title-approvers, above) want something that will make a reader go "OH!" and "Oooh" and "Hey, hold this for a second will ya?" because they have to free up a hand so they can pick up the book with the alluring title (and the naked man chest on the cover). We felt that we could cook up something much more mmm, ooooh, delicious.

The entire point of this blog post is to announce the NEW TITLE! And that would be….[insert drumroll and fanfare here]…

THE TATTOOED DUKE

While on the subject of titles, I have to ask: how much does the title play into your book purchasing decisions?