Monday Musing- Title, Title, who’s got the Title?
Title, Title, who’s got the Title?
How do you choose a title for your book? Does it evolve as the project progresses or do you begin with a title in mind? For some writers, the selection of the final title belongs to the publisher. If so, do you form a working title, hoping that they go with your choice?
For me, I like having one selected up front. Selecting the right title for a book is critical. If the title doesn’t resonate with me, for some odd reason, I have trouble getting started. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t come up with a title I like and then write the book around it.
After I do a character sketch on each Protagonist, Contagonist, and Antagonist, I’ll do a short bio on any extras. While I doing that I’ll start thinking about the title. Sometime it grows slowly, but on occasion it comes to me right away. Having a title helps me stay firmly planted and sets the tone of the book. It keeps me from wandering.
The title for The Green-Eyed Doll came from my daughter while we were discussing the premise of the book. It was perfect. The focus of the story was right there in front of me from the beginning to the end.
That’s not to say I haven’t changed a title once the book started to develop. I’m working on book three of the Lost and Found Inc. series. In keeping with Hell Or High Water and Cold Day In Hell, I looked for something to work with the word Hell and the characters of the new story. Out of fourteen titles I have written on my white-board, what started out as A Living Hell, quickly morphed to No Chance in Hell. Why? Because after I got my characters mapped out and had my killer’s motivation firmly in my mind, No Chance In Hell fit perfectly!
Do you write? How do you select a title? If you don’t write, how important is the title when you’re book shopping?
Can you think of any great titles that fit perfectly?
Here’s my pick…Jaws
Woot! I received this news yesterday! Easy to vote…so if you have a moment, please vote tonight or in the morning.
Congratulations! HELL or HIGH WATER received 5 hearts! Your book will be up for our 5 Heart Sweetheart Vote beginning 9/9/13. The vote launches between 5 and 7 PM EST each Monday. The winner gets their cover, buy link and a review snippet on our front door page the following week along with promotion on all of our social media outlets.
http://www.theromancestudio.com/5heart_form.php
