Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Choosing Titles


I must admit that choosing titles is usually easy for me. But sometimes they don't come. When I began I wrote sweet nurse romances because there were a lot of them out there. Not hard to make a title since nurse was a given. IThen came the time when yes, I was using nurses for characters but one didn't use nurse in the title. One had to come up with a snappy title or something. I then wrote On Opposite Sides a nurse romance with union dealings at the bottom of the story. I still love my original title for what was named The Best Medicine. I wanted it to be Carpe Noctum since the hero and heroine were older and they were seizing the night. His last name was Knight. Clever didn't do it with the marketing people. Their title must have worked since I nearly sold out the print run. I've not begun a series of novellas that I've had trouble naming. The name for the first one came into vi, Now instead of Moon Child One it will be To Heal Shattered Dreams. Now I have to find 11 more ways to use To Heal.

Why. This is a series and when writing a series, there should be things to tie them together. Sometimes easy and other times hard. So the following words of advice about choosing a title for your book.

Give the title some thought and try for some originality.
If there will be more books using the characters or setting find a way to associate one with another.
Be prepared to give up your initial title if another great one comes to mind or if the publisher decides a change is needed.

Remember your title is a selling tool as much as the cover and the back blurb.

2 comments:

Paul McDermott said...

In most cases, I've found that a Title will suggest itself before I'm finished writing the story.
One exception is a book which should be available before summer if all continues to go as planned.
Coincidentally it's my first foray into the Romance genre, but it's also a Mystery.
"The Chapel of Her Dreams" is the first of a planned Trilogy: the title suggested itself as I ended the first chapter, and became the 'tag line' (final sentence) of Chapter One.
Vol.2 is [probably] past halfway point, and will be called "The Island of Her Dreams" (proving your point about continuity in a series).
Wish I could find inspiration for a snappy title for Vol.3. I know how the Trilogy is going to end, but as yet a title eludes me!

Melissa Keir said...

I struggle with titles sometimes too. But then there are times that the title comes before the title! I just love that my muse can be so flexible!