I’ve spoken elsewhere on naming things in story… today I want to touch on something more specific, naming the title of your book or series.
Novice writers often put too much or too little emphasis on the power of their title.
The title should convey the nature of a book and be memorable.
While a great title can (and does) really help sell a book, a poor title can conversely harm, or hold back a book. A lot of folks don’t recognize this.
The most dangerous title faux-pas of all, is selecting a title that misleads or misdirects the reader, giving them false expectations or impressions.
Often, this can happen when a title isn’t well thought out. Writers jumping on the first thing that comes to mind, that works–because they have more important and more entertaining things to focus on (like writing the story).
Creators can be blind to the implications of their title, unable to see the forest for the trees, blinded by having worked on their IP for months or years… and pulling from an understanding of additional content the readers haven’t yet been exposed to.
When you name your book or series, it’s critical to remember people who know nothing about you or your story, will immediately try to develop those expectations and impressions. Remember, human nature is to make order of chaos.
Title your book, “The Broken Green Pyramid,” and immediately, brain will start disassembling the pieces, looking for meaning and patterns:
- Pyramid. Like in Egypt? Is this a Stargate prequel story?
- Broken. Who broke it? Why did it break? Does it matter that it’s broken? Who wants a broken pyramid?
- Green. Grass? Ecological? Climate Change? Beer Bottles? What kind of green? Was it always green? Why isn’t it blue, or gold?
etc…
While some confusion is harmless and may even be beneficial for mystery books, or just in general to get your readers thinking, you can most certainly, land on a bad title, delivering a serious misnomer.
Let me make up some quick examples:
Jesus Christ Assassin For Hire.
Underage kids blanket bash.
Drugs are for Bangers.
Vokda Man and Tonic Boy.
Empire of the Elite: All Poor People Must Die!
We’ll just ignore the lowest hanging fruit, that some of these titles might alienate folks.
Instead, focus on the obvious implications and in turn, expectations that immediately form in your bread pan.
I’m not going to unpack all of them for you, this is more of a quiet, personal exercise, but real quick;
Jesus Christ Assassin for Hire… I mean, it’s hard to see that name anywhere for anything without getting immediate religious implications.
Drugs are for Bangers. You might have a sci-fi story about “banger” aliens, where humans need drugs to mentally communicate with them, but nobody’s gonna know that looking at the title. Instead, folks are gonna think your story has to do with Fentanyl or crack and inner city gangs, super hot hookers, or well-cooked sausages.
Realize that the title of your book, often is, the very first, raw impression of your book. Try you hardest to make something that connects, but try your double hardest to make sure you don’t totally whiff it. Spend the time to get it right, however long it takes.
Luckily, the title of your book doesn’t have any bearing on ‘you actually working on and finishing the script‘ (or book even). So the whole time you’re actually writing, you can be perfecting that title on the down low. ▪
About the Author —
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Newcomer or veteran writer, if you’re working on a project that needs commercial success, Nick urges to you read this intro article. And for every writer putting eyeballs on this, why haven’t you picked up my genre guide yet?
Nick Macari is a full-time freelance story consultant, developmental editor and writer, working primarily in the independent gaming and comic markets. His first published comic appeared on shelves via Diamond in the late 90’s. Today you can find his comic work on comixology, Amazon, and in select stores around the U.S.