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Name Me Well!
Oct 10, 2019
Name Me Well!
The Joy and Challenges of Choosing A Title
Next to the excitement of a great story brainstorm, or characters that haunt you so that you can’t sleep, coming up with a great title for a book is an exhilarating thing.
The energy of it can carry you through the rough days of writing, and keep you focused on themes and atmosphere.
And once you start advertising a book’s release, a title should tempt, amuse, or otherwise compel people to purchase you tome before any others.
When we developed A Flock of Sparrows
as Helen Foster Reed (with June Foster), Gail knew almost from the onset that we should use the quote from Mathew 6: 25-26.
The “Look at the birds in the air” line, where God reminds us that although we suffer hardships, with faith, He will provide.
Our five widows in the story were definitely worried about life in general, and the harsh, early winter storm really put them in crisis mode, especially once the power went out.
Add to that, like Gail, I (Helen) had my own experiences of rough winters at our farm where I witnessed sparrows join forces in a unique way to stay warm.
It was soon apparent that “a flock of sparrows” perfectly reflected all of that—God’s word, the survival instincts of vulnerable birds, and the banding together of widows.
When Gail and I moved on as Myers & Reed, Life & Spice
was our second collaboration.
Gail wanted to do something about the Galveston hurricane of 1900, but rather than do a period piece, which I felt had already been done sufficiently and well, I thought it would be more interesting to link the storm to current times.
As a tourist destination, it was obvious to tell our family-focused story through the challenges of running a restaurant.
We’re both fans of all things food related, and it’s a subject deeply imbedded in our family tree, so we easily saw a story based on a multi-generational Italian establishment.
Thus, Life & Spice
—or in Italian Vite e Spezie
became a theme and ultimately our title.
And Stephen Marshall’s award-winning cover featuring unmistakable beach colors of aqua and sand behind a silverware place setting made it clear that our story was about people, passion, and all of the senses.
For The Life We Choose
, we knew we were going to deal with a broken family, and how life choices shape us.
But we were also intrigued with the concept of destiny versus free choice.
Ultimately, that led us to the biblical quote from Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.”
So, yes, we make choices, but those choices are based on what opportunities or challenges have been placed before us.
Once again theme and metaphor shone a light for our title, and it acted like a Greek chorus whispering through the story—sometimes in a miraculous way, sometimes in a sad or painful way—how we are a culmination of
the decisions we’ve made.
You always want to check around to see if your title has been used before—and chances are, they probably have been.
That’s not a death knell to your idea, as titles are not subject to copyright law.
Of course, you wouldn’t want to strike out with another War and Peace
or Harry Potter
, due to the originals being so well known it’s the other book people first think of.
In fact, a recent title made the author of a previous book a nice royalty check for a while because people mistakenly bought the first book and not the new one, as neither author was yet a household name.
Another common question is, how long should a title be?
There’s no definitive answer.
What's the story about?
Is it fiction or non-fiction?
Non-fiction books often have longer titles, or a short title followed by a subtitle.
Notice that most of those have little or no cover art, so as not to make the whole thing cluttered and difficult to read.
Short titles are more easily memorized than long ones and they can be made so visible on a cover or spine that you see it on the bookshelf for several feet before you reach it.
Titles are personal and it kills me when writers don’t have a clue as to what to name their book, even after it’s written, until an editor chooses it for them.
It speaks to not really grasping the concept or take-away of the story.
At the same time, the joy of being an independent writer is having the right to choose for yourself.
It does happen, particularly in genre fiction, that the publishing house has a brand they see for themselves and you get stuck with something sappy or having little or no relevance to the story, but it blends in with the other titles they’re putting out that month.
Finally, choose a title that stirs vivid and strong memories when you hear it.
There’s an old saying in the business about the writer drawing the line and the reader carrying it onward.
A story isn’t only on the page, it’s what it triggers in the reader’s mind—solution, evolution, revolution.
All that starts with the title.
