I must confess, I’m a title whore. Catchy book titles make me yearn to crack them open, discover their innerds. Case in point – Girl With A Dragon Tattoo. That immediately grabbed my attention. Another title – The Lovely Bones. Of course any Harlequin title with Sheikh in it gets my undivided attention too! I could go on and on.
So imagine my frustration when I can’t seem to come up with any decent ones for my books! I had a book titled From A Whisper To A Scream, which I particularly loved.
Unfortunately, I was alone in that title love. That book, sold to AN Other publisher, went on to become another title, which I loved btw and almost wished I’d come up with myself.
But I’m beginning to realise that I have no talent when it comes to naming my stories. That said, I know not to sweat the small stuff because there’s someone whose job it is to come up with a title that sells the book. Can’t help wishing that maybe… just once, I could come up with a knockout title that blows an editor’s sock off.
Yeah, I know, I’ll carry on dreaming…
How about you? Do book titles make you want to read or scream?
I am a hopeless titler. Just can't do it. I think I've only come up with two titles I actually liked in all the 20 years I've been writing! So I come up with stupid titles instead of serious ones. For my wips, they're inevitably called after the heroine and that's about it. Thank God for marketing departments I say! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI hate writing titles, just as well it doesn't matter too much. I'm with Jackie, thankfully there are marketing peops to do it instead.
ReplyDeleteYeah, as you can see above, I've gone your way with naming my stories after my hero and heroine! But I still dream, you know?
ReplyDeleteThank God for marketing peeps, Lorraine! I guess they're the reason I keep buying more books than I can ever read in a lifetime :)
ReplyDeleteI love writing titles. I guess I'm just lucky that way. The title comes first, and the book comes later. Its getting the book to come later thats my problem!
ReplyDeleteoh, ps. I think nailing a tagline helps with the title. Am doing a post on taglines next, hope it helps! (otherwise we can have a minxy skype session on your title!)
ReplyDeleteSometimes I go with titles first too before I start the story, but I'm finding out (much to my regret) that they're never any good, hehehee. Yes, might need some minx help on naming some of the mss!
ReplyDeleteI hate thinking up titles - my attempts always make me cringe.
ReplyDeleteXX
Lol, Sally. I tend to love mine, except I seem to be the only one!
ReplyDeleteErg. I kind of liked the title of my first book, which has been retitled (LOL), but now I just slap a working title on it. Marketing has made me lazy. I'm just glad other people do it, and not me! (in my last submission though, my heroine is a public relations specialist, so, I working titles it Public Relations, Private Mistress, because I COULD NOT stop myself. :-) )
ReplyDeleteMaisey, lol on not being able to stop yourself. I do like your title though, very very sassy!
ReplyDelete