Tuesday, March 9, 2010

A Rose by any other name would smells as sweet...



I beg to differ with the quote from Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet (No offense Shakespeare), but even if it did smell as sweet would you even want to go near one and see if it was named something like "Dank"?

Names and titles play a big thing, especially for novels. You might have a great big hit on your hands but no one would even want to look at your story because you've created some lame title (hey, I've been there... my first one which is now burried deep away was called "Warriors of Destiny").

I'm now planning my new story idea, which I've discovered the title I was planning on using has already been used, so I'm trying to think of something (anything), and all I'm left with is silly/lame names that I'm pretty sure not even I would want to pick up in a book store.

You've got to be careful with the title you give your novel. You don't want to find out that there's already one of the same/similar name written by a best-selling author, or there's already plenty out there with that title. You need one which will jump out at the reader, making them want to pick it up. So, creating a title is an easy thing... yeah right, for me it probably takes more time thinking up the title than it does planning the story.

Even popular authors have had to change their titles before publication... Would you have picked up a book with the title "Forks?" and what would you have thought it was about? Whereas the title "Twilight" does a much better job at catching the readers attention.

How hard is it for you to create titles? And, what's the worst or best titles you've seen?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, yeah. Titles are tough. Sure, the title you come up with won't necessarily make it on the cover of your novel when it's published, but it still has to catch an agent's eye. PLUS, the subjectivity of the biz makes it hard. I had a title that people either loved or hated. Flip a coin, literally. I decided to change the title. :)

Unknown said...

Well, flipping a coin always works... I just need some ideas before I can flip

Unknown said...

I come up with...oh, three, maybe. The first two are usually pretty bad. Then I find something marketable that still connects to the story, which is sometimes much harder than it sounds, depending on the story.

Kerri Cuev said...

This is a hard one. I stink a picking titles. I do an Amazon search when I think of a good one to see if it's taken. Where is the title fairy when you need it!

If I saw a title Forks I would surely think wow a book about utensils lol!

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