What is your title?

Book Title

I have been here a little less than usual. As most of you know I have been working on my book. Recently, after finishing the first draft. I begin the process of rewriting, then came making the final decision of the title for the book.

A title for the book, sounds simply enough…why does it keeps me up at night for the last 3 weeks? How do you summarize: 100 women’s life, the stories, wisdom and the golden lessons; all into merely 3 to 4 words that embodies the essence of the 200 pages.  

Let’s see what Award winning Australian Author Cheryl Wright from Cheryl-wright.com have to say about book title:

Titles are extremely important to your story. So important, they will often mean the difference between selling or not.

It’s okay to have a weak or unrelated ‘working title’ ­ but that’s as far as it should go. The minute you have an appropriate catchy title, change it. Not only on your ms, but also in your mind. When I wrote “Saving Emma,” it had a horrid working title. “Undercover Love” was never a favorite of mine, but it would do until I could find something better. As I wrote the second last chapter, part of the dialogue talked about the main protagonist ’saving Emma’ from certain death. In that unforgettable moment, the title jumped off the pages and into my brain.

          Not only did my whole outlook on this book change, but it also changed in the minds of editors and publishers.

As “Undercover Love” I’d submitted the book to several publishers and had nothing but rejections. And not even personal rejections; I got form letter ‘dear writer’ rejections.

          When the title changed, the responses also changed. I began to get bites and requests. Despite the fact that the story itself was unaltered, editors became interested.

All this because of a title change?

Well, yes. Titles are extremely important.

To get an idea of how much difference a title really can make, take a look at these examples of title changes:

§  Tomorrow is Another Day ­ – Gone with the Wind

§  John Thomas & Lady Jane – ­ Lady Chatterly’s Lover

§  Something that Happened – ­ Of Mice and Men

§  Blossom and the Flower  – Peyton Place

Sometimes it’s just a matter of tweaking your title slightly. For instance, one of my works-in-progress was called “Into the Arms of a Stranger.” I hated the title, despised it in fact, until I shortened it. “Arms of a Stranger” is a much better title, and has more appeal than the longer version.

Following are just a handful of titles I’ve started with, and then changed for the better:

§  Poison Ivy -  The Rubber Ducky Killer

§  The Flight – ­ The First Flight

§  The Gym – ­ Mystery at Joe’s Gym

§  First Person Point of View – ­ Me, Myself & I: Writing First Person POV

§  Finding Ideas – ­ Today I Witnessed a Story

The above information came from Sellingbooks.com of Do You Judge a Book by its Title?

All of this also makes me wonder, “Can you summarize one year of your life? What 3 to 4 words would you use? What is your title?

Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action