Choosing a good title for a book is vital. I’ve heard dozens of authors whine, “But I suck at titles.” So keep bouncing ideas around until a better one comes to you.
A now famous author named her book, “Pansy”. Pansy was the heroine of the story.
I’ll sit here and wait a moment while you tell me you know all about the book and thought it was wonderful.
Yes, you do?
No, you don’t?
The author was Margaret Mitchell. The book became “Gone with the Wind” and the heroine’s name was changed to Scarlett.
Right now I expect you’re nodding and agreeing Margaret Mitchell’s editor was correct and the heroine’s name and book title are much better than the author’s original idea.
It doesn’t matter how good your book is if no one is attracted to the title and no one picks it up.
The other thing to watch for is a really good title but there are already other books with that name. It may be intensely annoying to have finally found the perfect title and then see three other books out there with it, but it’s going to be way more annoying to see all the returns taken out of your sales from the readers who got your book in mistake for one of the other ones. Your title needs to be unique.
Good luck.
Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com
Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.
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