Friday, July 20, 2012

Brainstorming a Title

Titles can be so hard.  But they are truly important in the marketing of your book, both to the public and to agents/editors/publishers. I used to get to the point where I'd throw my hands up and just write "Working Title" before whatever lame handle I'd come up with for my book, and claim to anyone who'd listen that it didn't matter because the publisher would change it anyway. I've come to realize, however, that a great title makes a huge difference in people's interest in looking at a manuscript (or a published book), and it's worth devoting yourself to getting it right, from the get-go. Yes, it may still get changed by a publisher if you go that route, but you can bet that your own great choice helped in getting it to the publisher in the first place.

Here's a little gambit for generating title ideas for your book that can be loads of fun, and has the added bonus of providing you with a good meal, too.

Invite a bunch of people over for dinner for a book naming confab. It helps if they're all avid readers, but some people say you might like to avoid other writers for this purpose. (I'm not sure I agree with this point. Some of the craziest, most fun people I know are writers.) Make sure everyone knows a little about your book—the basic story line and what's at stake and who the main characters are. Ask each person to come armed with one word that came to mind when you told them about your book that describes what it's about.

Now, here's why it's good to have the confab at your place. Put up a white board or a big sheet of paper, and use a magic marker to write each word that was brought to the dinner party on it. Then, have a game of word combinations, where everybody participates and shouts out their ideas. Make it a timed contest if you need to inject some liveliness in the group to get them going. Tell them they each have five seconds to blurt out a phrase, any phrase. Have a prize for the best word combos if you like.

The more wine and laughter, the better, up to a point of course. They do have to get themselves home unless you're having a giant sleepover.

I had a great time at a brainstorming session like this that took my mystery/suspense title two giant leaps beyond the 'working title' I'd settled on (And When I Die). I think that the new title is better—descriptive of the tone and content of the book, and more fun, too :-). It is Love, Lies, and Spies. 

What is your favorite way to come up with book titles? Is it easy for you to find great ones?

12 comments:

  1. Every year my writer's groupt, MVRWA has a brainstorming weekend at a cabin in Michigan. Many titles for W.I.P were created. There, we can brainstorm, drink, and then crash.

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    1. That's perfect, Leigh, the best of all worlds!

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  2. This is a great way to do it. And fun. And when wine is involved, the brainstorming takes off. For mine, Flight For Control, I tried to find a central theme. Control of the airline industry, control of ones life. It seemed to be everyone's issue. And they were all fighting for it. Ah... play on words. Instead of Fight for Control, being an aviation thriller, I came up with Flight.

    What I can say on the importance of a title is. There are two movies that I loved. But unfortunately I cannot remember their names to tell people about them. If you can't remember... not a good title.

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    1. Your title absolutely works. The fact that it's a bit off the usual phrase (Fight for control), just makes it stick in a person's head. Then you connect it to flying/airlines.

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  3. This sounds like a LOT of fun. I've got to try it! You can't go wrong with wine and brainstorming.

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  4. I'm pretty off with titles. Control was initially thought up by my editor, but when I looked back on my title notes I'd had that one down too. I'm a titleing mess, I am.

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    1. I actually know people who are naturally brilliant at titles, Lydia. I'm definitely not one of them, either!

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  5. I love this! And I love the tile you guys came up with. On top of that you had fun.

    I don't try to over-think my titles. I try to zero in on what's at the core of the story without giving too much away.

    Touch of Fire
    Mistress of the Stone
    True Believers
    Apocalypse Rising
    Chain of Souls
    The Devil to Pay

    Each of these titles are intrinsically connected to what's at stake in each story.

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    1. I like the rhythm you've established with your book titles. Nice.

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  6. Well, that's one wild, and fun way of getting a book title! I sort of go about it in a boring way and have asked others to give me some ideas in the past. Usually, I find something better that fits, eventually.

    The vampire titles, I've decided at the beginning would all have some musical title or word like Vampire Ascending was from "Lark Ascending", Vampire's Trill is, of course "Devil's Trill". My latest is Vampire Nocturne.

    Still waiting for the mystery novel sub-title plonk me on the head. I really don't worry about it until I'm nearing the end of writing it.

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    1. Series titles that use a theme, like music, are great for many reasons--the way they sound, the fun of coming up with them once you've got the theme, and especially the ease of recognition by readers. Your musical theme really resonates, Lorelei.

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