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?