WriBie: Troublesome Titles

It is really important to pay special attention to the title of your story. Especially if you want to self-publish your story.
Just think to yourself, “Why do I grab a book of a shelf?”
When you’re at a bookstore, you are faced with hundreds of books. Still you always pick a few books from the shelf and read the text on the cover to see if you want to buy it. But why do you pick that one book?

I think that what makes a book attractive (at first sight) are three things:
- The color of the spine and the cover of the book
- The title
- The text on the back cover

The title is really important because it draws people’s attention and it has to convince someone to actually take the effort to take it off the shelf. It should be interesting, original and attractive.

Before you all go off, writing imaginative and creative titles, you have to keep in mind that the title must be representative for the rest of the story. It has to “fit” the story. You can’t have a promising title without the story to live up to that expectation. (Well you can but it won’t do your book any good).

For example:
Harry potter and the Philosopher’s stone sounds much better than The wizard school or Harry Potter and magic. The title is original and people will want to find out what it’s about. Harry is a very common name, it could have been you or me and “the Philosopher’s stone” is already associated with magic, myth and mystery. You have a good idea what kind of book it’s going to be just by looking at the title.

And for instance Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo sounds interesting. There is an unusual name and you start to wonder who it is. It also involves a gateway which we usually associate with action, mystery and magic. And some place called Foo that we’ve never heard about. You want to know more. And the gateway and Foo are very important elements in the story. It promises a gate way and Foo and you get it.

I also like the cover. You have this strange boy that is wet for some reason and looks exhausted. His right eye is shining a bright orange glow and he has a strange little creature on his shoulder. If you like fantasy stories and come across this book you’d probably be interested.

But remember, even though the title is really important, don’t go breaking your head over it yet. Write your story first. Work with a working title. I’ve named my story “New_Story” till I was finished and I gave it a different title.

Now that I’ve named the importance of a good title I’ll give you some great sites that give tips on how to find the perfect name for your story. But don’t worry if it doesn’t feel a 100% right yet. If you try to get it published your agent and/or editor will be there to help you pick the right title.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1984314/story_title_ideas_how_to_name_your.html?cat=47
This article gives some good idea’s in naming your story.

http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/titles.shtml
This site also explains the importance of a title and gives some tips and ideas.

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Good-Story-Title
Wikihow is always helpful :)

If you know more great sites or tips, share them with the rest and don’t hesitate to leave them in the comment section!