Considering What A Book’s Title Should Be Before Publishing It

After the writing is over, it’s time for an author to give their book its name. Perhaps a title was chosen at the start of the process, but as it turns out, it doesn’t suit the finished content. It happens. With so many title options on offer, where does one begin when choosing a book’s title?

Before my book SEETHINGS was completed, I reviewed many title ideas for its cover. That name didn’t appear until eight years later. During the book’s long development, various titles were used to help me write the content. Few were considered to be permanent fixtures.

There are good reasons why a book starts with one title but ends with another. Sometimes the story takes a different direction, and the old title no longer makes sense. There’s another time: The title sounded quirky, but the author figured out it would’ve been lost on readers.

I used my first title as a sort of mission statement. It kept me on track as I wrote the yet-unknown story. It was always meant to be temporary. I wrote it on a Post-it note and stuck it to the top of my computer’s screen.

This was what SEETHINGS was first titled because I knew the story would always be about a storm. I love a good thunderstorm and wanted to write a sophisticated story about one, but how that’d translate into an entertaining story was still uncertain. I wrote “Stormfront” on that little yellow tag, and it kept me on task during the first draft (and it stayed around for another couple of rewrites). And then I wrote a new Post-it note to replace the old one.

As is usually the case when I write a story, something else is discovered during the process. The story developed the nucleus of another plot. It paralleled the first one, but while the hot, summer rain dominated the core of the early narrative, a frosty relationship story slithered up against it. I saw the irony, wrote a new title on a fresh Post-it note, and labelled it Cold Climates. It stayed around for one rewrite.

Attracted to that second plot, I kept developing the chilly relationship and aimed to create six identifiable occasions in the story when the couple’s life soured, and their bedroom turned icy. Thank goodness that title didn’t remain. Neither did those six occasions. Key elements stayed while the rest disappeared into oblivion.

Stop laughing. This title will make perfect sense after I explain why I chose it.

The writing process was nearing its end, and things were getting serious. The book had been written ten times, and it was due for some real-world testing. Enter the Beta-Reader process.

Feedback on the story mattered. I handed my readers the loose-leaf manuscript in a four-ring binder. This long title appeared on the first page to serve as a synopsis. If the reader didn’t like the title, they didn’t get to read the book. Those who tolerated the title got to move to the next step. They read the story, and then I waited for their comments/reviews to return to me. The book would never be called Pink Tears In The Hot Rain And The Cold Stench Of Death. A real title would come later. That’s when I started doing the graphics for the cover and overlaying my title ideas.

Structural edits were being finalised while four titles were selected for proofing (I can’t remember the last one — and these are only mock-ups of the mock-ups. Original files have been lost). Each of these proofs was printed using the same lightning image on the background. I dropped the titles on top and then handed them to my friends, family, book club members, strangers, and anyone willing enough to give me their opinion. I didn’t tell them what the story was about (and the beta readers used earlier weren’t involved this time around), I just wanted new eyes to look at the mock-ups. “Which book title would make you stop and look twice?” I asked.

The votes came back, and the book officially became SEETHINGS. Of course, it wasn’t ready for the reading market yet. Sorting out a title was just one step in many more to come. The next thing to consider was a suitable cover graphic (clearly, I didn’t go with the lightning bolt), but that’s another post for another time.

Until then, enjoy your writing.

–Michael (Dark fiction. Author of SEETHINGS (the first book), free for a limited time)