Welcome Mat: Your Novel’s Title

When you are brainstorming titles, think of it as a welcome mat. A title’s job is to bring readers into your novel, story, or picture book. This is why the title is often changed by the marketing/publicity department: they have their fingers on the pulse of the audience and have a better idea of what will be appealing.

Improved Titles

Here are some titles, as originally proposed. Fortunately, these lame titles were changed! See if you can match them to the well-known title below. (See answers below.)

• 1. The Mute?
• 2. Private Fleming, his Various Battles
• 3. To Climb the Wall
• A. The Red Badge of Courage
• B. The Blackboard Jungle
• C. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Sol Stein, in his book, Stein on Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies, emphasizes that titles are sales tools, an invitation to the world to enter your story. He recommends finding an apt metaphor for the story, preferably one in iambic pentameter.

Titles look outward to the audience and tease. They lay a Welcome mat before the threshold of the story. Today, try writing 20 different titles for your story and then mix and match the words from the 20 until you have 20 new ones. Read them to friends and ask which title makes them want to read the book. Anytime you’re stuck on a revision, play with titles.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help

My daughter suggested the title for my teacher resource book on prewriting activities for students. She was thinking about brainstorming and storms and writing with pen and paper and came up with this: Paper Lightning. The editor loved it and the title stuck.
Answers: 1C, 2A, 3B.

It's Here.

Strong Titles Sell Novels and Books

I’ve been thinking a lot about titles for novels, or really any book, trying to give them stronger hooks.

Titles are essentially sales tools: for you to sell to the publisher and for the publisher to sell to the public. After you have several books out and start to build a reputation, then your NAME becomes the hook as much as anything. But at first, it’s the title.

What makes a good title?

Catchy. Unusual, interesting, lyrical – anything that lifts the title above average. Alliteration, metaphors, coined words, and rhyme are things to try as you play with possible titles.

Emotional Appeal. Legendary editor Sol Stein says, “Fiction evokes emotion; nonfiction imparts information.” With more creative nonfiction today, we might amend that to say, “Nonfiction imparts information in an emotional way.” The title should emphasize the emotional hook. Names of characters often help add emotional appeal – if you’ve named the character well.

Pop Culture Reference. If you can work in some pop culture reference, all the better.

Sound Bite. Remember that the salesman has only 10 seconds to sell your book. A sound bite is a succinct way of describing your story and will help the sales happen.

Unique to YOUR Story. And you want the title to be uniquely fitted to your story, not generic in any way. No other story could be described accurately by the title.

As an example, here is a series of titles an author went through on a book:

• The Parts Nobody Knows
• To Love and Write Well
• How Different It Was
• With Due Respect
• The Eye and the Ear. (Ernest Hemingway’s last choice for his book)
• And the last choice, the one used when it was published was chosen by his wife, Mary: The Moveable Feast.

It's Here.