Horrendous Book Titles?

Here I am, pondering TITLES again. Blame it on this New York Times article, from today's paper, about titles with LAND in them. I'm reading Stephen King's Joyland and just finished Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfield. But I hadn't noticed the title thing.

CLICK HERE to go to the article.

Be sure to read to the end: "the temptation to be on-trend is particularly acute because a title can make or break a book..."

I'm terrible with titles. I know a lot of tricks for choosing them, and even blogged about them--recently! -- here:
http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2013/08/one-more-word-about-titles.html

The article that comes with that Book Title image over there offers 5 ways to choose a title.
I'm particularly drawn to #4:
Would a reader feel cool if someone saw them reading a book with that title? 

From what I  know about kids, they might feel cool if their friends saw them carrying a catchily-titled book. But they certainly wouldn't read it if it were boring, beneath them, or blah.

With kids' books, titles truly aren't everything. There's the cover, and most importantly the writing. But I know an appealing title does a lot to move a book. I mean, how could a young reader resist How To Steal A Dog?  Does a preposition in the title help? Moon Over Manifest, anyone? How about an animal AND a preposition: The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail. Once inside, the writing seals the deal.

Consider poor Stieg Larsson. Ha. Not poor in the least. But also not so great at title-picking. As reported in a memoir by Kurdo Baksi, Stieg Larsson, My Friend, his working titles were the feeble The Witch Who Dreamt of a Can of Petrol and Matches and The Exploding Castle in the Air...

One More Word about TITLES

I don't think Book Titles have always been so important to choosing just the right book. Think about all those very old books you read. Zippy titles? Funny? A play on words? Maybe not.

But I know a whole lot of authors who can't begin to write without a really, really great title to their manuscript. Working title? Nah. They cling to that title.




Because my Critique Group has been pondering what makes a great title this week, I shared this link to an interesting piece from a Publishers Weekly blog, re: titles:

http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/shelftalker/?p=10938

Good pointers.

And this:

http://www.lulu.com/titlescorer/index.php

We had a few laughs plugging titles into this. Harry Potter not a bestseller? Hmmm.

Be sure to fill in all the drop-downs to get your title scored. 
Take it with a grain of salt, of course.

Here's a previous post, with links, to my Title Thoughts...
 http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2008/05/title-picking.html 

I laughed out loud when I read that. 2008. 
I was just starting the manuscript that I'm now editing.
And the title has changed twice since then.
To me, obviously, titles are elusive.

Despite that, I sometimes obsess over them.
(Here I am again, 2 years later, still titling a blogpost Title Picking.)
http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2010/02/title-picking.html

As we say down south, Whoo Boy.
Or Hoo Boy. (Wonder how that would go over as a title?)

Pulling hair out over titles might be worth it. When you find the perfect title, it sings! 
And kids will remember your book. So choose wisely.

Names! (again)

Just in the nick of time, my book has a title!

GLORY BE!

(That's the title, not just me shouting hallelujah.) Glory is my narrator's name. The book just cried out to be titled GLORY BE. I'm so happy!

As much as I dread Titles, I love names. I love place names, character names, street names. I don't even mind Chapter Names.

Here's a name that surfaced in my newspaper and I totally love it. Goliath. I can just picture a boy in a book named Goliath. Our local Goliath is called Go by his friends. Love that also.

A recent church bulletin I tucked away for safe-keeping celebrated the lives of those who'd died in 2010 and those who were born that year. The name comparison says a lot.

Edna Mae, Shirley, Murray, Norma Betty, Doris, Hazel, Glen, Homer.

Kinsley Grace
Connor
Sarah Lucy

Can you tell which are the babies' names?

Come to think of it, maybe the old names are new again. There's also a Lola Marie on that list of babies born in 2010.

Names, names, names. Inspirational. Naming a character so makes me want to write about him.

Picking titles? Not so much. It's good to have help in that department.
Glory Be! I do love it.

Related post: Picking Titles

Wordle!

I'd totally forgotten what fun Wordle is. Then it turned up on a search for Titles. As in, HELP! I need to find a title! One suggestion was to put your entire manuscript in Wordle and see what emerges.

Well, nothing emerged. Title-wise.
But I sure wasted enjoyed a lot of fun time changing colors and fonts all afternoon. Here's the Wordle for my novel:

Go ahead. Click on that Wordle link. And see what fun you'll have. Try it for a chapter. Your kid's book report. An essay you've just written for The New Yorker. ☺    Whatever strikes your fancy.


Related post: Title Picking

Title Picking

I actually have a file in my computer with this name. In it, I've pasted every piece of good advice I've ever read about selecting a title for your writing. It's something I'm not at all good at, picking a really great title, and it's something I think I should be.

When I was a librarian, the youngest kids would ask for "the red book with the dog on the front," but by the time they were old enough to read for themselves and to pay attention to the recommendations of their friends, they usually remembered the title, or at least some part of it. Kind of like me now with Potato Peel Pie Society. See, I can't ever get it all out, but I know enough to find it at the library.

So I think this article in the current Glimmertrain is worth saving in my file. Written by Eric Puchner, it's filled with gems likes these:

"...there seems to be very little correlation between producing something brilliant and the ability to come up with a half-decent name for it. Perhaps it's a different skill set entirely. I sometimes think there should be professional titlers: just as we wouldn't ask a carpenter to tar the roof of our house, we shouldn't expect writers to work outside their métier."

Some people are just plain good at titles, and fortunately I have a few of those in my writing life. Because I agree that it's crucial to have a good one. I mean, would you have loved The Great Gatsby as much by another name?

"..keep in mind it wasn't Fitzergerald's idea. He wanted to call the novel Trimalchio in West Egg, which sounds like something Dr. Seuss might have dreamed up for the Playboy channel."

That's my gift, via Eric Pucher and Glimmertrain, to you today.