How do you pick the perfect title for your story, well... here's an attempt to set some basic rules and make it easier...
(Warning: don't take this too seriously.)
Five Basic Approaches
1. You start with the title, and it's your basic concept... if you started with the title 🙂
Example: Angel Jay's Kind's Kiss
Risk: the title may have little to do with the story, because you deviated too much, or the reader 'doesn't get it'
2. Your title refers to a single specific scene, event, character trait, or plot element that is defining for your story
Examples: Red Shift, Slow Lightning
3. Your title is descriptive
Note: this is common in Asian literature, but... well, I dunno... YMMV
Example: How I reincarnated as a Discord Server Owner and Took Over the World
4. Your title has f*ck nothing to do with the whole story, and you slapped it on because you had nothing better to do
5. Your title is deliberately misleading the reader because you want to have a max number of readers, OR (slightly less evil) you know it tickles the interest of your target demographic group
Five Modifications to Your Title
1. Get rid of titles that alienate your target demographic group
For example, 'bloody torn hearts nailed to the mast whilst being cruel to animals' may be the core of your novel, but it won't sell well as a romance
2. Use titles that invoke a mood
If it's about a soldier overcoming his fear, you still DON'T call the novel 'His Worst Fear' because that isn't heroic and soldierly
(The exception: if you want to write a supersensitive phycological deep-dive on some wimp, yeah, go for it)
3. Stay away from long titles, or ones including difficult words
4. Consider alternative terms that will appeal to your target group
5. Your title coexists with the cover art
That works both ways... they might result in the same grade but only one of them will bear the blame
Less poetic: there is synergy between your title and cover art -- don't ignore it or people with hate you at first sight (if you sell better than me I'll hate you anyway)
(In a perfect world we'd first create a title then look for cover art, but hey, we have to recover those expenses 😁 )
Formatting a title
That's one's easy! Go here: https://capitalizemytitle.com/ and pick the format you like, and stick to it.
More
- https://capitalizemytitle.com/
- Writing essentials
- The more 'relevant' writing related posts
- All writing related posts
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