Skip to main content

The Art of the Title

Finding the right title for your book is crucial. An inspired title can create the right buzz for the book and help it along in its journey towards success.

Today, I have on my blog Debeshi Gooptu Bakshi. She is a former journalist turned author who lives and works in Gurgaon. Debeshi's book which was published by Juggernaut Books in January 2017 goes by the intriguing and creative title of Dragon Aunty Returns

In this post, Debeshi talks about how you can ensure you have a title that is unique and memorable...



Do not judge a book by its cover.

Isn’t this a proverb all of us have grown up hearing and believing?

Ironically though, proverb aside, books tend to be judged by their titles and covers. People do it all the time. How many times have you walked into a bookstore and been wowed by a fantastic title and cover of a book whose author you knew nothing about? I’m guessing – quite often!

Despite what life tells you, the cover and title of a book is very important and, as an author, you need to make sure you spend precious time conjuring these up. The reason I say conjure is because your title should be like the white rabbit you pull out of the hat. A magic trick no one else can replicate. That will ensure your book will live on in the memory of your readers forever. Your Unique Selling Proposition. Isn’t that what all us authors want?

To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Little Women, The Great Gatsby, The Kite Runner, The Mistress of Spices, Fear of Flying, Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, My Name is Red, these are some of my favourite books. Don’t you just marvel at the ingenuity and creativity behind the evocative titles? Wouldn’t you be tempted to read books with names such as these? If you haven’t already!

The other day, an author I know was tweeting about a thriller she had written and the title intrigued me. I went looking for the book on Amazon and found ten other books with the same name! It took me a while to get to the book I was looking for. It turned out to be a lovely read. What a shame about the repetitive titles though. A brilliant book, buried in lists of books with the same name and nothing else in common.

So what does one do to create a title for a book that cannot be copied by anyone else? With copyright laws being dodgy, there is no way to actually copyright a book title. But you can do the following to make sure your title is safe.

Make it Short - Make sure your title is short and attention-grabbing. A long meandering sentence is not a good idea. You can have a sub-title if you need one.

Conveys what the Book is About - The book title should give an idea of what you are writing about and that’s not the easiest task in the world. To summarise thousands of words into a 3 to 4 word title. Put your thinking cap on and get creative. Be funny if your genre is humour. Not otherwise.

Evocative - The title should be evocative and resonates with your readers.

Run a Search for Similar Names - The best thing to do is run a search to make sure someone hasn’t already written a book with the same name before.

Once you have ticked off all the boxes, you can only pray that once the book is published, no one comes up with the same name. Great minds do think alike you know! Here’s wishing you luck on that one!


Do you have a favourite book title? Would love to hear your thoughts about why you love it.


Comments

  1. Good article. wishing the very best for Debeshi's new book. The title itself is relly intriguing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is indeed,Preethi. Thanks for visiting!:)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree - Review of the International Booker Prize Winner

Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree My rating: 5 of 5 stars Geetanjali Shree's original book in Hindi is called Ret Samadhi and the translated version by Daisy Rockwell is Tomb of Sand. The writer's style is lyrical and captures the essence of an Indian family completely and evocatively. In fact the amazing thing about the author's style is that it goes above and beyond the cast of characters, roping in inanimate objects (like the door, for instance), the natural elements, crows and invisible things like borders. The story lies not so much in the plotline of an old woman and her journey to find the house and man she has left behind as in highlighting the nuances of families, countries, borders, neighbourhoods, galis and mohallas , the environment, the smells, sounds and landscape, the past and present and everything in between (including a delightful treatise on the silk sari as narrated from the point of view of a crow!) that makes up the heart and soul of India. The writi

Bombay Heights: The perfect Diwali read is now available in paperback

Reading romance during the festive season adds to the fun and sparkle, doesn't it? So, for Diwali 2021, I decided to bring out a Paperback edition of my rom-com Bombay Heights: Sleepless in the City of Dreams .  The best part is that the story takes place during the festive season. What's not to love! So, get ready to be immersed in the spirit of the festival of lights!  Blurb: Small town girl Sanjana Kale wants a fresh start in Mumbai. A challenging job and some much needed distance from her ludicrously over-protective family could get her life under control. Forced to team up with video game designer Ashwin Deo, who is too attractive for his own good, she finds life becoming a whole lot more complicated when he turns out to be her new neighbour. How can she maintain a professional distance with this charming troublemaker who believes in getting up close and personal? To make matters worse, her ex tries to manipulate her loved ones to work his way back into her life

Book Review of Where Did You Go? by P.L. Jonas

  The popularity of novels like Gone Girl and T he Girl on the Train with an intriguing premise, unreliable narrators and plot twists, has put the spotlight on psychological suspense stories. Such stories have a thriller like urgency about them and yet are rooted in familiar, real life situations. A well crafted, edgy psychological suspense can keep the reader hooked till the very last page.  The novella Where Did You Go ? by debut author P.L. Jonas begins with an intriguing set up. Sammy, a successful but reclusive ghostwriter, is offered a chance of a life time. The project involves completing a half-finished manuscript by her favourite writer, Margaret Mitchell, the celebrated author of  the all-time classic Gone with the Wind . Her brief is simple: she needs to follow the outline that the author has left behind and submit a draft within a tight deadline.  Her publisher, James, is confident that Sammy has what it takes to finish the novel. The chance of having her name on the book