Welcome back for week seven of the MFRW 52 week Blogging Challenge! Each week I will be writing a post from a set list of topics that with luck will a) get me blogging more often and b) help you get to know me better.
This week’s theme is: How I Choose a Book Title
Choosing book titles is a special kind of torture for me. It’s something I’ve never enjoyed…until inspiration finally strikes and I have it done and decided. My usual methods have been honed to a fine art. I have five steps that I religiously follow each and every time.
So how does an author with over thirty stories published come up with book titles?
1. Scrawl words on paper.
Then scratch off names, make paper balls and lob them across the room at the bin.
(I should confess I have terrible aim and that my cat Morpheus does not chase those papers across the room.)
2. Brainstorm on a whiteboard.
Writing potential titles on the whiteboard gives me something to stare at, stroll past a dozen times.
(wonderful help for the daily step count)
3. Consider what’s currently popular and in use in my genre.
Searching Amazon, iBooks and Barnes and Noble is a good way of finding words I haven’t used yet in a title and what’s overwhelmingly seen too often.
(and its a great way of finding shiny new books to read next)
4. Check the titles I’ve already published.
Does my potential title fit with the series? If no, that’s more paper on the floor for the cat to ignore.
5. When all else fails?
Scrub everything, go do something else. The right title more often than not pops into my head hours after I give up trying to pin a title down.
That’s exactly what happened last week. I had a sudden inspiration for book 8 of the Distinguished Rogues Series right before bed and I just love it! Wish I could share, but that’s for a future post. Sorry.
This is a blog hop
Click here to view the list of participants…
