For many writers, creating titles is the bane of their existence. Some come up with titles faster than I can sing the alphabet song; the rest of us stare at the screen and sob. And unfortunately, sobbing doesn’t do much for generating ideas.
Last week I realized I had to change the title of the New Adult contemporary romance I’ll be publishing this fall. A self-published YA novel with the same title had just hit the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. Oddly enough, our cover designer is the same. When my CP mentioned the title of my book to another author on Twitter and said it was awesome, it looked like she was promoting the YA book, since mine hasn’t been released yet.
Now, this shouldn’t be a big deal. This happens to authors all the time. It happened to Christina Lee (my CP). The title for her NA contemporary romance was similar to a recently released NA paranormal, and her editor told her she needed to come up with a new one.
They combed through the manuscript and found a phrase (All Of You) that worked perfectly for the title. I tried the same trick and ended up with a title that is more meaningful than my last one. It is something the hero says to the heroine. Yes, the trick really does work.
How do you come up with your titles? Have you been forced to change yours?
(No, Walking Disaster wasn’t my former title. I’m currently reading the book and love the cover.)