Don’t underestimate the importance of your novel’s title. Designing the title is the first step toward effective marketing, and I am sure that some publishing companies employ people in their marketing department to analyze the strength of each title they publish – yet another reason why traditional publishers work so slowly.

A title like “The Mouse” may be interesting, because short, but doesn’t have a lot of value to it. If you make it “The Mouse That Roared,” you might attract more attention (Note: That particular title is already published; it’s an absolutely lovely novel by Leonard Wibberly and was made into a movie starring Peter Sellers).

On a side note: Book titles can not be copyrighted! You can write a novel and call it “Gone With The Wind,” not a smart marketing move, nevertheless absolutely within the law. The easiest way to verify that your title is unique, go to Amazon.com and search for it.

Naturally, there are several ways of designing the title. Let me refer to my first novel The Bleeding Hills. Of course, this may not be the strongest title ever, and in some readers’ eyes it may even be misleading. No, it is not a Stephen-King-style horror novel, if that is what you were thinking. I did add a sub-title, though, to point a bit more into the right direction, which, in turn, indicates the importance of a sub-title.

In this particular case, namely my first novel, the inspiration to write came from an Irish song, The Boys of Barr Na Sraide, which is based on a poem by Sigerson Clifford. One of the verses starts “And when the hills were bleeding and rifles were aflame…” You get the picture…

With my second (still unfinished) novel I tried to be a bit more provocative. I titled it American Male Prostitute, sub-titled How I Promoted My First Novel With Sex, Lies, And Deceit. Don’t get excited; the content is a product of my vivid imagination. Promoting your first novel is the most difficult marketing task you can imagine, and I was wondering what it would take to attract the ultimate attention. Again, I didn’t follow the marketing activities as explained in the novel. First, I don’t have the looks, and, secondly, my wife would kill me for sure.

There is nothing wrong about being provocative. I call it “aggressive marketing.” Think of Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern, one of the current bestsellers..

One of the guest writers on this blog, Annabelle R. Charbit, is in the process of writing a novel based on her experience with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). For more information on Annabelle Charbit and her work, please visit her website at http://www.ocdridiculouslife.com. Her working title is A Life Lived Ridiculously. A more provocative version could be Diary Of An Obsessive Compulsive Bitch (I haven’t researched whether or not the title is already taken). For the record, that’s not how I think of her, but the title would definitely get some attention.

Okay, in case provocation is not your cup of tea, there are other ways of finding the right title for your work. Pablo Picasso once said, “A good artist copies; an extraordinary artist steals,” meaning we’re now coming to the copy & steal section…

Honestly, I found some very good titles in the bible. Think Power And The Glory by Graham Greene, a line take from the Lord’s Prayer – …for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory… If you are in the business of writing a lawyer’s novel, how about “Those Who Trespass Against Us” ? Sorry, that title has already been used several times…

Another good example comes from Psalm 30:5 – For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may endure for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning. If you look at Amazon.com you will find, yet again, several titles using Weeping May Endure For The Night.

In the same sense I am reminded of the German writer Johannes Mario Simmel, who wrote works like Nobody Is An Island (Niemand Ist Eine Insel), a line borrowed from Shakespeare – if I’m not mistaken. Other works’ titles are The Answer Is Blowin’ In The Wind (Bob Dylan), And Jimmy Went To The Rainbow’s Foot (Rudyard Kipiling), and more.

In the same sense, another way to look for titles is reading CD labels, i.e. song titles. My personal favorite is Tom Waits, who wrote titles like The Piano Been Drinking – Not Me, Pasties And A G-String (At The Two O’Clock Club), Warm Beer And Cold Women, and my personal favorite Bad Liver And A Broken Heart.

Even if copying and stealing is not your choice, you may have learned that the title of your novel needs to attract attention. Another important feature is, of course, the book cover, but the importance of covers will diminish with the increased use of electronic reading devices such as the Kindle.

I hope I could provide some hints, and, since I am not the ultimate source of wisdom, please leave a comment below. I am sure there are more ways of designing a catchy book title, and I would like to read about it.

The Monty Python Code

For those who happened to stumble upon this article per search engine, this particular post is part of an article series Let’s Write A Novel. My intention is to challenge those authors who write about writing a novel. About 99% of these books are filled with inspirational blubbering. Their strongest feature is a strong, but misleading title. The rest is pure fraud.

That being said, let’s decide the title for our writing project. Well, the decision is already here. We are going with mainstream taste, and we are going with Dan Brown. The title of our work will be The Monty Python Code. Any resemblance to The Da Vinci Code is, of course, purely coincidental.

To follow our little writing project go to Let’s Write A Novel – The Monty Python Code.