Agent Kristen’s Tips for Titling
Only coming up with lame titles (”Salty Passions” “The Man With One Eye” “Widow Shopkeeper’s Escape from Rosebottom”)? Here are tips from Kristen Nelson, the agent behind the Pubrants blog (she’s linked on the site or in the archives). (These are the tips I tried to email y’all, but that were eaten by most people’s spam filter.)
A good title often carries the day when we read queries. Just last week I asked for sample pages for a manuscript because I thought the title was so cool, I didn¹t care what the blurb was. I¹m not joking either. I saw the title, skimmed the blurb, asked for 30 pages.
So here’s what we did:
1. We begun by reading the back cover copy (which is actually quite good) that the publisher did for the novel. (You can use your own pitch blurb that you created for the work.) We listed on a piece of paper the key words that captured the essence of the story so we could play with them in different word combinations. This actually didn¹t yield as much as we had hoped for in creating a new list of possible titles.
2. Then we brainstormed for authors who write similar stuff. In this case, we made a list of folks writing sexy paranormal romances.
3. This got the juices cooking when we looked on Amazon for what titles have already been done in the field. We made a new list of words that caught our attention, sounded cool, or whatever.
4. Then we played with combinations. At several points in this process, Sara and I were practically rolling on the floor in mirth. We came up with many stupid titles, let me tell you. It was really clear what didn¹t work the minute we uttered it aloud (so maybe share you title choices with others before settling on one).
5. We also did a couple of out-of-the-box exercises by trying to come up with cool titles that at first glance don’t have anything to do with the main thrust of the story. (For example, I think Bantam was brilliant to come up with the title PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS for Sherry Thomas. In a subtle way, it exactly sums up the novel because the two main characters are having a big conflict over a private arrangement that both have agreed to undergo.)
It’s an out-of-the-box title though so you want to reach for things that might be odd but sound cool. Make a list of those choices and play with them as well. Another way to do that is simply to search through titles on Amazon that also stand out (even if the book is a different genre) just because they sound original or unusual. This helps the mind to focus on something other than the themes in front of you. We got stuck often on stuff like that when title brainstorming so that pushed us out of our thinking rut so we could explore some other possibilities.
For more industry and agenting news, y’all should check out her blog. It’s chock full of great tips about all angles of this business!
creativeMusic: none
Word Count: raring to go on the Atlantis revisions... darn work!
Category :
0 Comment » 
