Title Troubles. Is it Normal?

[David910]

Hello all! I recently published a novella on amazon, but I keep changing its name. I changed it from "Homeless and Silent" to "When Only Luck Can Save" to "Silent and Abandoned". That's a lot of name changes, especially for someone looking to build up readership! But, while I know this is poor for marketing efforts, but I really want the name to be intriguing and represent what the reader is about to delve into.

I am very confident in my writing, I write in an unconventional style with stream-of-consciousness elements and the story itself and the characters are exactly what I want them to be, and I also think my price is very affordable. But, if my title is no good, then no one will want to read my work, and I'm stuck at square one.

Is it normal to have trouble giving my work a title? Don't y'all think the title is a very important part of gaining readership?

[mrmarlowe]

Yes, it is normal. It sounds like the kind of novel I would like to read/review, if only I have time

[David910]

Originally Posted by mrmarlowe

Yes, it is normal. It sounds like the kind of novel I would like to read/review, if only I have time

That's what I suspected, although I was getting upset. After my title issues, I think I finally have the novella where it needs to be. It's only a little over 20k words so it isn't very cumbersome. Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

[cromag]

Well, I'm lousy at titles, too, and I do think they can play an important role in attracting attention. But I don't change them once I've published the story. By then it's time to move on and obsess about the next story's title.

[mrmarlowe]

If you start thinking of your title during your first draft, then the final choice becomes a bit easier. Think and think and work on it. Even expert copywriters write 100 headlines before they decide on which one to use.

[David910]

Originally Posted by mrmarlowe

If you start thinking of your title during your first draft, then the final choice becomes a bit easier. Think and think and work on it. Even expert copywriters write 100 headlines before they decide on which one to use.

I made a critical mistake there. I didn't even consider my title until I was done with the novella, and so when it came time to make a title, I couldn't come up with anything. I thought that writing it before would make a title come to my head immediately, but that definitely wasn't the case.

[crich70]

One thing that might help is to think about tags that will lead readers to your book. For example if you write a vampire novel perhaps something related to blood or night time might guide you. A mystery likely involves murder so perhaps things like Murder, locations like (bell tower, Cottage, etc) might work to guide and so on.

[marovada]

I made a big mistake with the title I originally chose for my novella. It's about a guy who swaps bodies with his clients to exercise them into shape. One client steals his body in an apparent accident and he tries to get it back. I originally called it The Fat of It. It didn't sell well and the only review I received was from someone who liked the story but was disappointed because they thought it was about losing weight. Obviously didn't read the blurb. Anyway, I changed the title to Body Robber. It's not a great success by any stretch of the imagination but it has sold more copies that with the previous title.

[meeera]

As a reader, i think your title is fine (and the other ones were probably fine too). I would however encourage you to learn more about cover typography. To me, yours screams "self-pubbed on the cheap", which isn't a great ad for the writing. Have a look at the typography in some of the other books in your genre (especially the professionally published ones), read around about cover typography - you can get an ok result DIYing with a little learning and thought. (Or of course a better result again paying a professional cover design, which may or may not be within your means.)

[David910]

Originally Posted by meeera

As a reader, i think your title is fine (and the other ones were probably fine too). I would however encourage you to learn more about cover typography. To me, yours screams "self-pubbed on the cheap", which isn't a great ad for the writing. Have a look at the typography in some of the other books in your genre (especially the professionally published ones), read around about cover typography - you can get an ok result DIYing with a little learning and thought. (Or of course a better result again paying a professional cover design, which may or may not be within your means.)

Thanks for the feedback. I don't have the means to do a professional cover design, so when I saw the amazon cover program (free cover designer which would mean that I wouldn't even have to fiddle with taking a picture myself and fooling with adding text to it) I just went with it. I was hoping that the cover wouldn't hinder readers' thoughts on my novella, but it is good to know that readers will be turned off by a not-so-awesome cover.

And that's the frustrating thing. I think the novella itself is high-quality work, but if a reader doesn't like something like the title or the cover, then they won't read it.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by David910

And that's the frustrating thing. I think the novella itself is high-quality work, but if a reader doesn't like something like the title or the cover, then they won't read it.

That's true: they're your advertisement for the book. A slapped-together cover says things like "I have also not had my book edited", whether or not that is true. Speaking of which, you have a comma splice in your second sentence and an apostrophe in possessive "its" in both your second and third paragraphs. I stopped there, and would not read further. I'm sorry, I'm not having a pointless or deliberate go at you, but pointing out something that I hope will be helpful.

[David910]

Originally Posted by meeera

That's true: they're your advertisement for the book. A slapped-together cover says things like "I have also not had my book edited", whether or not that is true. Speaking of which, you have a comma splice in your second sentence and an apostrophe in possessive "its" in both your second and third paragraphs. I stopped there, and would not read further. I'm sorry, I'm not having a pointless or deliberate go at you, but pointing out something that I hope will be helpful.

I don't have the money to pay for a professional editor, so I really do appreciate you pointing these things out without charging me! The comma splice is just a factor of the unconventional writing style, but I do realize it's not for everyone. Although inexcusable, I just must have missed the "it's" vs. "its issue in the first few paragraphs and I do realize that small, overlooked errors like those really do effect whether a reader will continue reading or not. Although, I do hope you'll continue reading as the story does pick up quickly. But if you don't, I totally understand, as well. I just resubmitted my novella with apostrophe errors changed, by the way! Thanks again. - David

[meeera]

Originally Posted by David910

I don't have the money to pay for a professional editor, so I really do appreciate you pointing these things out without charging me! The comma splice is just a factor of the unconventional writing style, but I do realize it's not for everyone. Although inexcusable, I just must have missed the "it's" vs. "its issue in the first few paragraphs and I do realize that small, overlooked errors like those really do effect whether a reader will continue reading or not. Although, I do hope you'll continue reading as the story does pick up quickly. But if you don't, I totally understand, as well. I just resubmitted my novella with apostrophe errors changed, by the way! Thanks again. - David

I wouldn't, but I can't say whether someone else might. You only get one chance to make a first impression in an incredibly competitive market. There are a lot of other books out there that have been competently edited before publishing along with being terrific stories.

[David910]

Originally Posted by meeera

I wouldn't, but I can't say whether someone else might. You only get one chance to make a first impression in an incredibly competitive market. There are a lot of other books out there that have been competently edited before publishing along with being terrific stories.

While I can't excuse the "it's" problems, most of the "grammar teacher" errors you are going to see in the novella are due to the unconventional style that I wrote the novella in. And I accept that not everyone is going to like the style because perhaps it seems a little more clustered to some.

And so, while I think you are missing out on a good story, I can't blame you for getting upset with the grammar and I wish you well!

[gmw]

Title trouble is to be expected, although that will vary with the story. Sometimes the title becomes obvious as you are writing ... and sometimes not. At least one of my editing/rewrite passes is spent considering/reconsidering the title and blurb. Once I find a title I like I tend to stick with it, but a more professional approach might be to choose something catchy and distinctive rather than necessarily something you like.

As for cover and editing. If you can't afford a professional you must find suitable alternatives (suitably picky friends or lots and lots of carefully spent time). The reaction described by meeera is entirely predictable and expected. With the huge proliferation of work out there, most readers will have little patience with anything that smacks of lazy production. (The quite reasonable logic here is: if you can't be bothered presenting your story well, then why should the reader be bothered?) There is no time to visit everything coming out (almost 53,000 new literature and fiction releases on Amazon in the last 30 days!), so readers will automatically discard on the most superficial of criteria just to cut that selection back to something more manageable.

I might also add that statements like "I think you are missing out on a good story" are rather missing the point. We're all missing out on good stories. Of that 53,000 there are bound to be quite a few good stories, but we can't get through all of them. Our job as independent publishers is try our best to stand out from that crowd, and that means looking good as well as being good. It also means accepting that most of the time it's not going to work. Move on. Write your next story. And try again. Practice makes perfect - we hope.

Which brings me to your stated "unconventional style". This is going to mean an automatic rejection from many readers - especially on the first novel from an otherwise unknown author. Unconventional means that it takes time for the reader to settle in, and you don't have that time when you're still trying to make a first impression. Also, when it's your first novel it is not yet obvious that this is an intentional lack of convention, you haven't proven that you can do anything else.

I suggest that you don't waste too much time fretting over this first novella. Learn from it and start work on your next book. Eventually you may publish something that gains attention and people may look back over your earlier works with a more patient eye.

Disclaimer: This is all from someone that has made plenty of mistakes, and I expect I will make plenty more.