Title pet peeves - Page 2

Pulpmeister · 10-14-2015, 10:01 PM

Titles are hard. Trying to encapsulate your year's labour in one to four words is like herding cats.

My pet peeve is not length or brevity, but uncertainty. What on earth IS it? Whodunit, vampires, cookbook? No idea, why bother wasting effort trying to find out.

It's made worse by the use of generic stock photo covers which are also more or less unrelated to content (and sometimes the same photo appears on more than one book).

For obscurity and inanity in titles, it's hard to go past some of the late E Phillips Oppenheim:

Ambrose Lavendale, Diplomat
Moran Chambers Smiled
Sir Adam Disappeared
The Terrible Hobby of Sir Joseph Londe, Bart.

gmw · 10-15-2015, 01:17 AM

Titles can be hard, but sometimes, just sometimes, they turn out easy.

For some weeks (hmm... actually it's probably months now, though you couldn't tell from the amount of progress) I've been working on something that had just a numeric label (reference to where the seed idea came up in my journal). Two nights ago, while struggling over a major plot problem, I found the solution to that problem and - I think - the title for the story fell out at the same time. I won't share it yet, the story still has a long way to go so things may still change, but I'm very pleased with the possible title. And, meeera, it even has two words! (Sorry, I couldn't resist that small dig - I admit I didn't try real hard

.)

I am afraid, Pulpmeister, that the title might not please you. The title won't, on its own, tell you what the book is - so I'll have to take special care with the cover.

meeera · 10-15-2015, 03:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

Dune, the Hobbit, Silmarillon, Felidae...

None of those are generic. I'm talking about the titles which are already titles of ten or twenty or more other books in print. To take the most generic of the ones you've mentioned: if you say, "I've just read Dune", pretty much everyone knows which book you read. If you say, "I've just read Shattered", no-one's any the wiser.

Dr. Drib · 10-15-2015, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meeera

None of those are generic. I'm talking about the titles which are already titles of ten or twenty or more other books in print. To take the most generic of the ones you've mentioned: if you say, "I've just read Dune", pretty much everyone knows which book you read. If you say, "I've just read Shattered", no-one's any the wiser.

That would be by Koontz, right?

...or was it "Shattered: The Life and Death of Humpty Dumpty"?

I'm only going by memory.

gmw · 10-15-2015, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meeera

None of those are generic. I'm talking about the titles which are already titles of ten or twenty or more other books in print. To take the most generic of the ones you've mentioned: if you say, "I've just read Dune", pretty much everyone knows which book you read. If you say, "I've just read Shattered", no-one's any the wiser.

Despite my little attempts at humour, I think your advice is good. Not that I personally find one-word titles in any way off-putting or otherwise peevish, it's just not a good idea from a marketing perspective.

When I decided on the title for my first published novel (and, as a result, had a pretty good idea of the titles for the subsequent novels) I actually did a check on Amazon and a few other places. I was only able to find one or two others with the word in the title - and no exact matches. Great! ... I thought. The problem was that it was more than 2 years later that I finally published, and by that time I was able to find many books using the word in their title. And now? Let's not even go there. My book is way, way down the list.

Even if I had really wanted one-word titles I had other choices, and I may have been wiser to go with those. The first book could have (legitimately, and with equal or greater relevance) had a title of "Aaranya" - which not only would have been less common, it would have been like starting a company called Aardvark Enterprises

. ... But, by the time I got to publishing the first novel, I was pretty stuck on the series titles that I had chosen and I kept them. Marketing never has been my strong point.

meeera · 10-15-2015, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gmw

Despite my little attempts at humour, I think your advice is good. Not that I personally find one-word titles in any way off-putting or otherwise peevish, it's just not a good idea from a marketing perspective.

I don't find most of them off-putting, just the overused ones!

Quote:

Even if I had really wanted one-word titles I had other choices, and I may have been wiser to go with those. The first book could have (legitimately, and with equal or greater relevance) had a title of "Aaranya" - which not only would have been less common, it would have been like starting a company called Aardvark Enterprises

.

Heh, like AAA Electrical? I usually flip to the middle of the Yellow Pages results just to avoid those ones...

theducks · 10-15-2015, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

Titles are hard. Trying to encapsulate your year's labour in one to four words is like herding cats.

My pet peeve is not length or brevity, but uncertainty. What on earth IS it? Whodunit, vampires, cookbook? No idea, why bother wasting effort trying to find out.

Publishers 'Imprint' used to be some clue.
Harlequin, Better Homes and Garden, TOR Fantasy, Baen, Berkley Prime Crime, O'Reilly ....

With all the self pub, we lost that

And yes, stock photos lead to too generic covers.
Trees and Fog
The Hooded person
Sky or Stars

An experienced Art department on tap can be a plus.

Nancy Fulda · 10-17-2015, 02:05 PM

I've always figured single-word titles were attractive to publishers because they're easier to see from a distance. "Chosen" can be written in a font large enough to be read across a bookstore. The original title of that Belzoni book would seriously mess up the cover design.

(Of course, Belzoni-esque titles are still common in academia. Check out the articles from the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation)

Cinisajoy · 10-17-2015, 02:25 PM

On one word titles:
I think it depends on genre.
I will use Wool as an example. When Wool originally came out, I was in a knitting forum. There was actually a thread devoted to that book. The reason being was because several knitters saw the title and immediately thought it related to the wool that comes from sheep. So they grabbed the book. Perhaps they should have read the blurb.
Oh note, this is Hugh Howey's Wool.

Now as to Dust, in the post-apocalyptic means one thing, in household, it would be totally different.

Pablo · 10-17-2015, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda

(Of course, Belzoni-esque titles are still common in academia. Check out the articles from the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation)

Those are papers, not books.

Nancy Fulda · 10-17-2015, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pablo

Those are papers, not books.

Fair point. Well, let's see... How about the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Full List of Academic Publications? Lots of books listed there.

Pablo · 10-17-2015, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda

Fair point. Well, let's see... How about the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Full List of Academic Publications? Lots of books listed there.

Well... the part after the colon is the subtitle. For example, in Nazi Palestine: The Plans for the Extermination of the Jews of Palestine, Nazi Palestine (title proper) and The Plans for the Extermination of the Jews of Palestine (subtitle).

Nancy Fulda · 10-17-2015, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pablo

Well... the part after the colon is the subtitle. For example, in Nazi Palestine: The Plans for the Extermination of the Jews of Palestine, Nazi Palestine (title proper) and The Plans for the Extermination of the Jews of Palestine (subtitle).

Details, details... *insert airy wave of aristocratic hand*

<grin>

Freeshadow · 10-17-2015, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

Titles are hard. Trying to encapsulate your year's labour in one to four words is like herding cats.

Methinks cats are lotta harder

Pulpmeister · 12-02-2015, 08:40 AM

For 15 years I drove wedding limos-- retired today. If you think herding cats is tough, try getting half a dozen tipsy and tired bridesmaids/groomsmen into the limo. Makes herding cats look easy.

Dick Francis was very keen on one-word titles. (Including "Shattered). But with that brand name, Dick Francis, you knew what you were getting. (He occasionally branched to a whole two words)

Risk
Shattered
Decider
Bolt
Enquiry
Nerve

My own three books are entitled, in order:

Around the Houses
Fast Tracks
Murder on the Rabbit Proof Fence.

I think the third and longest one is fairly clear...

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Blurb pet peeves	Cinisajoy	Writers' Corner	31	12-06-2015 12:54 AM
my paperwhite 2 pet peeves, opinions wanted	bluerfoot	Amazon Kindle	5	11-22-2013 03:25 PM
"Add Books" naming convention peeves	louwin	Library Management	28	05-22-2012 02:14 AM
Unutterably Silly Pet peeves?	AGB	Lounge	67	12-31-2010 04:16 AM
Pet E-book peeves	Kumabjorn	General Discussions	64	08-27-2010 05:20 AM

10-14-2015, 10:01 PM	#16
Pulpmeister Wizard Posts: 2,791 Karma: 29144810 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Perth Western Australia Device: kindle	Titles are hard. Trying to encapsulate your year's labour in one to four words is like herding cats. My pet peeve is not length or brevity, but uncertainty. What on earth IS it? Whodunit, vampires, cookbook? No idea, why bother wasting effort trying to find out. It's made worse by the use of generic stock photo covers which are also more or less unrelated to content (and sometimes the same photo appears on more than one book). For obscurity and inanity in titles, it's hard to go past some of the late E Phillips Oppenheim: Ambrose Lavendale, Diplomat Moran Chambers Smiled Sir Adam Disappeared The Terrible Hobby of Sir Joseph Londe, Bart.

10-15-2015, 01:17 AM	#17
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	Titles can be hard, but sometimes, just sometimes, they turn out easy. For some weeks (hmm... actually it's probably months now, though you couldn't tell from the amount of progress) I've been working on something that had just a numeric label (reference to where the seed idea came up in my journal). Two nights ago, while struggling over a major plot problem, I found the solution to that problem and - I think - the title for the story fell out at the same time. I won't share it yet, the story still has a long way to go so things may still change, but I'm very pleased with the possible title. And, meeera, it even has two words! (Sorry, I couldn't resist that small dig - I admit I didn't try real hard .) I am afraid, Pulpmeister, that the title might not please you. The title won't, on its own, tell you what the book is - so I'll have to take special care with the cover.

10-17-2015, 02:05 PM	#23
Nancy Fulda I write stories. Posts: 700 Karma: 16437432 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Northern Germany Device: kindle	I've always figured single-word titles were attractive to publishers because they're easier to see from a distance. "Chosen" can be written in a font large enough to be read across a bookstore. The original title of that Belzoni book would seriously mess up the cover design. (Of course, Belzoni-esque titles are still common in academia. Check out the articles from the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation)

10-17-2015, 02:25 PM	#24
Cinisajoy Just a Yellow Smiley. Posts: 19,161 Karma: 83862859 Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Texas Device: K4, K5, fire, kobo, galaxy	On one word titles: I think it depends on genre. I will use Wool as an example. When Wool originally came out, I was in a knitting forum. There was actually a thread devoted to that book. The reason being was because several knitters saw the title and immediately thought it related to the wool that comes from sheep. So they grabbed the book. Perhaps they should have read the blurb. Oh note, this is Hugh Howey's Wool. Now as to Dust, in the post-apocalyptic means one thing, in household, it would be totally different.

12-02-2015, 08:40 AM	#30
Pulpmeister Wizard Posts: 2,791 Karma: 29144810 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Perth Western Australia Device: kindle	For 15 years I drove wedding limos-- retired today. If you think herding cats is tough, try getting half a dozen tipsy and tired bridesmaids/groomsmen into the limo. Makes herding cats look easy. Dick Francis was very keen on one-word titles. (Including "Shattered). But with that brand name, Dick Francis, you knew what you were getting. (He occasionally branched to a whole two words) Risk Shattered Decider Bolt Enquiry Nerve My own three books are entitled, in order: Around the Houses Fast Tracks Murder on the Rabbit Proof Fence. I think the third and longest one is fairly clear...