Before I start the meat of this blog post, I just want to say that I hope everyone had a very lucrative National Novel Writing Month! Even if you were not working on a novel, I hope that you were able to get a lot finished in another project. Even if you did not reach your goal, remember that any writing that you were able to do is more than what you had at the beginning of that month!
I have recently been focusing on a short story anthology that I had been planning for a while. With my poetry collection book, I simply used the title of one of the poems for the title of the book, and that made it very easy and avoided any kind of stress. For the anthology, I wanted to do something a little different, so I came up with a title a few months ago that I fell in love with... The thing is that not all loves are meant to last. I always search online for the title I choose to see if it is taken, and having one or two other books with the same title is okay, but the original title that I had planned on using was taken by dozens of other books, and most of them were psychology textbooks. There is no way prospect readers would be able to find the anthology if I had used that title. My book would be buried in the search!
Something that you have to keep in mind when naming your book is how well it fits with the theme of your book and if it catches the prospect reader's attention. However, it is also important to think about the reach of your book. As I stated before, when a title is shared by many different books, it can be more difficult to find what you are looking for. And what if they aren't even looking? What are the odds of someone stumbling across your book in the massive online market if it is on page 19 of the search? And how many people who would stumble across your book would also be interested in it enough to buy it? The odds grow ever more improbable as you go down the line, so the most ideal situation is to have your book appear on the first few pages of an online search!
Since I discovered that my first title that I had fallen in love with would not work realistically to my advantage, I had to come up with another idea for a title, so that is what I did. "Ink Stains", I said. I figured that it was artsy, it sounded like a good title for an anthology of dark literature; it was perfect! Just to be sure, though, I searched it. Low and behold, there was a result for that title: it was an anthology of dark literature... just like mine. My book would be easily confused with that one if I used that title. (Shoutout to the person who came up with that title for a collection of multiple authors' work. We are like-minded people, and I'm giving you free advertising!) So, your second love will not always last either.
Now, I have decided on a title for my short story anthology. (Listening to music can give you your muse and help you see the beauty in words that you previously thought ugly.) I am not totally in love with it as I was with the first two, but it is mature, safe, and it has its life together. I can see us having a future. I am ready to move forward with my plans using this title. And I never would have found the right title for me if I hadn't done some digging on the others I had thought of using.
I wanted to share my experience of trying to decide on a good title with anyone else who may be going through the same thing. I have never been the best at choosing good titles (or boyfriends, hence the metaphors), as I have a hard time imaging a brief phrase that would help describe such a broad idea as an anthology or a novel. Other writers I know have no problem coming up with a title right away, but it may be someone else's already. Don't be discouraged if your first love is taken by someone else. That just means that it wasn't good enough for you, anyway! Just keep trying to find that perfect title, and true love (success) will soon follow.
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