I get a lot of clients asking me to re-name their manuscripted books and novels. After all, it's the title that attracts readers to a book as well as the cover and author name.
I have been researching books and their former titles and it's well worth your looking into this subject on Google, if you are struggling to think up a name that will pique interest in your book.
Before Dracula became named after its eponymous antagonist, it was going to be known as The Dead Un-Dead! That's not such a catchy title and in today's market it would have been hard to garner publicity for it - but it so reminds me of The Walking Dead - so maybe Bram Stoker was ahead of his time with this title?
Our beloved Pride and Prejudice was to be originally called First Impressions - but that was deemed too close to another author's book.
I really like the innovative titles that today's author's invent and I have to mention J.K. Rowling here as you really cannot beat the Harry Potter titles for originality. I also have to add the late, much-missed Douglas Adams and his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Being descriptive when you are creating a book title is very important - but don't forget to add some mystery too if you have written a supernatural, fantasy or horror book.
A book which deals with crime does not need a circumspect title, think, Murder On The Orient Express or The Big Sleep.
Literary classics in the making can afford longer, more meaningful titles such as, The Picture of Dorian Gray and To Kill a Mockingbird.
If you are writing a children's book the title needs to be punchy and immediate: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, or Gangsta Granny.
Titles do make books and together with a clever front cover - excellent and imaginative titles can be the difference between so-so sales and entry into a Top Ten list.
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