How do Books Get Titles?

 Hey, gang! Erica here. Did you know that the title an author picks out for their book rarely actually goes on the published article?

It's true. An author can have a title of truly poetic and heartbreaking genius, and the publisher will say, "Um, no."

But, why?

There are lots of factors that go into titling a novel. Here are but a few:

1. The author's title too closely resembles another title, either in the publisher's catalog, or that is already famous. Unless you write satire, titles like Grown with the Wind or How to Kill a Mockingbird aren't going to fly.

2. The author's titles don't fit a pattern for the series they wish to create. There's a certain symmetry and rhythm, a similarity that helps tie a series together. The Lost Lieutenant, The Gentleman Spy, The Indebted Earl...they all have the same structure and are part of the Serendipity & Secrets series. They are all 'hero focused.' 

3.  The title doesn't 'sing.' If you've seen the John Wayne movie "The Green Berets" you might remember the character Sgt. Provo, who noticed that all the airfields and buildings of the US army in Vietnam were named after someone who had died in battle. And the names fit the locations. In Provo's estimation, they 'sang.' His dilemma was he couldn't think of anything that fit his own name. (Rest assured, when it came his time, he did find something he declared 'sings.') Your book title choice might be too short, or more often, too long. It might be too alliterative, a tongue twister, though alliterative titles can work. If your title is just the name of your main character, it's most likely going to be changed. Cher and Rhianna can get away with it, but if your title is "Bob" or "Mary" it's not memorable enough to get people talking.

4. It might have to fit a line, like Love Inspired. My title of The Snowflake Bride became His Prairie Sweetheart. My title The Christmas Wish became A Child's Christmas Wish. I submitted a list of possible titles for another Love Inspired Historical, and one of those was chosen: The Bounty Hunter's Baby. Those titles all fit the LIH line, meeting reader expectations. 

5. There may be cultural implications you haven't considered, especially if a title is being published in another language. It may be necessary to change a title that works okay here in the US, but possibly in Dutch or Romanian or Italian might be wrong.

There are a lot of factors that go into titling a book. Marketing, Sales, Editorial, and the publisher are all involved. Often there will be a bit of give and take between the team and the author, with the agent's input, but it's also written into most contracts that the publisher has the final say when it comes to the book's title.

Here are some books that had their titles changed:

George Orwell's 1984 - The Last Man in Europe

Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island - The Sea Cook

Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace - All's Well that Ends Well

Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind - Tomorrow is Another Day

Bram Stoker's Dracula - The Dead Un-Dead

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - Prometheus Unchained

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice - First Impressions

My current work in progress is called Worth the Risk, but I'm not holding it too closely, as the team at Kregel will kick around a lot of ideas before they land on the one they think will sell the best.

Best-selling, award-winning author Erica Vetsch loves Jesus, history, romance, and sports. She’s a transplanted Kansan now living in Minnesota, and she is married to her total opposite and soul mate! When she’s not writing fiction, she’s planning her next trip to a history museum and cheering on her Kansas Jayhawks and New Zealand All Blacks. You can connect with her at her website, www.ericavetsch.com where you can read about her books and sign up for her newsletter, and you can find her online at https://www.facebook.com/groups/inspirationalregencyreaders where she spends way too much time!