Coming up with a book title, let alone one that is eye-catching/unique, is one of the hardest things a writer must do.
Well, must is a strong word. It assumes all writers actually want to put effort into their titles and we all know that shit is further from the truth than Kayne West's opinion on the holocaust.
I've seen your book title or some variation of it fifty times within the same genre, it's uncreative and the only people who are interested are those who read hundreds of books in the same genre cause they want the same mindless content on loop.
Like 60% of werewolf books have "Mate" or "Alpha" in the title, c'mon it's so fucking boring and basic.
But on the opposite end, must, isn't a strong enough word for some of you. Some of you, put too much effort and put that effort into the wrong things when it comes to coming up with a book title. Yes, I'm looking at you with your 6+ word title.
Calling your book shit like "I Sold My Soul To The Devil For Vinyls, Pitiful I Know" (which is an actual book on here by the way) isn't cute or quirky. You're not special or unique for the reasons you've convinced yourself, you're special and unique to people cause you become known as that author who's embarrassingly try-hard.
WeLl cLeArLy iT wOrKs sIncE yOu rEmeMbErEd tHaT tItiLe!! Yes, I did remember the stupidly long title mentioned above, so, you could say using a long title like that could work. But that book is famous with 122 million reads, it's everywhere, yours isn't.
A title needs to be easy for everyone to remember and not weird to say like ISMSTTDFVPIK. Or shit like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang which is even dumber when you legitimately think about it and try to take it seriously, and I don't care who that offends.
And speaking as a graphic designer, I loathe when I get a request with a long title.
Do you know why? Because they're extremely difficult to format in a way that looks half decent. Now yes, I manage to make it work but I'm tired of my cover backgrounds being smothered by a block of text for a title + a subtitle + the author's name.
Like I mentioned earlier with werewolf books, using common words from your book's genre and the genre only in the title gets as old as the skeleton of the dead horse Supernatural has been beating for several seasons now.
BuT hOw wIll pEoPle kNow wHaT tHe bOok Is aBouT iF iT iSn'T iN tHe TiTlE?!? No, I'm not saying your book titles need to be more ominous than what's underneath Mark Zuckerberg's skin suit. What I'm saying is give your book titles something more original and unique.
How to achieve this?
Short - This doesn't mean it has to be only 1-2 words, but keep it 4 or 5 words at the max. Shorter titles are easier for people to remember and flow better.
Unique, but not try-hard - Again, think of things unique to your book, its characters, setting, themes, and other core elements. Don't reference the entire genre/trope and nothing else.
Play on words and grammar. Don't be afraid to get a little punny or come up with different spellings, only if they're not dumber than parents spelling basic names in ridiculous ways to make their common name choices feel special, yes I'm talking about your parents, Anahstaseayia.
Originality - Always, always google any book title you have in mind before you settle on it. It may already be a preexisting book, show, movie, or whatever.
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And of course, the title of your book needs to be both something that just sticks but also that obviously you yourself will like.
But before you whine and make up an excuse about how you just cannot possibly come up with a better title, realize that titles are apart of the story just like everything else. And as you've heard me say a million times by now, developing an actually good story takes time and patience.
My title evolved just like the rest of my book, I changed it quite a few times til: A) something stuck. B) It captured elements of the book and had a deeper meaning to the story. C) it was unique and catchy.
So when I say put some effort into it, I don't mean just for a few days then give up cause you believe you're out of ideas.
Anyhoo, that's about all I have to say for book titles. I haven't written a rant in a while so I apologize if my rustiness translates.
But hopefully I'm not too rusty to still be useful to at least someone here lmao
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