Attention-Grabbing Book Titles
Word cloud image borrowed from The Christian Science Monitor’s article on “Best Books for Children”
What book titles attract your attention by their words alone? Don’t consider the cover design or who the author is—just the content of the words.
These two titles grabbed me as a kid reader:
Time travel has always appealed to me, and the possibility that A Wrinkle in Time was about time travel is probably what made me pick up the book in the first place. It was about a different kind of space-time travel than I expected, but it held my interest because it took me somewhere new and exciting.
I also loved, and still do, portal fantasies, the kind that start in the real world and take the protagonist to another one. That’s what I expected would happen in Bridge to Terabithia. Terabithia sounds like a lovely, made-up place. So as a child reader, I was disappointed to discover that this was a contemporary, realistic novel, not fantasy. Terabithia is the name the two main characters give to their imaginary world.
Among more recent titles, I was immediately attracted to Code Name Verity.
The words “code name” suggested a spy novel and “verity” suggested both truth and a girl’s name. I snatched it up, eager to dive in. The book includes several things I enjoy: strong female characters, a spy story, and a World War II setting. It’s one of my favorite YA novels, and I regularly recommend it.
Conversely, some book titles leave me cold. For example, Pride and Prejudice. In ninth grade, I read Jane Eyre and Ivanhoe. Pride and Prejudice would have been a natural next step.
I remember looking at P&P’s dusty book cover in a small-town library. It had no dust jacket and no cover art to suggest what the story was about, just those awful “P” words. Ick. No thanks. (Of course, the book market was a tiny bit different 200+ years ago. Maybe that was a great title back then.)
I don’t remember when I did finally read P&P, possibly not until after watching the Jennifer Ehle/Colin Firth version of it, well into adulthood. I enjoyed it and have reread the novel several times since. While I’m now a fan of Jane Austen, compelling titles are not her strong suit.
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to titles lately, especially in relation to my middle grade dog novel.
The working title I’d been using when I queried my agent was Chester’s Second Chance. It’s too generic. If you have only those words to go on, you have no idea that Chester is a dog or what kind of second chance is hinted at.
One of the first things my agent talked with me about was finding a better title. I’ve come up with probably 60 or 70 different title ideas, and most of them are terrible.
Lately I’ve been using Chester’s Ever After. Someone told me it sounds he like he dies in the book. Nope, he’s already dead before the story starts.
A hooky, compelling title is partly a marketing tool. It can persuade potential readers to pick up the book and read the jacket copy or the first few pages.
I stumbled across one such title in August while on a short vacation in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. My husband and I wanted to visit an independent bookstore. Using my smart phone, I found one called Snowbound Books. Its website mentioned a book called How to Read a Tree.
I love trees, so that was a memorable, attention-grabbing title. I made sure to seek out the book in the store. The book is delightful! For the last two months, I’ve been slowly reading this adult non-fiction about what we can learn from trees.
So—how to grab a reader’s attention with just a few words?
I think you have to start with yourself. You are your first ideal reader. What grabs your attention?
Try out a LOT of different possible titles. Live with some for a while.
Keep trying. Writing a great title is kind of like writing great advertising copy—it’s much harder than it looks.
A couple of weeks ago I was out running and daydreaming about doing school visits. Would kids want to read my book? Especially kids (and adults too) who hate reading books in which the dog dies.
And then I had a new idea for a title: No Dogs Die in This Book.
It’s kind of silly, but also true. Does it make you curious? Would it compel you to pick it up and read more?