Entitlement: What Makes For A Good Title?
Feb. 20th, 2012 08:39 pmA topic near and dear to my heart, since the novel I think is ready to go out doesn't have a title I'm really happy with.
It needs to be striking. It needs to be evocative. It needs to fit on a book cover, for novels, which is why you have a lot more leeway on the short stories for length on short stories. Subtitles can be nice for clarification, especially if the name is more evocations. Then, there's a certain tendency of self-publishing amateurs to go for subtitles, and often extended ones, so there's a certain danger of not appearing professional. They also may make the reader not pick it up, because of wanting a self-contained work -- or waiting for the rest to be released.
( Read more... )
It needs to be striking. It needs to be evocative. It needs to fit on a book cover, for novels, which is why you have a lot more leeway on the short stories for length on short stories. Subtitles can be nice for clarification, especially if the name is more evocations. Then, there's a certain tendency of self-publishing amateurs to go for subtitles, and often extended ones, so there's a certain danger of not appearing professional. They also may make the reader not pick it up, because of wanting a self-contained work -- or waiting for the rest to be released.
( Read more... )