: Re: How to come up with a good title? I'm done with my first novel, and I'm about to start writing to agents/publishers. The only detail I don't have yet is a good title! I have a couple of

@BetL639

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I have trouble coming up with titles, too! Yet titles matter. Busy agents and publishers aren't going to spend much time looking at material that appears uninteresting, and your title (in addition to your cover letter and perhaps your first few sentences/pages) is one of the few opportunities you have to catch their attention. Even if the title is changed before final publication, it should pique interest and suggest the tone and content of the book.

Questions that I find helpful when trying to choose a title:

Can I use the theme of the book as a title? (Romance novels seem to do this-- "Love Comes Softly," "The Long Wait," etc.)
Can I use the name of a key object or place, perhaps in conjunction with a character name? (Fantasies come to mind-- "The Two Towers," "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone).
Can I use a description of a character? ("The Old Woman Who Saw Ghosts," "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.")
Can I use a verb phrase that describes the action? ("To Catch a Thief.)

I make lists of possibilities, try to stretch my possibilities by combining them in unusual ways (trying to match the tone of the book as I do it-- is the story comic or serious? Epic or episodic?), and then eliminate most of them. I have to "sit on" titles for a while to know if they are workable. The better titles keep me happy over time, and the bad ones don't. It's kind of like planning out a name for your kid!

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