Crafting the Perfect Title for Your Novel
6 Tips for Writers
The most difficult part of writing a novel for me is coming up with a title. It’s actually the most challenging part of writing blogs as well.
A book title has a lot to accomplish in just a few words. It must capture the reader’s attention, make a strong first impression, and convey the essence of your story. That’s a lot! Sometimes, I feel like titles are just random. For example, the title 1984 tells us what, exactly? When George Orwell wrote the novel, the title was simply a date in the future. It didn’t suggest much more than the book was a futuristic novel. Readers could not guess that it was a dystopian future from this title.
The original cover published by Secker & Warburg in 1949 didn’t help either. It featured a simple and bold design with the title “Nineteen Eighty-Four” in large, capitalized letters. The background was a plain, solid color like green or red, with the author’s name and title as the primary focus.
Yet, most titles are not chosen randomly, and publishers take titles seriously.
Katherine Tegen, Publisher at HarperCollins said, “A great title is like…
