What's in a Title?

Titles are very important for authors, readers, publishers...pretty much everyone in the writing community. They honesty can make or break a book.
Yes, I judge a book by it's title (and it's cover, but that's for another blog post). The title and the cover are the first two things that pull me in or catch my eye. If they're good enough, then I'll read the blurb. Then I'll ask a friend what they thought. I don't usually look at reviews because I don't know if those people have the same taste as me. But I do have a couple book addicts that know my taste that I talk about books with. 
But back to titles. Sometimes they come out of no where and are perfect. Other times you just want to pull out your eyelashes one by one.
There are a few ways people come up with titles but the way Lia (my writing partner) and I do it is this:

1. First, we think about the hero and heroine
1. What are their names?
2. What are their goals?
3. Do they have certain jobs or positions that could help with the title?
4. Do they have inner conflict that could lead to a good title?
2. Then we look at the outer conflict
1. Is there a big event that could help with the title?
2. Is there a theme?
3. Then we look at the concept of the book
1. What tone are we looking for?
2. Do we want the title to match the other series in some way?
4. Then we mix and match
1. Yes, honestly, sometimes it's me and Lia putting words together until they make sense.
2. The words have to actually be cohesive
3. They need to tell a story
4. They can't spoil a key secret plot point
5. Then we search Amazon
1. Is the title already in use? 
2. If it is, is it in the same genre?
6. Then we sit back and read it aloud.
1. Does it make us laugh?
2. Does it sound like purple prose?
3. Is it eye-catching?
4. Does it make me want to read the book?
7. Then, hopefully, that's our title...if we both like it. :-) 

After all of that, you see why sometimes we want to just say "The hell with it!" throw up our hands and call it 50 Shades of Werewolf Twilight.

But we don't.

I mean, we spend so much time being creative in the book, why would we want to blatantly steal another title. But alas, I think that's another blog post in itself, no? 

*cross-posted with Romance with a Bite*

Carrie Ann

Dust of My Wings  Amazon | Barnes&Noble | ARe| Kobo