Did you ever start a band as a teenager? I am willing to bet hard cash that if you did, you spent more time deciding on the perfect band name than picking up an instrument.
There's an amusing band-name-generator going around at the moment that suggests you pair the colour of your underwear with the last thing you ate ('Black Marmite') - what would your band name be?
So what about your book title? I tell authors to stick to the same title during the submission process as agencies often log books in by title so it's not helpful to have changed that half-way through. I also say that it doesn't matter that much what your book is called because there's a good chance that if it gets to publication it will get changed.
There are two exceptions to this - your title can make a difference if it's very bad or very good.
A very bad title will give the reader preconceptions that they may not be able to shake off. What makes a bad title? Anything melodramatic or absolute, or that borrows heavily from previous books - such as 'The Michaelangelo Code' or 'Desperate Times'.
We'd all like to know what the perfect title is - and that's a lot harder to identify. I've found that quirky titles - where the book lives up to the title - do very well, such as 'Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe'.
There's a very amusing site, Better Book Titles, which re-titles books to accurately convey the contents, I particularly liked 'if you give a pig a windmill, he'll pursue absolute power'. Slightly at a tangent, but also very funny are Funny Foreign Film titles. Continuing the pig theme, 'The Happy Dumpling-To-Be Who Talks and Solves Agricultural Problem' is my favourite!
What's your title and what made you choose it?
Adrian Sroka on November 2, 2012
Oops my mistake it was a girl, you were right Nicholas.
Athena Ellis on October 25, 2012
Thank you Jonathan. I was concerned because the title of my book is "The Perpetual Foreigner" . "Foreigner" alone would not do because the essence of the book is that I keep settling in other countries.
Nicholas Postman on October 25, 2012
I think that is actually the original cover of Charlotte's Web in the pic - just with the title changed to highlight the point of the blog post. Not sure there ever was a boy in the book - it was a girl named Fern!
1My band name would be Grey Curry, which is definitely not going to see me topping the charts any time soon!
As for the title of my book - who knows? If it's only going to get changed anyway, there is no point in me stressing about it too much. We will see where I have ended up once I have finished writing it and decide then I guess - even if it is only going to be done to help the agent with their filing!
Jonathan Hopkins on October 25, 2012
Adrian - that's what I mean. It's designed to be bought by adults for kids.
Jonathan Hopkins on October 25, 2012
Athena - only because I think titles ought to be short. Random examples - 'The Hunger Games' and The Kite Runner' would have been better shortened, IMO. Of course it doesn't work for everything.