Tom Mach's Blog

This is a difficult question to answer because it’s a combination of a personal emotion for the author as well as something that will capture the reader’s imagination. For a nonfiction book (especially a how-to) it’s easy enough to come up with something that will attract a reader in a particular niche. If you want to teach others how to build your own house, titles such as “How to Build Your Dreamhouse” or “Housebuilding Made Simple” or “Building a House for Dummies” come to mind.

For novels, however, it’s a different situation entirely. If you’re already a highly visible novelist such as Stephen King, it doesn’t matter what you call it, although I don’t believe Mr. King would slap on any old title to his book. It would have to be one with which he felt comfortable. I can tell you how I selected the titles for each of my three books in a trilogy. With Sissy! I "heard" that as the name of a child calling out for her guardian angel. Then I felt a one-word title with an angel appearing to a lady disguised as a Union soldier would be intriguing. (After all, what does the word "Sissy" imply? Cowardice perhaps?) With All Parts Together I used a portion of a Walt Whitman line

Sure as life holds all parts together, death holds all parts together

For All Parts Together my book designer suggested adding Lincoln as a ghostly image appearing to Jessica since my novel largely concerned the last couple of years of Lincoln's life. I named the title Angels at Sunset for my third book because I felt it had a beautiful feel to it and suggested the contents of the book had to do with the women's suffrage movement. I didn't feel it necessary to replicate the image of my protagonist in all three titles--even though they were all tied in to a trilogy. I felt that each title should stand on its own merits. For this reason I didn't broadcast the title of my trilogy on the covers because I felt each book could be read in its entirety without giving the reader the idea that he or she would have to read the previous book to get a sense of continuance of the major story--ie, the life of a woman living through the turbulent years of 1862 through 1920.

Sometimes a title needs a subtitled. I did an eBook called "An Angel for Father" and I added as a subtitle, "a murder mystery."

I guess if your only intention is to make shoppers stop to stare at your novel’s title, you can put in an attention-getter such as “My Wife Was a Male Wrestler” or “Meet a Kindergarten Vampire.” But if book doesn’t deliver on its promise, you’re sunk.

I think maybe the choice of title isn’t as important as the combination of the title and the graphics that go with it. I think it’s better to have a so-so title with great graphics and eye appeal than to have a fantastic title with extremely poor graphics. With the exception of All Parts Together I did all of my own covers and the one I loved the best was the cover I did for “Angels at Sunset.” The title is quite visible ten feet away—and who can no like the natural beauty of a Kansas sunset? And I think there’s a connection between the word “Angels” and the woman standing in the field holding a “Votes for Women” sign.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...

I have no magic formula on how to come up with the best title for your novel. In all of my fiction, I always had the title in mind before I wrote the book, but that’s how I did it. This might not work for you.

All I can say is that beauty title is in the eye of the beholder.