What's in a name?

Book titles: how publishers come up with them and why...

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well! Thank you as ever for reading this newsletter - I only started it 6 weeks ago, but there are almost 2,000 of you subscribing now, for which I am very grateful. I’m so pleased it is resonating with you all - please do keep sharing it with those who might find it helpful to see a peek behind the publishing curtain…

Today I thought I would write about book titles, as a few people have requested this. I need to start with the usual caveat that I work in commercial fiction so most of what I am saying is based on that experience, and it can be different in more literary fiction. In my area, I would say we end up changing the vast majority of book titles - by this I mean we end up publishing them under a different title to the one they were submitted under. As I’ve written about before, agents send us manuscripts that already have titles (which may have been decided by the agent or the author, or both) and then as publishers, we often alter these. A title is such an important part of the publishing process, I think (along with the cover, which I’ve written about here) because it’s a sales tool; in my view, it should tell the reader a few things: the genre of the book, potentially what the book might be about, and, crucially, all the elements of the book cover should work together, including the title. By that I mean the strapline, the title, the cover art, and the quotes - in commercial fiction, all of those elements should be saying roughly the same thing. Readers respond well to clear messaging: when readers are making quick decisions, they need to understand what they are getting, and if the elements of the cover are confusing or are working against one another, you end up with a mixed message that usually doesn’t translate well to strong sales.

We spend a lot of time as publishers thinking about and researching this, and personally, I really love coming up with titles! I’d say it’s one of my favourite things to do as an editor (not all editors agree…!). What usually happens is I will write a shortlist of titles (maybe 5-10) and ask my team for their view on them if I’m not sure. I will then email the author and agent to ask for their take (it is, of course, crucial that you as an author are happy with your title) and hopefully we will reach a conclusion. If I’m acquiring a new author, and I have reservations about their book title, I will usually say this as part of the acquisitions process, i.e. I will explain in my email or call to their agent that if we were to publish the novel, we’d want to change the title. Our reasons for doing this are always to give the book a better chance of success, and to connect your work with more readers.

So, what’s wrong with the existing titles, I hear you cry! Well, personally, I don’t think authors are always best placed to title their own books (feel free to disagree!) - titles are in my mind more of a publishing / marketing tool, and usually, as an author you are so close to the detail and minutiae of the script that this can cloud your judgement slightly (I include myself in this when I write my own books! Most of those have changed title too) and of course, you also don’t have access to the data and consumer insight that we have, and you (rightly!) don’t spend hours analysing Amazon and talking to booksellers in the way publishers do (this is how it should be - you need time to get on with writing the brilliant books!). One important consideration too is how a title will look on a book jacket design - sometimes, individual words or whole titles might be too long, and we often think about how the words might ‘stack’ too (i.e. stack on top of one another on a jacket) - all of it is really about how strong we can make the overall ‘package’ look.

It’s also worth saying that we can change titles quite late in the game - even after a book has published. Sometimes, we might change the title for the ebook (and change the cover too) and I’ve seen this have a really good impact before. If a novel isn’t connecting after a few months or a year, we might swap titles and covers, and I think a good editor will always be flexible and open to making changes, even post-publication. Titles can also change between the hardback and paperback publications, too - we just have to make this clear on Amazon so as not to confuse readers (which would lead to negative reviews - you do not want readers to feel duped into buying two of the same novel).

So, what do we think about when coming up with new titles? Well, again, it can depend on what your goal is with the book. Sometimes (and this applies to book covers too) we want to follow the market; sometimes we want to lead it. At times, I might choose a title that contains a lot of what we call keywords; these are popular search terms on Amazon (and other online retailers) that we can see readers searching for a lot. For example, in thrillers: sister, secret, summer, girl. In saga novels: orphan, secret, mother, daughter. Those are obviously just a few examples, and I understand that this could seem reductive, but actually when you are publishing commercial fiction, your job is to think about the mass-market, about the public, about what people respond to and are drawn to - and often that is the familiar.

Another thing I sometimes think about with titles is song lyrics, or song titles, or popular phrases. Again, this is so that the titles stick in readers’ minds, and can help with generating word of mouth. A lot of it can depend on what audience you are aiming for: are you aiming for a primarily ebook audience who read lots of books at speed, who make snap decisions online and consume a high volume of books in a year? Are you aiming for a more distinctive readership; is the book slightly more niche? Are you wanting to capture a traditional book-buying audience who will take their time browsing the shelves in independent stores? What demographic will you aim the book at, and will the phrase you choose resonate with them? Most of that strategic thinking should be done by the publisher, but I think it is useful for authors to know that these conversations are happening. Sometimes, we might aim for a really original or unique title, and that can often spawn a lot of similar titles in the market (e.g. there are lots of cosy crime books now with the word ‘club’ in thanks to Richard Osman; there are tons of thrillers with the word ‘girl’ in post Gone Girl). Having a similar title does not make your novel any less special - it’s about trying to capture the same audience who loved the ‘famous’ book and give those readers what they want (which means more sales for you!) Of course, this does not always work - publishing is a gambling business after all - but we will always think about titles very carefully and it is a big part of the publishing process.

Often, I want the title to give what we call the proposition (i.e. the hook - what is your book about?) Lots of the books I publish give something away about the novel - that might be the setting, or the genre, or it might focus on a character (which will tell you the book is character-led; examples include Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and an upcoming one on my list, Julie Tudor Is Not A Psychopath). If we analyse the first of those: it tells us that Eleanor is going to be key to the book (and she is; most people remember her character rather than the detail of the plot in that novel), and that she is not fine at all (and this is key to the book as well; she is a damaged individual and this comes across in the read, but she is a character who is pretending to be fine and presenting as such - and that tells us she is quite a nuanced, complex person). Do you see how a title can tell a reader quite a lot in just a few words?

My lovely author Holly Bourne was talking about her latest book title, So Thrilled For You, on the stage at the Hay Festival this weekend. I hope she doesn’t mind me including this detail here but the way we came up with that title was that the three of us (Holly and I and her agent) looked at a long list of phrases that were associated with motherhood, and we also thought about what people might write under an Instagram post when someone gives birth. It can be seen as a slightly sarcastic phrase, which is in keeping with the tone of the book and what it explores, and often, people say so thrilled for you when they are anything but. I love this title and think it’s a good example of telling the reader a bit about what they can expect from the read (it came in under a totally different title). To give another example from my work life, the new novel by my brilliant rom-com writer Sophie Cousens is called Is She Really Going Out With Him? - which we chose because it’s a recognisable song title, and it works with the novel (which is about a woman who lets her kids choose her dates after a disastrous divorce). Again, this was not the original working title! Sometimes, books do come in with the perfect title and we don’t feel the need to change it - an example when I worked at HarperCollins was The Chalet by Catherine Cooper - this worked well because it’s a thriller set in a chalet and we could let the strapline and cover do the rest of the work. The chalet itself was the USP (it gives glamour, locked-room, winter setting vibes in just one word) so I happily didn’t need to change a thing!

Of course, often more experienced authors do come up with excellent titles, and I would absolutely always take an author’s view into account. I’d also never make an author have a title they hated - again, it is your book and it’s important you feel comfortable with the finished version. If your publisher has sent you a title that you really don’t like, you can of course say so - my only caveat would be to give it a little time to see if it grows on you, and don’t be afraid to ask the publisher why they have chosen it - the reasoning might help you to understand the decision. As I’ve said, it’s basically always just about trying to reach as wide a readership as possible, or as strong and engaged a readership if the audience is more niche. There are some amazing titles out there and I always know when I have hit on the right one - often I will let it mull in the background of my mind for a bit, and I always think it’s helpful to get other views, too.

It’s also worth saying - please do not worry if you are about to go on submission with a title you aren’t sure about; we change most of them anyway, so it doesn’t actually matter that much. Of course, if a book comes in with a great title, it does help (i.e. sometimes it makes me want to read it more) but I will read everything anyway, and there are countless novels bought all the time with less than ideal titles that are then altered down the line.

Here are some titles with my brief analysis, as I always think examples can help:

THE NAMES/ Florence Knapp: this book is about the impact a name can have on a person’s life, and is about three versions of one life: in each version the boy has a different name. The title immediately tells you that the proposition, which I love.

STORY OF MY LIFE/ Lucy Score: this is one I publish at work and the title contains the word ‘story’ - the protagonist is a writer so this ties into that, and it is literally the story of Hazel’s life, so it tells you that you’ll get a linear narrative exploring her life in an honest way. It’s a great title that stacks well on the jacket, and of course, it’s a One Direction lyric that sticks in your head (and there is crossover between the boy-band audience and the romance audience!) NB this one came from the author.

MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER / Oyinkan Braithwaite: gives you the genre, has a hint of humour, spawned a lot of similar titles when it came out (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!), tells you it’s about sisters and family.

THE HOUSEMAID IS WATCHING/ Freida McFadden: gives you the main protagonist, the ‘housemaid’ character runs over several books so appeals to the same readers, ‘is watching’ introduces an immediate feeling of tension so helps cement this clearly in the thriller genre.

CONFESSIONS OF A FORTY-SOMETHING F**K UP / Alexandra Potter: aims squarely at the forty-something audience (though appeals to younger and older too), gives you a comedy feel, the word ‘confessions’ instantly makes you feel close to the author (or the protagonist) so it feels relatable and ‘safe’ if you might be feeling similarly to the protagonist!

Those are of course just a few examples, but I hope it is helpful to see. There will always be exceptions to the rule, of course.

I hope this post makes sense and sheds a bit of light on the title process - feel free to share your own experiences or ask questions in the comments! On a personal note, I am currently writing book six and cannot for the life of me find the right title! It is driving me mad!

Phoebe x