5 Intriguing Title Words

1.  Bone.  Stick the word "bone" in your title and people will pick that baby off the shelf. 
The word is fluid enough to suggest darkness when it may mean simply "the essence, core" of a matter, or something that is used to mollify or placate, as in "throw him a bone".

2. Glass.  Glass is solid but old glass shifts and ripples with time.  (New glass might shift in years to come.  We won't be here to see it.)  Glass is transparent.  It is fragile.  It is reflective.  The word "glass" is used to indicate any barrier that is not easily seen.  Bingo!  ("Crystal" can work, too.)

3. Colors.  I mean the names of actual colors - not the word "colors".  The book may be about lions but if you add "golden" to the title, you have an attention grabber.  "Blue", "green", "red", - oh, and this is a winner - "amber" all give your title an edge.  "Amber" is much better than "yellow" or "orange", by the way.

4.  Moon.  This is a perennial favorite.  Anything about the night sky will make readers take a second look, but "moon" is top of the list.

5. Directional words.   I mean the class of words that indicate direction, - "into", "on", "through", "over", "under".  These prepositions give a sense of depth to the title, a sense of things not easily seen.  The book will take the reader somewhere else and reveal details that only the author can impart.

So, how about this title?  "Bones Under the Amber Moon".... oh, I want to read THAT book.  Oh wait, I skipped "glass". 

How about, "A Bone Moon in a Purple Glass" ?

Write me some books. Carry on.

Picture book title brainstorm

I am brainstorming picture book titles here and I have come up with a template:

(Name), the brave little (animal, household appliance, vegetable, shape or person) who (verb past tense) to find a (place or group)

So here how it works.

Choose a name - like Hortense.

Then choose a thing, preferably non-human but... well, anyway, how about plunger?

Then insert a past tense verb - how about tabulated?

And last but not least, a place or group.  Usually this is something cuddly but not always.  Let me riffle through my dictionary here.    Hmmmm, pride.

So the title of my picture book will be:

Hortense, the brave little plunger, who tabulated to find a pride. 



That will generate a lot of excitement in the publishing world.  I will just wait for the offers to pour in.

You can change the template, too.  Maybe your brave little whatever went on something.

Hortense, the brave little plunger, might go on a mop.  Or, your brave little something-or-other could learn something.  Hortense, the brave little plunger, who learned to sleep.  Awesome!

Yep.  Hortense and I are going to RULE the picture book market.

(Obviously, I am at a loose end, today.  I think I'll take a walk.)

Title generator

How many titles are formed by two nouns connected by "and" or "or"?  How many titles use a verb that ends in "ing"?  Sometimes titles follow patterns.  Take the titles for today's competitors in SLJ's Battle of the Kids Books. Splendors and Glooms and Liar and Spy.  See what I mean?

Do you need help coming us with a superb title?  Check out this Title Generator  from Fiction Alley. Do it for fun.  Do it for profit.  A good title can encourage sales - I think.

Just for fun, I entered ten random words.  Here are my results.

Your Titles

Title One: frivolous barns through windswept tantrumsTitle Two: the windswept pieTitle Three: the fern through frivolous barnsTitle Four: frivolous pieTitle Five: the turning fernTitle Six: whispering tantrumsTitle Seven: turning barnsTitle Eight: windswept whisperingTitle Nine: whispering for tantrumsTitle Ten: turning and whispering

I like Frivolous Pie, Turning and Whispering and The Turning Fern.  Have fun.