They say you should never judge a book by its cover, but the ominous they don’t say anything about not judging titles!
When images aren’t available, your title isn’t just a first impression—it’s the only impression you get to give. That’s a lot of weight for a handful of words to shoulder, and if they’re the wrong words for the job, they will feel wrong every time they come out of your mouth. Let’s avoid that by choosing a book title for your WIP sooner rather than later.
Refer to Genre Conventions
It’s at the top of the blog post for a reason—it’s the first thing you should try. Look up the bestselling books in your genre and see if you can identify any patterns. For example, titles of cozy mysteries tend to feature puns and plays on words that relate to both death or murder and the hook of the series, whether that’s magic or the setting or the sleuth’s day job. Science fiction books tend to have Adjective Noun titles, and again, they have words embedded in them that strongly hint at what the book is about, like alien or time.
Of course, you can lean too far into genre conventions. That’s where you get some book lovers poking fun at YA fantasy titles and their A/The Blank of Blank and Blank template!
Look Into Idioms
Ah, idioms. One of my favorite quirks of language. I am a frequent visitor of The Free Dictionary’s Idioms tab, and it has many times given me a burst of inspiration for a clever turn of phrase in my prose or, yes, a title. Try searching keywords or nouns central to your story—cars, love, dreams, ocean—and seeing what pops up.
Explore the Most Potent Scenes
When you think about your book’s plot, which scenes stick out to you as the ones that are the most earth-shattering for both the reader and the characters? If you’ve already written the story, you might have ideas coming to you already. If you haven’t take a few minutes to bullet-point what you think those scenes might be. What are the big ideas at play? What changes are the characters going through? What realizations are they having? What are the big “set piece scenes” (to borrow a phrase I picked up from Amy Christine Parker)?
Use the Character’s Words
Now, zoom out of those scenes and try to see the world through the eyes of your protagonist. This time, we’ll focus less on what’s going on and more on the language. How would your main character summarize what happens to them in the story while they tell the story to their closest friend? What feels important to them to tell?
Consider a Book Title Generator
I will say up front that you’re probably not going to get the best results from a generator. You’re likely not going to be able to copy and paste any title it gives you into your filename. However, you can use it as a jumping-off point.
- Book Title Generator from Fantasy Name Generators
- Book Title Generator from Imagine Forest
- Reedsy Book Title Generator (this one also includes tips for coming up with your own titles if you scroll down!)
- Title Generator
When you choose your next WIP’s title, be sure to tag @writersatelier on socials, so we can celebrate with you!
Now that you know your title…
Plan out the rest of your book in our 90-Day Novel Planner, featuring weekly and daily planning pages and space for notes about characters, plot threads, and whatever else you need to keep track of while you get the book done.
