Nathan Bransford - The Forums

The only thing I can say about titles is that I need one for the book, and I have to pick something that helps me during the writing, but I have to be careful that the title doesn't control the book. I mean, I get this idea, and I get a title, and that starts the book. But as I write and the story develops, the title seems to describe only a part of the story now. That's when I switch to a less descriptive title but one that works as a placeholder. When I'm done, I review the synopsis and find the common threads and themes, and then pick a title from the themes.

Then the publisher's cousin's daughter sends him a text on his iPhone and he finds a brilliant insightful blurb and that's what gets used.

At least, that's how it seems.

I'm not bitter.

I have two novels "finished". One has a name that I hate because it's generic and not very inspiring. I can't come up with a good title for it to save my life. The other has a title that I'm so proud of, because it speaks to a loose theme I have in the book. I wrote an ancient saying that this religion uses often, related it to my protag and as a key to find something important, and then named the book after a part of it - NO HILL WITHOUT TREASURE. It's one of the only things I've actually gotten compliments on.