The Unvarnished Truth About Titles

Back when my agent was shopping my very first book its working title was Words To Die By. The publisher who acquired that work loved the manuscript so much they offered me a 3 book deal.

But they didn’t love the title. At all.

So I started brainstorming. In that manuscript my author-protagonist, Sophie Katz had a book titled Sex, Drugs & Murder. Sophie was also addicted to Starbucks so I floated Sex, Murder And A Frappuccino as an option. My publisher loved it, but Frappuccino is obviously copyrighted so Sex, Murder And A Double Latte was what was settled on.

If manuscripts are pure art, titles are pure marketing. They are not there to define your book so much as to sell it. Sex, Murder And A Double Latte sounds fun. These days you see lots of books with similar titles with two racy or serious things listed and then one seemingly incongruous and silly thing tacked on at the end. Sex, Murder And A Double Latte started that trend. And because it was at that time so unique and fun, people remembered it and it piqued their curiosity.

I’ve had a similar experience with my upcoming novel that will be published by Crown on June 3rd. The manuscript is a West Coast, Black retelling of The Great Gatsby and when my agent submitted it to publishers the working title was American Diamonds. I was thinking about Fitzgerald’s short story, Diamond As Big As The Ritz as well as how my characters, many of whom are based on sparkling, real life figures, are indeed American diamonds: rare, beautiful, extravagant symbols of wealth. I’d argue my original title was a creative and artistic choice.

But it wasn’t a great marketing choice. You wouldn’t be able to get the reference of the diamonds until you read the book and titles obviously need to attract readers before they’ve had a chance to do that. Which is why my publisher asked me to come up with at least ten other options from which they could chose from.

So I started brainstorming. I came up with a bunch of options: Lost Angels (a play on Los Angeles where the novel is set), All That Sparkles, Left Coast Money, New Money, Black Gold the list went on for a while.

But I started the list with this title suggestion: The Great Mann.

Immediately the team at Crown latched onto it. That was the title they wanted.

Why? Well, for one thing it plays on the title The Great Gatsby and “Mann” is the last name of my Gatsby like character in the novel. If you heard someone on a podcast talking about my book you might easily remember that this new take on The Great Gatsby is called The Great Mann. And who knows, those who see it in a bookstore might see the divergent spelling of “man” and be moved to read the back cover to find out why I’m being so freewheeling with the letter “N.”

I don’t know if The Great Mann is the most creative or poetic title I could have come up with. But I do know it’s catchy, memorable and clearly nods at the famous novel from which my book was inspired. In other words, it’s marketable.

That’s all a title ever needs to be.