Choose the Perfect Title for Your Novel or Memoir: 7 Authors Offer Tips | Jane Friedman

Don't get overly invested in your working title

Heather Young, author of literary murder mysteries, loved her initial titles, but her publisher asked her to change them-a very common experience.

"I pitched my first novel with the title White Earth, but the marketing department said it sounded like an alien invasion novel," explained Young. "My agent recommended that I go through the book and find a phrase that leaped out at me. I found ‘once we were light' and I pitched it, but they said it sounded like a weight loss book. Finally, the publisher suggested The Lost Girl. My contribution was, ‘Let's make it plural,' so the title The Lost Girls came by committee, between me, my publisher and the marketers."

Changing her original title was torture. "I had spent eight years with the manuscript, and it was hard for me to dissociate from the title I had given it. With my second book, The Distant Dead, it was easier. I didn't allow myself to become too wedded to my working title."