I have to come up with a title for each book AND for the series?
Updated: Sep 23, 2021
I have to admit that I've never been any good at titles. I first realised this when I was writing articles for a health magazine. I would often agonise more over the title than the article itself, and not infrequently, my miserable attempt at a catchy heading would be swiftly replaced with something more suitable by the editor. I hadn't really noticed this defect in my writing skills before, probably because in more traditional science writing, titles are meant to be informative rather than eye-catching. The main aim is to tell other scientists what you did and how you did it, for example, An assessment of reader intelligence based on book choice. Or you might go a step further and state what you found, such as, Book choice is not an accurate indicator of reader intelligence. Either way, naming a research article is relatively straightforward.
Not so, of course, when attempting to name a novel. Ideally, you want something catchy and memorable that also tells potential readers a little about the story. No easy feat, at least not for me. It took me an age to come up with the title of my first book, Under the Emerald Sky, and I have absolutely no clue what I'm going to name the one that I'm working on now. Before I could even contemplate the title of my second book, though, I had to come up with a name for the series as a whole. I had been getting away with referring to Under the Emerald Sky as the first in a series of books set in 19th century Ireland, but that was to be no more. One of the author platforms I recently signed up to insisted on knowing whether my book was a standalone or part of a series, and further demanded that I include the name of the series when selecting the latter.
And so I agonised once more. What to call my literary creations? Something with the word Emerald perhaps? I liked the idea, but then broke out in a cold sweat thinking that this would leave me no choice but to include the word in each subsequent book title. The word green then, I thought? Too pedestrian, I decided. Something to do with hills? Or perhaps Ireland, or even Éire? My mind whirled with all these options and I turned to a few trusted advisers for help. After much, much thought and deliberation, I finally came up with The Irish Fortune Series. I hope you like it! Because if you don't, I'm afraid I've added it to all my sales platforms, which means that it can't be changed - well, actually, it can, but I choose to pretend otherwise!
by Juliane Weber (@Writer_JW) 10 March 2021 [subscribe on the main blog page]
About Juliane Weber
Juliane is a scientist, turned medical writer, turned novelist. Her debut historical novel, Under the Emerald Sky, is the first book in The Irish Fortune Series, which is set in 19th century Ireland around the time of the Great Famine.
Buy the book here, or visit Juliane’s website to find out more.
He's come to Ireland to escape his past. She's trying to run from her future.