Titling a Novel

Surprisingly, very little helpful advice exists regarding choosing a book title. Titling is a fraught exercise, considering that once you choose one, you're stuck with it. And so much goes into picking the right one; genre being an important consideration. 

This is a drawback for me, because I don't know what genre my novel is. Is there one called "miscellaneous"? I'm pretty firm on my decision not to label it women's fiction, which is probably myopic on my part, since genre is a huge driver of sales. On the other hand, my novel doesn't fit in with the other women's fiction books populating Amazon's pages. I'll get this out of the way quickly: a lot of the books labeled women's fiction are actually romance. After publishing eleven books, I understand the function of keywords, but I still wouldn't use the "women's fiction" keyword for a romance novel, simply to gobble up all the sales. It's dishonest. Conversely, I wouldn't stick "romance" on my keyword list for a book that isn't that. Then there's the whole "social issues" expectation. I hate (hate!) social issues; none of my books concern themselves with made-up injustices. Frankly, anyone who's obsessed with social issues, I don't want as a reader. 

I wasn't wrong the other day when I (half jokingly) mentioned that my title should begin with "When". It's a cliche in women's fiction. "When She Was... something". Why is starting with a conjunction "hip"? It's a fucking trend, a ploy to sound opaque and/or literary. 

So, I'm sick of the little games associated with that genre. Sure, my main character is female, and yes, the story is a journey, but that's it.

If I instead go with commercial fiction, my title choices will be less limiting. That's not necessarily a plus. Being boxed in would at least help me focus on fewer options. 

I'm notoriously bad at titling my books. It could be that by the time I'm finally ready to publish, I'm tired...and impatient. I just want to get on with it. That's how I came up with "The Diner Girl". But that's hardly my only bad title ~ most of them are. 

I chose "Find My Way Home" from a song, "Can't Find My Way Home". Song titles or a variation of a song title can work, as can famous quotes. I can't just create out of thin air; I need some kind of spark. Well, what if I use a phrase from this quote? Of course, one would need to be searching out appropriate quotes, and if your mind is a blank, you're going to be spending weeks scrolling through all of them.

I knew I wouldn't be using "Second Chance", the title of the novella that inspired this novel. At the time I wrote it, "Chance" had a double meaning ~ the town the MC moved to was called Chance, and she ultimately did discover her new life there. But now the town doesn't play as big a role in the story, plus no potential reader found that title scintillating, obviously.

Out of frustration one day, I blurted that I should call it, "Just Sing!" (or more appropriately, "Just Sing Already!")

I don't know why I'm fixating on a title right now; the manuscript isn't even edited yet. But I feel better when I have a plan. I'm looking ahead, probably to avoid thinking in the present, because editing is a bitch. There will be SO MANY issues to fix. And who knows? Once I read the whole thing through, I may conclude it's crap and not publish it at all.

Maybe in my free time, I'll play around with titles. It's not my most urgent issue, but it'll be a nice distraction from the current mess I'm dealing with.