All Photographs are About Death, Really

Genius, I think.

Oh, I like 'Where Time Divides', even if it does sound a bit SciFi-ish; and for some reason 'Pressed Between the Times' made me laugh, couldn't help imagining a slam dunk of a book review, or a Mills and Boon spin off 'Pressed Between the Sheets'

<Added>

I liked that, except for the 'really' bit. A little too tacked on for my taste.

Thanks everyone for the examples and ideas.

Did you find you needed a working title even if you didn't seriously try to come up with a final title till near the end? I just feel I should have something in the meantime, but...

I also think Mothernight is a great title. I like a title where it sounds mysterious and meaningful but you don't quite know what it's referring to or what it means.

I've also heard that titles are generally changed once you get a deal so maybe it's not worth worrying too much? Not sure how true that is...

Do you think the title plays its part like the first page/first chapter, in that it's a very important showcase for the book? Or not?

Deb

I've also heard that titles are generally changed once you get a deal so maybe it's not worth worrying too much?

I don't know about 'generally' though I think it's pretty common. Though in the middle of the fight about TMOL my agent said that quite often everyone goes all the way round and round again in search of the Perfect Title, and realises at last that it doesn't exist, and the original is as good as it's going to get.

In fact what made me stop digging my toes in and agree to TMOLove (I'd been willing to settle for TMOAffection, but Headline hated that too) was that my agent said her assistant read it as Shadows in the Glass, and spent 10 minutes raving about it without once remembering the title, let alone getting it right. Which isn't what you want to be happening with all the people who you dream of trooping into their local bookshop after hearing a great review on Front Row the night before1

Emma

Did you find you needed a working title even if you didn't seriously try to come up with a final title till near the end?

One of my stories from last year still has its working title because I'm stuck for a proper one:
At present it goes under the heading 'Adventures of the Spirit in the Water.' - a basic does what it says on the tin type of title: A little girl is drowned by her grandmother and her spirit remains in the river. She visits her mother as a little mud girl and a dough girl; gets drunk by a pig and a cow; meets an old man/wizard and a boy/cat. The old man dies and his spirit takes her up to heaven.
No idea what to call it.
Suggestions on a postcard, please.

I liked "Black Sunlight". Sounds like an eclipse.

Emma - I said before that I liked Shadows in the Glass - but you fetched up with a good one in the end anyway, and if everyone;s happy ... Great list though.

What I like to do is find a title and then try and make a book to match it. So: t'other way round. But the title has to have an image attached - then go from there.

Jim

I'm currently in title hell for the one that I am about to submit, now, any minute. Just have to write the email, attach the file and send. If only I could think of a title first. My current favourite is 'Here's That Other Book I Was Supposed To Write'. I may add a subtitle: Hope You Like It.

Hope You Like It.

As You Like It

did okay for that Bill Shaksper bloke, as I recall.

Emma

Actually, Emma, I was thnking of using one of your cast-offs! What I did in the end was call it 'Porfiry Petrovich 2: Untitled!'. Whaddya think?

I rather like Untitled. One of those ones that has more layers and subtleties the more you think about it.

Of course, if you'd called the first one Crime, then the second one, along the lines of 'Here's That Other Book I Was Supposed To Write', could be Punishment.

Emma

<Added>

Do help yourself to my cast-offs, though, as long as I can have one of yours for this new novel!

Emma, don't just give them away. Auction them.

My title was changed after signing, and my recommendation would be to get a WW-er to name your book.

Myrtle named mine and after a little to-ing and fro-ing, I have found out it will definitely be called 'Rainy Days and Tuesdays'

All Photographs Are About Death, Really

Very cool and quirky.

By total coincidence a book came out last year with exactly the same title as my current. I've kept the title though, as it's pretty perfect, I think. But agent said it might well get changed as it could look like I was writing some sort of riposte - which might go down a storm but, then again, might not. But chances are the book's going to sink without a trace no matter what it's called so I'm going to fight to keep my title (well, I say this now, it might be a different story with a pub'er on the other end of the phone shouting, 'WTF?'

<Added>

Congrats, Lola.

Bad smiley.

my recommendation would be to get a WW-er to name your book

That's a good idea Claire, but it's so hard for me to convey the essentials of the book - plus I'm trying to do this thing where there is a soft reference to something from Dostoevsky - not exactly a quote, but an echo. For example, the 'gentle axe' thought comes from a quote from C&P "‘You are a gentleman!’ they said. ‘You shouldn’t have gone to work with an axe; it’s not at all the thing for a gentleman.’"

The departure point quote for book 2 comes from The Adolescent. It's : ‘Woe to those who are left only to their own powers and dreams, and with a passionate, all too premature, and almost vengeful longing for seemliness…’

Which led to my working title 'A Vengeful Longing'. But my agent doesn't like that. And I also tried to do something using weapons again. There are three key murders in it, a poisoning, a shooting and a stabbing. The three parts of the book reflect this: Poison. Pistol. Poniard. (This being a type of dagger.) So, I thought about calling it Poison, Pistol and Poniard but that's too many ps and is shit. So.

Then, the other thing is that Notes from the Underground feeds into this new book quite a lot, and there are some anonymous letters that feature. So I thought of 'Letters from the Underground' but that seems the crappest of the crap.

So, that's where I'm at! Hence: Porfiry Petrovich 2, Untitled!

<Added>

Oh another early title I had was 'A Case of Twice Two.' Which comes from the phrase, twice two is four, meaning the solution is quite obvious - an old-fashioned was of saying two plus two equals four. That sounds a bit too Agatha Christie though.