Hi everyone,

Any chance of a little help? It should only take a second. I've had a working title for so long that I'm finding it difficult to come up with something new. It's taken pages and pages of scribbled brain storms, but I've managed to boil it down to two.

To make things easy, I've put a poll on my blog. Ultimately, the decision is down to the editor, but with your help, I'd like to go armed with a little market research.

The noveli is aimed at Young Adults, and is mainly about a kid called Alex Crow who becomes a cage fighter and witnesses a murder. The two titles are:

The Crow's Cage
Toxic Canvas

Really appreciate a vote either way; here's the link: http://www.colinmulhern.com/

Colin M

Just voted for Toxic Canvas, Colin - though, thinking about it again, it's a phrase that could be applied to my son's Converses!

Haha - thanks Jem. I'm such a nerd - I've been refreshing the results page and clapping my hands like a chimpanzee when I got a vote.

I really like the first one - only I'd take the 'The' off, so just:

Crow's Cage

BTW, did you delilberately call him Alex after Alex Reid?
Susiex

LOl, Suze, i was thinking that - he's not a cross-dresser as well, is he?

What about The Crow Cage? Like The Bird Cage?

I like Toxic Canvas but would need to know the relevance of this title...

All the kids at school were asking me that. I didn't have a clue who Alex Reid was - I do now. Weird coincidence.

Canvas refers to two things. Firstly, the canvas on the floor of the cage - much like a wrestling ring (except it's octagonal) and also a reference to other MC, who is an artist. This title came up through trying to find a glove to fit both hands. However, the art side of the story isn't as powerful as the cage.

Casey - the title I sent my agent was your suggestion: The Crow Cage. I put the "'s" in because the kids at school though crowcage was a word.

Thanks for the replies though.

Colin

Like Susie I vote for Crow's Cage, without the 'The'.

Justed voted for toxic canvas.

Shelly

I voted!

Cath

i voted for crow's cage, but I love the name "Alex Crow" or the "Adventures of..."

Thanks all. Now I'm going to have to weigh up:

Crow's Cage
The Crow Cage
The Crow's Cage.

It's a game, innit?

Can I just weigh in again?

Crow's Cage

- is simple, alliterative and has both the meaning of a bird in a cage and also your MC's cage-fighting, with undertones of him being caught in some kind of trap. I can already see the cover - very dark with a silver moon gleaming off the bars of a cage in which two young men are fighting to the death, and a crow sitting motionless on top of the cage staring down at them...

OK, getting carried away now, but I really think it's a stonking title.
Susiex

Fab - you want a job?

When I first thought of it, I was thinking - just for a joke - that you don't keep crows in cages. Then I got that "wooahh" moment and realised I'd thought of something fairly good. It was quite a shock because I must have come up with about 200 really shit titles, most of which were painful clichés or just tacky. I thought I was going mad.

But how fabulous when you find The One! You have to kiss a lot of frogs...
Susiex