Finding....A Better Title

Well, this isn't exactly a Trend Post, but I will be talking a little bit about trends in it. I've seen a lot of title trending going on lately, particularly an influx of novels titles "Finding (enter person's name here)". Now, I don't mean to offend anyone who's book is one of those titles, but I do think it is important to address the fact that trend titles are not going to get you more readers. In fact, it might just look like a trended title is a knock off of the original.

Titles, for me, are about as important as the book cover when I go to choose a book. A book entitled "The Rogues" is going to pike my interest a lot more than say one entitled "Ruby Red". For the record, I'm reading "Ruby Red" by Kristen Gier right now and enjoying it, but I would not have picked up the title if it had not been recommended to me by a friend. I judge books by their titles as much as I do by their covers, but I don't like to be too judgmental either, because I might miss something I would really enjoy.

However, as a writer, you really need to choose a title that works for your book. When I choose a title, I try to reflect the kind of book it's going to be. I like to think that titles such as "On a Foreign Field" promise a historical war novel, which is what it is, and that "By Blood or By Bond" makes one think of strong ties and also possibly a historical novel, which is obviously what the book is about. I love when authors actually sneak the title into the book or have the title be an obvious lead in to the book itself. Series books can get away with having perhaps not to interesting titles, because by the time you hook readers with the first book, you have loyal fans for life (unless you do something to really tick your readers off.) Of course certain genres have certain kinds of titles. You can usually tell a mystery, thriller, and a romance from their title alone, (This is kind of what I think of as 'blind taste-testing' of books). Another favorite way to title books of mine is using a line of a poem. Most of my older, never-will-be-published books had Scottish poems as their titles. I actually carried this into the title of "Freedom Come All Ye" which is a song that I feature in the book. It also has a significant meaning to the story in itself. I would imagine the person who picked it up, even without knowledge of the Scottish folk song, would think that it was a book about freedom fighters or something of that nature, which it is: a novel about a young William Wallace.

I think titles are a very personal thing, which is why I am against title trending. Don't title your book like someone else's just to get people to read it. In fact, I'm kind of against putting a character's name in the title at all unless it's a series like my eventual "Anthony Maxwell Mysteries" but that should not be the title itself. The only time I would ever do this is if I were writing a book about a historical figure. Just for an example, I could call a book about William Wallace simply "Wallace". Anyone who liked reading about Wallace would probably pick up the book to see if it was about the famous Scottish hero, I know I would. Nigel Tranter entitles one of his books, "The Young Montrose" and yes, it is about James Graham, Earl of Montrose. The title should mean something to the author, that is why I personally do not wrack my brains for a title, I let it come to me. When I can't think of one, I resort to looking through poems or quotes that remind me of my book and take a phrase or line from that.

Authors, how do you go about choosing a title for your books and what are your thoughts on title trending?

Slainte, Hazel

Trends: Redheaded Heroes, Anyone?

So I wrote in my post "The Female/Male Swap" that I would be wirting about trends in books and movies or things relating to them. Today I'm writing about something I was thinking about the other day when I was trying to find a blasted picture for a book cover I'm working on and that is: Why are there no redheaded heroes?

You know, the handsome knight rides up to save the lady, he leaps off his horse, rips his helmet off and flips back his BLOND hair.

Or then you have the dark brooding heroes with angst who have the piercing eyes and the BLACK hair.

But you never see redheads. Who are they? The sidekicks, the funny guy, the best friend, but never the hero. Sure, there's always redheaded heroines. Why are redheaded women always considered beautiful but redheaded guys can never be handsome enough to be cast as heroes?

Occasionally you might get a redheaded hero in a book but I can't name a movie where you see one. There is no reason redheads should be less hero material than anyone else. In fact, though I have nothing against blonds in general, I just don't think they can be quite as epic as dark haired characters or, redheads! (Sorry Arthur Pendragon)

Anyway, so the reason I thought about this is that my next novel "By Blood and By Bond" features a redheaded hero, a young Celt named Caolan. Yes, he is a Celt so that might be what you would call 'stereotypical' but it's not actually, it's the truth. Actually I have two redheaded characters because I have a gingery Frank as well (No, his name isn't frank, it's Theodard, he's a Frank as in the old Germanic people). Caolan is in no way a funny character, he's pretty angsty, and redheads CAN be angsty. I'll prove it to you when you read my book ;)

So that gets us to another point I want to make... I'm in need of a little help. Because apperently redheads are not quite so popular, I've had a REALLY hard time finding a picture of someone who looks like my character who is not an actor *coughJamieBellcough* (Not that he has red hair, but I couldn't shake him as Esca) I'm trying something different with my book covers and not doing my own art (as you can see with "To Save a Life"). I've not yet decided that's a good idea or not yet, obviously. I've searched literally everywhere I could think of, but if anyone might be able to find a picture of a redheaded young man who looks Celtic and is dressed in Celtic to Medieval period clothing, please let me know! But MAKE SURE it's either purchasable or public domain, because if you get me in trouble, I'm bringing you down with me! If you find or know of anything that might work, please email me at sirwilliamssquire@gmail.com

So, anyway, support redheaded heroes! (And I really hope you can help me find a picture ;-)

Slainte, Hazel