Title Advice HELP

1233 Views 23 Replies 16 Participants Last post by jdfield, Mar 23, 2013

jdfield

Discussion Starter · Mar 16, 2013

It feels like I've got title ideas swarming around my head like flies

Any feedback on the following would be great.

I'm going to publish a YA trilogy that follows on from my Levels series, in my sig. It will take some of the characters and add others. In a nutshell it's about a 17 yr old girl who comes across a group of teenage boys in the Somerset countryside, who - it turns out - are 6 knights of the round table, and king arthur, newly woken from a 1000 year sleep. They live in merlins mansion and are being briefed on life in the 20th century. There are tensions among the group, threats from outside, and all kinds of romantic sauciness. It's roughly in the middle of the PNR/UF spectrum.

The series will be called 'Idylls of Merlin.' Options for the three books are:

A.
1 Wait
2 Want
3 Waste

B
1 The girl who forgot her own face.
2 The boy who lost his past
3 The girl who gave up her name

C
1 Traitors Gate
2 School of War
3 The locked chapel

D
1 Giantarium
2 Otherself
3 Enchantless

E
1 Broken Knights
2 Knight Fall
3 Dead of Knight

F
1 Damsel
2 Lady
3 Sorceress

G
1 Wizard
2 Knight
3 King

Thanks in advance for any help with this

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1 - 20 of 24 Posts

JeanneM

· #2 · Mar 16, 2013

I like C and E the best.

Sounds like a great series.

Quiss

· #3 · Mar 16, 2013

Just my two cents, as I'm not all that familiar with the genre

A) Doesn't say enough
B) don't like, don't know why
C) Like. Would hint at a Harry Potter sort of adventure
D) Creative. I like. Does it appeal that that age group? I love "otherself"
E) Clever but is this just being clever or do these titles really describe the book?
F) Sounds too old for YA. How saucy is this?
G) While not exciting, this hints at a progression which is neat for a chronological series

Indrikus

· #4 · Mar 16, 2013

I would avoid E, personally. The wordplay around "knight" has been done quite a bit already.

B and C seem to be the most intriguing to me.

Premise sounds very interesting.

jdfield

Discussion Starter · #5 · Mar 16, 2013

Quiss said:
Just my two cents, as I'm not all that familiar with the genre

A) Doesn't say enough
B) don't like, don't know why
C) Like. Would hint at a Harry Potter sort of adventure
D) Creative. I like. Does it appeal that that age group? I love "otherself"
E) Clever but is this just being clever or do these titles really describe the book?
F) Sounds too old for YA. How saucy is this?
G) While not exciting, this hints at a progression which is neat for a chronological series

Thanks Quiss, much appreciated. I think you're right about F. I hadn't thought of that. One down, six to go...

L.M. Pfalz

· #6 · Mar 16, 2013

Quiss said:
Just my two cents, as I'm not all that familiar with the genre

A) Doesn't say enough
B) don't like, don't know why
C) Like. Would hint at a Harry Potter sort of adventure
D) Creative. I like. Does it appeal that that age group? I love "otherself"
E) Clever but is this just being clever or do these titles really describe the book?
F) Sounds too old for YA. How saucy is this?
G) While not exciting, this hints at a progression which is neat for a chronological series

Oddly, this was almost my exact reaction to each set of titles

I really like D personally. "Giantarium" and "Otherself" really stand out to me.

About B, it makes me think more of children's books than young adult, sort of like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf".

Just my two cents

AshMP

· #7 · Mar 16, 2013

I like "D"

-The titles haven't been overused or overdone the "knight anything" has.
-Easy to remember subtitles. Simple words to follow "Idylls of Merlin" -- your title won't be such a mouthful to say or remember.
-Interesting word choices ... I like them all.

Darren Wearmouth

· #8 · Mar 16, 2013

I think you need to add five hundred years more onto their sleep, purely from a historical perspective.

jdfield

Discussion Starter · #9 · Mar 16, 2013

DAWearmouth said:
I think you need to add five hundred years more onto their sleep, purely from a historical perspective.

You're absolutely right. lack of attention there.

shel

· #10 · Mar 16, 2013

When I think of branding a series I like a carry-over consistency from title to title, the way you've used music in your other series.
For that reason I pick A, E, and G

FWIW -- if you put "knight" into your title it becomes part of the metadata and it will be more easily found for readers searching for that kind of read.

Darren Wearmouth

· #11 · Mar 16, 2013

jdfield said:
You're absolutely right. lack of attention there.

I absolutely loved your use of the word 'sauciness' in the original post. It reminded me of some of my favourite 'Carry On' films.

"Ooooh Matron"

Katja

· #12 · Mar 16, 2013

I like A and D most of those options. If it's YA PNR/UF where the target audience is young women, those would be the same style as other books of the genre and would mirror it well. C and E aren't bad, but to me they would give the impression of being fantasy books, not PNR/UF. B makes me think they're middle grade books. F and G are bad and boring imo.

G

· #13 · Mar 16, 2013

C or D sound the best to me.

But then you have to think about what you're going to write ... as the title will obviously have a huge influence. You have to select the best story.

Honeybun

· #14 · Mar 16, 2013

jdfield said:
The series will be called 'Idylls of Merlin.' Options for the three books are:

C
1 Traitors Gate
2 School of War
3 The locked chapel

I like this one but maybe the 2nd title could be adjusted. In the first and third, both contain the imagery of a door to be passed through which eludes to transition / growth / change. I feel that the 2nd title loses that element. Would love to see it as something that captures that same imagery.

Ardin

· #15 · Mar 16, 2013

I'm no expert but I like G.

jdfield

Discussion Starter · #16 · Mar 16, 2013

Thanks some more. I appreciate the insight on titles that suit different formats. It's a shame that the knight titles have been used before, but I think that probably counts them out...

[email protected]

· #17 · Mar 16, 2013

I like C or E with G a close third place.

B is my absolute favorite, but it's entirely too long to make a practical title. Maybe you could incorporate them in as some sort of sub-titles? Probably not exactly the way they are, but something in that direction.

It might be true that the knight anything is over done, but on the same token, people who read and WANT knight stories will see it and instantly identify it as such. It also gives you more options on your covers. If you don't say knight in the title you have to show it. Now you don't have the option of showing your current day knights in current day clothes. I mean you can always do anything you want; you just run the risk of missing your target audience and not building that die-hard fan base. Also, it helps for SEO.

In any case, you have some excellent titles here. I trust you'll find the perfect match!

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ElHawk

· #18 · Mar 16, 2013

I think C is the best.

jdfield

Discussion Starter · #19 · Mar 16, 2013

[email protected] said:
I like C or E with G a close third place.

B is my absolute favorite, but it's entirely too long to make a practical title. Maybe you could incorporate them in as some sort of sub-titles? Probably not exactly the way they are, but something in that direction.

It might be true that the knight anything is over done, but on the same token, people who read and WANT knight stories will see it and instantly identify it as such. It also gives you more options on your covers. If you don't say knight in the title you have to show it. Now you don't have the option of showing your current day knights in current day clothes. I mean you can always do anything you want; you just run the risk of missing your target audience and not building that die-hard fan base. Also, it helps for SOE.

In any case, you have some excellent titles here. I trust you'll find the perfect match!

Thanks! My thinking was that calling the series 'Idylls of Merlin' would help label the genre? Don't you think?

JHall

· #20 · Mar 16, 2013

I like C and G. C is short an descriptive enough to give you an idea of what the story might be about, and would get me interested in checking out the blurb. G is very short and to the point, and would be a good alternative to just "book 1, book 2, book 3" but is not as descriptive as C is towards what the story might contain.

1 - 20 of 24 Posts

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