What's In a Name? The Difficult Job of Titling a Young-Adult Book

Instant Sex is totes going to be my next book title.

(Photo: Meaghan Courtney)

While it's true that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, a book title can be a marketing game changer. The title, in combination with the cover art and design, can move copies off bookstore shelves, or cause them to languish there. Teen readers do, in fact, judge books by their covers. If today's teens won't carry lunch bags in their hands on the way to school because it looks dorky (I must be the last person to learn of this fashion faux pas), why would they be seen holding a book that doesn't look hip?

I'm generally pretty terrible at titling my books, as I've discussed before, but I'm earnest and interested. So when my editor told me that the working title, Syrenka, would have to go, I was eager to help generate the replacement. The senior creative director had suggested Pin Down My Soul, which everyone agreed had a nice immediacy to it, but I worried that the first-person was not quite right (the book is in third-person), and that the verb "pin" is confusing out of context.

What was wrong with Syrenka, you might ask (as my father did, many times)? It's a powerful name, it sounds exotic — but not so much as to be off-putting — and it's the name of the killer mermaid around whom the story revolves. But Syrenka will be a new term to most teen readers (unless they're from Poland, where Syrenka means mermaid), so there's no immediate hook. The head of marketing explained that having an unfamiliar word as a title means that the cover image does all of the heavy lifting. Moreover, word-of-mouth advertising between teens — which is crucial — will be more difficult if the title has no familiar words in it.

The publisher weighed in: he wanted something with drama — something muscular and dark.

What follows is the brain dump that I sent to my poor, suffering editor over the course of a couple of months (along with original parenthetical remarks) — knowing they weren't all good, but hoping that something on the list would spark an idea. I include them all (127) only to show the exhaustiveness of the search. Don't read them. You have better things to do with your time.

And to prove that I am a disaster in the eyes of marketing and sales, let me admit that The Privilege of Human Nature is my favorite on this list.

In the end, after the staff at FSG had tossed around Monstrous Companions and Stolen Soul for several weeks — feeling they were not quite right, and becoming more anxious as the deadline approached — Monstrous Beauty leaped off the list at the last possible moment, like Superman out of a phone booth, to everyone's relief.

For my part, I like the way the new title refers to Syrenka, and that it will contribute to a powerful cover, with a dangerous-looking, gorgeous mermaid on the jacket. Most importantly, the words mean something to the story: they successfully capture the conflict between Syrenka's monstrous and beautiful sides, which she struggles with throughout the book. All that, and the title is eye-catching to a teen. You can't ask for more.


PRISONER OF THE TIDES
SQUANT'S TREASURE
SQUAUANIT'S TREASURE
MARIJN'S SACRIFICE
A BREATH OF WATER
LOW TIDE
EBB TIDE
DOLL, JOURNAL, FLASK
FIN
THREADS OF TIME
SEA HAG
THE HISTORY OF LEGENDS AND MYTHICAL BEINGS (this is actually kind of "M.T. Anderson" cool)
THE LOSS OF ETERNITY
SWEET-BITTER
HUMAN FORM (don't like this)
HUMAN LEGS (yuck)
FIFTH GENERATION
WATER MEETS SKY
STRANGER IN A CAVE
LEGACY OF SOULS
A DROWNING IN THE CRYPT
DEATH IN THE CRYPT
ROBBED OF TIME
ROBBED BY TIME
BURIAL HILL
A FIEND UNKNOWN (for Beth P.)
THE TEAR OF PITY STAINS (I like this. From Olaf's gravestone, but "tear" might be mistaken for its homonym, as in "tear paper")
DAUNTLESS HEART (Olaf's gravestone)
TOUCHED BY HUMAN WOE (Olaf's gravestone)
SEA FOUNDLING
THE FOUNDLING IN THE BAY
THE PRIVILEGE OF HUMAN NATURE (This is a sentimental favorite. From Ezra's gravestone, it refers to death, and how necessary it is.)
THE POOR, THE UNFORTUNATE, AND THE MOURNER (From Ezra's gravestone)
LAY THEIR BURDENS DOWN (From Ezra's gravestone)
WORLDS OF ENDLESS BLISS (From Lucy Crotty's gravestone: "In worlds of endless bliss and boundless love")
LUCY'S EPITAPH
WISTFUL LOOKS IN OTHER PEOPLE'S EYES (refers to Hester not knowing her mom except from photos and looks in other people's eyes)
DOOMED TO BE MARIJN
FUCKING RIDDLES! (Just kidding)
LOVE AND DEATH, INTERTWINED
LOVE AND DEATH
EZRA'S JOURNAL
DEATH, UNDETERMINED (cause of death on Hester's mother's and grandmother's death certificates)
SEA MONSTER
MONSTROUS
MONSTROUS COMPANIONS (how Eleanor refers to Syrenka's mermaid friends) (this is the title that was used for the initial launch, but quickly discarded)
SEA FOLK OF PLYMOUTH BAY
AN EXTENDED CORPSE SHE LAY (from Nellie Burroughs' gravestone)
THEY WERE GONE (Grace Keep's gravestone, "I passed, and they were gone.")
AN APPARITION (McKee's confirmation that Linnie is a ghost)
ALL IS INTERTWINED
EVERYTHING IS INTERTWINED
PEACEFUL IN DEATH (Ezra's view of Sarah in the sarcophagus when he stops trying to resuscitate her)
AS YOU ARE NOW SO ONCE WAS I (the gravestone Linnie hits her head on)
REMEMBER ME AS YOU PASS BY (the gravestone Linnie hits her head on)
INCESSANT CALLING (the tugging of the cave and beach)
A FOGGY WAITING AREA (Hester says this of the real world, wanting only to go to the beach)
FAMILIAR TUGGING
STREAMING (sensation touching Ezra)
BURST INTO THE NIGHT AIR (sensation touching Ezra)
WITH HER LIFE (sacrifice)
ONE NIGHT OF HAPPINESS (taken on the beach with Ezra)
(A) PINNED SPIRIT
AN EARTHLY FIGMENT (how McKee describes Linnie's physicality)
VERITABLE DEATH (from Ezra's journal)
SPELL, INTERRUPTED (when she goes to the surface and regains the use of her legs)
THE RECURRING PUNISHMENT
THE STOLEN SOUL
THE INFANT'S SOUL
THE LULL OF UNDERSEA MAGIC (Noo'kas's ability to make her forget who she is)
FOG OF FORGETTING
TO BE MORTAL
SAFE PASSAGE TO THE SURFACE (the bargain Hester makes with Noo'kas)
PASSAGE TO THE SURFACE
PINNED BY THE SAME SOUL
PINNED BY A SOUL
CYCLE OF SACRIFICE
BORN WITH NO SOUL (spoilers!)
THE FULL WEIGHT OF ALONENESS (what Hester realizes McKee has felt for 130 years)
THE FULL WEIGHT OF HIS ALONENESS
THE INSTRUMENT OF HIS DEATH (Ezra rescues H from the water with the journal)
MARIJN'S SOUL
BABY MARIJN'S SOUL (spoilers!)
RESPONSIVE MORTAL HEART (what Syrenka has acquired by the end)
MORTAL HEART
HAUNTED TIDE
LUNG EATER
SEA FOAM
LESS THAN SEA FOAM
A MONSTROUS BEAUTY (the eventual winner, sans article)
DRAWN TO THE DEEP
SOUL FROM THE DEEP
A SOUL FROM THE DEEP
IMPRISONED SOUL
THE PRISONER SOUL
PRISONER AT HIGH TIDE
BEQUEATHED

STOLEN SOUL (a contender, for about a week)

OUT OF THE ROLLING OCEAN (Walt Whitman)
SQUANT'S CURSE

Titles generated from poetry:

WATERS DEEP
The night is dark, the waters deep,
Yet soft the billows roll;
Alas! at every breeze I weep----
The storm is in my soul.
(Helen Maria Williams)

A SOUL AJAR
The soul should always stand ajar.
That if the heaven inquire,
He will not be obliged to wait,
Or shy of troubling her.
(Emily Dickinson)

About a mermaid:

AND PLUNGING DOWN (Yeats)
IN CRUEL HAPPINESS (Yeats)
EVEN LOVERS DROWN (Yeats)

A mermaid found a swimming lad,
Picked him for her own,
Pressed her body to his body,
Laughed; and plunging down
Forgot in cruel happiness
That even lovers drown.

About the sea:

FOR LONG AND IN LONELINESS (Stephen Crane)
THE PALISADES OF ADAMANT (Sandburg)
IN COOL GREEN HALL (Stephen Crane)
WHERE THE TIDE HAS BEEN (St. Vincent Millay)
A WIFE AND MAIDEN WEEP (William Wendell Riley)
AN INLAND SOUL TO SEA (Emily Dickenson)
THE LONELY SHORE (Mary Dow Brine)
BELOW THE BRINE (Walt Whitman)

A DROP GENTLY (Walt Whitman, see below)

Out of the rolling ocean the crowd came a drop gently to me,
Whispering I love you, before long I die,
I have travel'd a long way merely to look on you to touch you,
For I could not die till I once look'd on you,
For I fear'd I might afterward lose you.

Now we have met, we have look'd, we are safe,
Return in peace to the ocean my love,
I too am part of that ocean my love, we are not so much separated,
Behold the great rondure, the cohesion of all, how perfect!
But as for me, for you, the irresistible sea is to separate us,
As for an hour carrying us diverse, yet cannot carry us diverse forever;
Be not impatient — a little space — know you I salute the air, the
ocean and the land,
Every day at sundown for your dear sake my love.

From my son, Gene:

CURRENT UNDER SEA

THE DARK WATER
THE SILENT SEAS
DEATH BY WATER
ALL GREAT NEPTUNE'S OCEAN
INCARNADINE
SEAS INCARNADINE
YOUR CASTAWAYS
LITTLE WRECKS (from a Walt Whitman, "I too leave little wrecks upon you, you fish-shaped island")
WATERS DEEP
GLASS AND COMB (from a sea shanty about a mermaid, what she's carrying in her hands)
THREE TIMES ROUND
ON THE SALT SEA

The Perfect (Mix-and-Match) Author

Tetes Face by Agence Eureka

It's hard not to compare yourself with other authors now and then and come up depressingly short. One easy trap to fall into, for example, is to question your prose style: you can wonder in the morning why your use of language isn't powerfully plain, like E.B. White's, and later in the afternoon lament that it isn't gorgeously lush, like Franny Billingsley's — all without a trace of irony.

But it's also possible to envy other facets of your colleagues' personalities, or even looks, and feel like an also-ran. (Have you seen how young and handsome this season's debut YA authors are?) The truth is, other writers are just people, too. They probably wish something about their own work (or their personalities or their looks) were different. Or maybe not, but it helps to imagine that they do.

Remember the old games of mix-and-match, where you could put together different animal parts to make a single, fantastical beast? Well, if I could do that with children's authors — assemble the perfect writing monster from the body parts and talents of others — the creature I would create in my Frankenstein lab would have:

1. the intellect of Tobin Anderson
2. the world-building (not to mention the stamina) of Jo Rowling
3. the cleverness of Roald Dahl
4. Kate DiCamillo's simple, elegant language
5. the rawness of Patrick Ness
6. the honesty of Gene Luen Yang
7. the promotional energy of James Kennedy
8. the authoritative speaking voice of Richard Peck
9. the rock-star aura of Neil Gaiman
10. the geeky likability of John Green
11. Rick Riorden's connection with boy readers
12. the cultish following of J.R.R. Tolkien
13. Lauren Oliver's youthful headstart on her career
14. Judy Blume's lengthy career
15. Erin Stead's brainy, adorable, city-girl-next-door looks.

But there's no point in wishing for this monster, because it doesn't exist. There is only me in here. Every day I wake up the same person: five pounds overweight, with a promising new manuscript outline that still has a giant missing plot component. All I can do — all any of us can do — is to work every day in these areas, a little at a time, enjoying the ride, and reminding myself occasionally that I have unique talents to contribute to that mix-and-match author, too.

Beth Potter, Editor at Farrar Straus Giroux

A busy Beth Potter takes a moment to smell the flowers.

This week I've written a guest post for my agent's blog, Crowe's Nest, in which I interview Beth Potter, my editor at Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers. Go on now, skedaddle and read it!

Enthusiastic Self-Promoter

Times Square Troubadour by Gene Fama

When I sold my first book, I caught a glimpse of an editorial memo in which someone had described me as an "enthusiastic self-promoter." That was in 2002, before self-promoting became the Thing it is today; before book giveaways, titling contests, and blog tours; before James Kennedy duked it out with pseudo-Neil Gaiman at an ALA conference; before John Green announced he'd sign every single pre-order of his new book. Back then, it's conceivable that "enthusiastic" could simply have referred to my bubbly personality.

The truth is, I'm a complex blend of shy and outgoing, and left to my own devices I'm sure I wouldn't promote myself at all. This is probably true of many authors. You have to be in love with your work to be a writer; you have to genuinely prefer spending all day alone with your thoughts to almost any other activity out there. I actually border on being a hermit: I jog every day, so I make the minimum amount of Vitamin D that my body needs, but then I go home to write (forgetting to shower more times than I care to admit). I have tennis partners, but they all know they only get one hour out of me, and then I hop on my bike and disappear, like Clark Kent when Superman is needed.

Many writers also suffer from Imposter Syndrome, an affliction that makes it difficult to steel yourself for an event where you'll be feted and fawned over. You know you'll be asked to speak with authority about things that often feel fragile and fleeting to you, things that you secretly worry you stumbled upon by accident and may never reproduce again: where your ideas come from, what your writing process is, and when you knew you wanted to be an author (the answer "I still hope to become one" sounds a little strange).

On the other hand, you have to be a people-pleaser to be a writer. The whole point of my professional life is to connect with as many pre-teens and teens as possible and tell them a thrilling, page-turner of a story. Or a moving one. Or a funny one. And in fact, if you force me in front of a crowd of kids, I ham it up. I actually look like I'm enjoying myself up there, and for one shining moment, I am.

The trouble is, I would never choose to make an author appearance if it weren't a required part of this new world. I dread the following things:

1. not writing while I'm preparing the talk
2. not writing while I'm giving the talk
3. realizing I have nothing decent to wear (because I don't shop, see #4)
4. leaving my house
5. travel, all kinds
6. getting lost in the suburbs (what makes developers think they don't have to build on a grid?).

You'd think that technology could help — that I'd be happy to Skype my visits, tour virtually on blogs, and sponsor contests on my web site. But honestly, I'll bet Rufus Sewell himself looks hideous when he's Skyping, and you're missing my point: I don't even like interruptions that happen in my home. I'm reminded of John McPhee, who once said in an interview that his writing process involves sitting miserably, struggling to get started all day, fiddling with e-mail and other distractions instead, and then swearing if the phone should dare to ring. "I'm writing!"

There is one clever promotional tool that has caught my interest lately: the free short story called The New World that Patrick Ness released in Kindle format. It's a prequel to his Chaos Walking trilogy, and he describes it as "a huge and deeply felt thank-you to readers," but it's not too shabby in the P.R. department, either. How better to hook readers than by giving away an enticing sample? Isn't that what some drug dealers do — they get you addicted with freebies? (It's a compliment that I'm comparing Patrick's writing with heroine.) Anyway, I could sort of get into self-promotion that involves sitting alone in my dirty running clothes, writing on my laptop.

I once heard Anita Silvey say that E.B. White was such a shy guy, he sent his editor to pick up his Newbery Honor. Or maybe it was the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal. In any case, he's my hero. I want that to be me.

I'm not sure my publisher will allow it.