by Derek Armstrong, author of, let's see MADicine (one word), The Game (two), The Last Troubadour (three)…(and climbing?)

Novel titles are like clothes. They follow trends and fashions and they get longer and shorter, reveal more, then less. As a marketing professional who has "led" in new ideas in publishing and book marketing since 1988 (for various large publishing companies), I've always preached the almightiest of all marketing rules: Thou Shalt Have a GREAT Title. Without a great title, years of work can be wasted.

Short Thrilling Titles Gone?
For the last few years, the bestsellers lists have been dominated by thrilling, short titles that said little but seemed to promise crisp pace and excitement. Perhaps the over saturation of titles in a 1.2 million-titles-in-print, will change all that.

One word titles are so “out” now, perhaps because an online search nets too many identical hits, or perhaps because they are out of fashion. Stephen King brought it on with IT and Dreamcatcher and other thriller authors dove in with Rabid and Jaws and James Patterson’s snippy titles such as Sail and Jester. Of course there were the classics such as Lolita and Ulysses. (Now, you've got to give credit to a blogger who dares put Lolita and Ulysses in one sentence!)

Growth Hormones in Titles?
Lately, perhaps because of issues of similarity, the titles have grown back up to two and three word bites, with the bestseller lists dominated by plays such as: The Quickie and Simple Genius and of course all of Janet Evanovich’s eternally two word titles, such as Fearless Fourteen.

But The Classics Probably Had it Right!
Classically (and in fashion, classics always return, right?) we favored longer titles. Titles such as A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter seem to indicate the fashion trend is moving back to classic. After all, they're hugely memorable. Who can forget:

* Gone With the Wind
* Up the Down Staircase
* From Here to Eternity
* Splendor in the Grass
* For Whom the Bell Tolls
* The Lord of the Rings
* A Dance with Dragons
* War of the Worlds
* The Pillars of the Earth
* To Kill a Mockingbird

Even Longer? You Asked For It...
Many hot titles are much longer than four words or five, and have caused reader rants and complaints in some cases, but there is little doubt the trend is going long again. And who can argue with the success of A FareWell to Arms or The Sun Also Rises? Ernest Hemmingway was the king of four word titles, and with good reason. Did any other author command such recall from such poetically perfect titles?

Longer Titles Back in Fashion?
So, what’s with the new bevy of longer and longer titles. Do they work? I’d like to invite your comments on these new trends. Here are some popular titles that are inevitably pulling us towards longer and longer titles. In some ways, they sound hip, cool, even catchy. But can anyone remember them?

Quite a Mouthful
In Sloan Crosley’s cool “Quite a Mouthful” blog he cited: "Lucinda Rosenfeld's wonderful What She Saw in Roger Mancuso, Günter Hopstock, Jason Barry Gold, Spitty Clark, Jack Geezo, Humphrey Fung, Claude Duvet, Bruce Bledstone, Kevin McFeeley, Arnold Allen, Pablo Miles, Anonymous 1-4, Nobody 5-8, Neil Schmertz, and Bo Pierce. A title that can be absorbed for the bargain count of…36 words.  Is it any wonder that recent major fiction debuts have been called And Then We Came to the End and Special Topics in Calamity Physics?”

Other hot examples of long titles cited by Sloane:

* Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
* Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
* I Love You More Than You Know
* You Don't Love Me Yet
*I Love You, Beth Cooper.

My own titles go with the fashions. My earliest, The Game, was two short words, but nearly impossible to find against sports titles on Amazon. Then, MADicine, easier to find, but one word. The Last Quest and The Last Troubadour are three words each. Other Kunati Titles range from one word, such as Callous, to a lengthy Mothering Mother, A Daughter's Humorous and Heartbreaking Memoir. Putting aside nonfiction, and long subtitles, Kunati titles run the full spread, all very memorable, but trending longer:

• bang BANG
• Bathtub Admirals
• Belly of the Whale
• Courage in Patience
• A Decent Ransom
• Heart of Diamonds
• Hunting the King
• Janeology
• The Last Troubadour
• The Last Quest
• The Master Planets
• Miracle Myx
• Nuclear Winter Wonderland
• On Ice
• Recycling Jimmy
• The Secret Ever Keeps
• Shadow of Innocence
• Toonamint of Champions
• Truth or Bare
• Unholy Domain
• Whale Song
• Women of Magdalene

Our 2009 titles seem to be pushing into the five to seven word range.

What Do YOU Think?
I’d love to hear comments from readers, authors, agents, librarians and booksellers. What do you think of longer titles? What’s hip right now? What’s just right?


Posted by: Derek Armstrong