I'd Rather Name a Baby than a Book
I'd rather write 10 chapters than to come up with one title. For me, it was easier to name a baby than it was to decide what to name my novel. Maybe it was because I had something of a system for naming a baby: one of their names had to be a family name and the other name could be anything as long as it sounded good altogether. After naming two girls and six boys, you'd think naming a book would be easy. But it's not. Naming a book is hard work, harder than writing the book.
I've had to come up with a few tricks to help me with this process.
First, read a lot of titles from the same genre. A good title needs to stand out from the crowd, grab the reader, and pull them into the story.
Second, it's okay to try on a title for a while to see if it fits. It it doesn't fit, give it back and try on a new one. "Dangerous Impressions" started out as "Friend Request Sent" and that was fine for a while, but then the story outgrew it. Maybe I'll use it later or maybe not. Feel free to use it for your story of it's the right fit.
Finally, make sure your title has depth without giving away too much. Since a title is the first clue to what's inside the cover, readers evaluate the title to decide if it's worth pursuing. As they read the story, they evaluate the relevency of the title to the narrative.
Since "Dangerous Impressions" is about art theft and romance, the title takes on a double meaning. Madison's first impressions of Nathan are intriguing; she finds him attractive and decides to spend more time with him. But, his career is dangerous. And since his career is based on recovering stolen works of art and Madison is a college art student, they have something in common: they both love the Impressionists, but their relationship is fraught with danger.
The only thing harder than naming a book is naming the series!
