“…what we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet,” Shakespeare reminds us. And it’s true for most things in the world, but not in the world of books; especially fiction. Here is my take on things.

Ernest Hemingway believed that a title should have magic. I’ll buy that. A boring title can kill a good book. An inspirational one can help make it a bestseller. In my opinion, a title should at least hint at the genre and tone of the work. It should be intriguing. It must also be unique; a writer should always compare his title with existing works. Type your title into a search engine or on Amazon.com and you’ll know if your title is original or someone else has beaten you to it. I have often found several books with the same title, so be careful.

It can be a single word like: venom, revenge, or two: poison harvestor a complete sentence: Vengeance wears black. It shouldn’t be too long, as short titles seem to work best.

In 1924, a young writer submitted a manuscript of a novel to Charles Scribner’s Sons entitled Trimalchio in West Egg. The publisher hated the title and suggested the author make a change. The writer came back with several other titles, all thumbs down. finally settled down The Great Gatsby. A good move don’t you think?

Although it is not a fiction book, when I was a young anthropology student I was introduced to the great work of Bronislaw Malinowski: Western Pacific Argonauts; that’s a great title. But he could just as easily have been called: An ethnography of the people of the Trobriand Islands in the archipelagos of Melanesian New Guinea because that’s what it was. What is the best title?

It is said that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. And what agents and publishers say is that the title of a book is the best impression of your work and of you as an author. It is the title of a manuscript that first captures the interest of the publisher’s editor. More than the cover of a book, it is the title on the spine that drives the bookstore finder to find a book and download it. And then if he or she likes the publisher’s cover and blurb, maybe they’ll buy.

Book titles have always fascinated me. For a while, I wondered how great writers came up with their inspirational titles. Hemingway, for example, who gave us:

For whom the Bell Tolls

goodbye to arms

The sun also rises

And what vision inspired John Steinbeck to create:

east of eden

the grapes of wrath

in dubious battle

Then I discovered the worldly truth. They were stolen. They were robbed, robbed or borrowed. Have a look.

For whom the Bell Tolls. meditation seventeenth, John Donne

Farewell to arms. goodbye to armsGeorge Peel

The sun also rises. Ecclesiastes 1:5

East of Eden. Genesis 4:16

The grapes of wrath. The Battle Hymn of the RepublicJulia Ward-Howe

In Doubtful Battle. lost paradiseJohn Milton

F. Scott Fitzgerald took Tender is the night from John Keats poem ode to a nightingale. Thackeray has vanity fair by John Bunyan Pilgrim’s Progress. James Jones’ first novel: From here to eternity it was a bestseller, received critical acclaim, and earned him a National Book Award. Based on his experiences in World War II, it was made into a successful movie starring Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr. Frank Sinatra made a hit record of the theme song. He made Jones rich and set him on the path to literary success. But it was Rudyard Kipling who provided the title:

Knight-rankers on a spree,

Damned from here to Eternity,

God have mercy on people like us.

The list of writers who outsourced in this way is endless and includes Somerset Maugham, George Bernard Shaw, Eugene O’Neil, Aldous Huxley, William Faulkner, and many more.

So fear not. If you can’t find a title, remember that the works of Shakespeare, dead writers and poets, and the St. James Bible have proven to be a minefield for the writer looking for a good title. Writers have even been known to take a well-known phrase or verse and move the words around. David Halberstam did this with his Pulitzer Prize-winning book. The best and the brightestwhose title he borrowed from Heber’s hymn.

the brightest and best of the children of the morning,

Dawn in our darkness and lend us your help;

So if finding a title for your novel is hard for you, go ahead and check out the Bard, plunder the Bible, and delve into some ancient literary and poetic works. You are in great company.

I would? Would you steal a line from a Shakespeare sonnet or a Byron poem? Would you pick up a quote from Ecclesiastes or Genesis for a book title? You can bet. And no ratings at all. In fact I already have. The novel I am currently working on is called: “The Company of Men”. I’ve changed that to: “The sum of things.” It comes from a poem by A.E. Houseman:

These, on the day when the sky was falling,

The hour when the foundations of the earth fled,

He followed his mercenary call,

and they took their wages, and they are dead.

His shoulders held up the suspended sky;

They stood, and the foundations of the earth remain;

What God abandoned, these defended,

and saved the sum of things to pay.

Epitaph on an army of mercenaries

A. E. Housman