My Title Is Taken

I'm always on the prowl, mentally and physically, for good book titles. I have difficulty thinking of great titles. For my novels, I want something that captures the imagination and pulls a reader in even if they've mistyped something while perusing Amazon.com and wound up on the wrong page. The kind of title that inspires at least a hesitation in the casual bookstore or Costco browser, makes that spark of interest ignite the impulse to pick up the book and flip it over to read the back.

That's a pretty tall order for a title. It's part of why I yearn for a fan club: so I can run contests for titles for future novels and have my creative title-gifted fans submit lots of ideas.

In the meantime, I rely on Cody and very long, tedious brainstorming sessions that devolve into self-mockery titles of unending length (which is also why I'm rather attracted to books with titles that never seem to end—somebody's brainstorming session led them down the path to that paragraph of a title, and the marketing geniuses at the publishing house went along with it: it's magic).

However, Russell Brand, one of my favorite comedians, stole the very best title for a book: My Booky Wook.

Yes, there have been several books with the same title, so I could still use it, but I'd hate to be the "not the Brand book, the other My Booky Wook, the urban fantasy novel." And, of course, in that daydream, for some reason "My Booky Wook" makes sense as an urban fantasy novel.

Anyway, the best book title out there is taken. I guess the only way to top that is to call my book My Booky Wooky, but that sounds like I'm trying too hard.