When my wife and I started dating, we were caught in the magnetic chemistry of young love. It was roses and smiles and sighs and bliss.
Then I messed up. I asked her out to a restaurant where I had a coupon from a previous girlfriend. That was bad enough, but it got worse when she asked me why I had picked the restaurant, and I told her about this coupon from my ex! It was just bad on so many levels.
She was a good sport about it, but I still called her later in the day to smooth things over. I remember being really vulnerable at one point and saying, “I just don’t want to mess this up.”
The job of your working title is to avoid messing things up for the rest of your proposal, and its importance is hard to overstate. Working titles encapsulate a concept. They either draw us in, or push us away.
Brief setup: In December 2012 I started a series of posts on how to write a book proposal. I got two posts in before realizing the series would be far more helpful to folks if I actually coached a writer through the process of crafting a book proposal. After a brief contest of sorts I decided to work with Gary Neal Hansen. My strong hope is that others will be working on their book proposals as I coach Gary through this process. So far I’ve posted about motivation, concept, bio, and platform.
The goal is for your working title to keep the doors swinging open, to intrigue the publishing folk enough that they turn the page and keep reading.
So how do you come up with a great working title?
- Assume that when a person sees your working title, they don’t know you from Adam and certainly don’t know a thing about your book idea.
- Ask: What need is this book meeting? What is the need other people have that my book will meet? It might be a good idea to journal about this or even blog about it to get input from others. The need you think people have may be different from the need they actually have.
- Ask: What are the truly essential pieces of my book?
- Now brainstorm some titles and subtitles.
- Then go to your community or social network and brainstorm again. You can do this via social networks, but you can also invite people over for pizza or drinks and brainstorm that way. Do this more than once.
- Pick the best title that comes from this process for your proposal, but include a list of other titling directions too, both titles and subtitles. Among other reasons, this shows the publisher you’re flexible and not married to any particular title.
The title Gary sent in originally was:
One for the World: Six Ways of Being Christian Community that Have Changed the World — and Can Do It Again
I liked the sub and in part picked him to work with because of it, but he received some comments from folks that it was grammatically confused. He noted this as he went into brainstorming mode.
His brainstorming included his own work before applying for this coaching process, two rounds with friends on Facebook (separated by several days, with somewhat different descriptions of the book), one blog post requesting feedback, and one similar request on Twitter.
He writes: “My own brainstorming took me most directly to my own intended meaning and purpose, not surprisingly. Facebook garnered the greatest numbers, with some joking around, many going in directions that are different than the book, and a few that add something to work with.”
This is important. Brainstorming is mysterious. Sometimes it’s full of great ideas and electricity that seems to bounce off one person to another. Other times it falls flat, and you don’t get very far. In the latter case, it’s probably best to simply drop it and try again some other time.
Ten titles emerging from the brainstom:
- One for the World
- The Community Book
- Community Matters
- Community for Mission
- Walking Together, Working Together
- Taken, Blessed, Broken, Given
- Body Building
- Deep Roots, Wide Branches
- Twelve Baskets Full
- Inside Out
Five Subtitle Options
- Six Approaches to Christian Community that Changed the World
- How Gathering as Christian Community Catalyzes Mission
- Christian Community that Matters for the World
- What Real Christian Community is Good For
- Historic Understandings of Christian Community
Gary’s current favorite:
One for the World: Christian Community that Catalyzes Mission
At this point I’m just one editor reflecting on Gary’s titles. If you ask ten editors to respond to it, you’re likely to get at least twenty opinions, so keep that in my mind.
My concern about the title (we’ll get to the sub) is that with the word “One” it seems to emphasize the individual. However, I like the current title’s emphasis on being “for the world.” This is a book about mission. In terms of the title’s intrigue factor, it does carry some intrigue, but I would hope for more.
And here’s some of my brainstorming:
- In the Name of Love
- Poured Out
- For the World
- 6 Ways Christian Community Has Changed the World
- 6 Communities That Changed the World
- 6 Ways to Change the World
I’ll note here that six doesn’t sound like enough. I would want at least ten in the final book.
Now for the subtitle. Gary’s current fave is “Christian Community that Catalyzes Mission,” but he wrote, “A significant weakness, to my eyes, is that this does not communicate the focus of the book on historical movements–which is the nature of the project, as well as the connection of the book to my ‘brand.’ The flip side of this is that a title which says that a book focuses on history may not sing in the marketplace.”
Actually I think historical movements that have changed the world are really inspiring. And I like word “movement.” Who doesn’t want to be part of a movement that makes a lasting impact on the world?
I personally would lean toward a title and subtitle like “10 Ways to Change the World: Learning from the Most Influential Christian Movements in History,” but my colleagues in our publishing board may well gravitate toward something like “In the Name of Love: 10 Ways Christian Community Has Changed the World . . . And Can Do It Again.”
Another idea, in this case, is to cast the above sub as a title and sub, like this
10 Ways Christian Community Has Changed the World
. . . And Can Do It Again
Or
10 Ways Christian Community Has Changed the World
. . . And How You and Your Friends Can Do It Again
The important thing is to engage a process whereby you and people you trust are getting the creative juices flowing and free associating and tossing out all kinds of ideas. Often the best idea is just outside of the circle of ideas you’ve been exploring, so keep stretching. Be risky.
If you would like some input on a working title for your own proposal, drop it in a comment, tell us a little about the book, and let’s see how we can help each other.
I am working on a study guide (seven weeks) for training Bible teachers. Most of the training flows directly from what God has to say about teaching His Word. Explored and explained are God’s first words to the Israelites on teaching, Ezra’s model, Jesus’ astonishing teaching, Paul’s model and teaching in the early church. The teachers are taught the inductive study method and how to use the results of the study to develop and present a lesson. This book is different than others on teaching the Bible because of the practical hands on exercises designed help students interact with God’s Word before reading a lesson or commentary written by some else. The premise is to go to the author, the Holy Spirit, before seeing what man has to say. I am struggling to come up with a title. Can you offer some ideas? This is a reworking a dissertation I completed this past year. A small publisher is interested in publishing. I desire to eventually create a brand that is different from the book title that will provide resources for instructors.
I’m currently agonizing over a title for my book. I’ve been working on the book for 2 years and it’s now being published so it’s time to decide on the title. I’ve come up with dozens of variations. I did a survey on Survey Monkey asking friends, family, and strangers – and I’m still not sure! I’d love all of your insights.
Currently I’m leaning toward:
Four Quadrant Living: Create Your New Health Destiny
What do you think? I will have a logo on the cover that shows the four quadrants. You can see it here http://www.fourquadrantliving.com/ in the top left corner. Do I need to be more descriptive in my subtitle? I feel like it’s too long if I go with:
Four Quadrant Living: Nourish Your Mind, Body, Relationships, and Environment to Create Your New Health Destiny
If I keep it short, I will have the name of the four quadrants (Mind, Body, etc) elsewhere on the cover.
It’s a book about how to promote health and prevent disease. We are not our genes. We can affect change in our health by how we eat and live. The book has four parts – one for each quadrant and 12 chapters in each part. So, for example, The Body quadrant has chapters on eating well, sleeping better, exercising more. The Mind quadrant has chapters on reducing stress. And so on. My website and company is called Four Quadrant Living and the book is about how Four Quadrant Living can help you live a healthier life.
Any and all help is appreciated! I’m struggling here…
Dina, Thanks for commenting and being patient enough to see your comment here. For some reason WordPress sent your comment to SPAM initially, which is completely uncalled for!
Regarding your title, I can see why you would want to title it Four Quadrant Living, since it sounds like that is your brand across multiple platforms. The one thing to consider, though, is whether you could reach more readers with a title that is less branded and more felt need driven. For example, a title like The 4 Keys to a Healthy Life makes sense right away whether I know about Four Quadrant Living or not.
Regardless of which direction you go with the title, I encourage you to strive for clarity in the subtitle. I can see why you would be concerned about length, but I would say clarity is equally important. You don’t necessarily have to explain the four quadrants in the sub. I think you have a strong hook with the idea that we can take charge of our own lives.
This leads me in a direction like “How You Can Create a Healthy, Whole, and Fulfilling Life” or “Your Step-by-Step Guide to Healthy Living and Fulfilling Relationships.”
I hope this helps, Dina!
That is very useful! Thank you so much! I will keep an open mind with my title, knowing that it may need to go (sniff sniff) 🙂
By the way, here is the title: Finding Your Purpose in Staying at Home, a book for stay at home moms who want to “find their purpose in the midst of the mundane”. I have had multiple interested agents but one asked if I would be willing to change the title. Yet I have a book advisory team, and have spoken to hundreds of women over the last few years who love that current title. Any input from anyone?
Hi Jaimie, fun to see you here. I can’t speak for agents, but i will say publishing at its best is a real and substantive partnership. In this case that means both the author and publisher have a say in what the final title will be. In fact, I’d have to check to be sure on this, but I believe most publishing contracts give ultimate say to the publisher on the final title. So flexibility on title can be important to a publisher. We advise our authors to make their online home base a website or blog attached to their name; that way all their books, no matter the title, can fly under that banner. Thanks for commenting! Hope this is useful. Take care.
I love your coupon story – so funny!! What do you do if you have a working title that everybody loves except your agent? Your agent feels it is too similar to another title published a long time ago, yet you’ve already purchased the domain name and marketed the book for a long time with the working title? Any advice?
Together as One : Six Ways that Christian Communities have Molded the World
Question: If my motivation is to create change, meet needs and/or offer great content for which the world is anxiously awaiting 😉 and NOT just to be published, then I can begin with that before the book is out: speaking, blogging, videocasting, etc. It seems that would develop my platform as well and create a buzz for the upcoming book on that subject…..but in order to do that (pre-book) I need to commit to a title for the material. SOOOO, how is an editor going to view a “working” title that already has a blog connected to it with video content and material that would be in the book? I’m sure if there was a strong case for a name change then the blog and content could be changed….but I’m more concerned with the reaction of editors.
Chad, thanks for these posts and thanks to all the commentators as well.
David
http://www.davidbrazzeal.com
I’m curious about Chad’s input here, but I’ll share my non-professional thoughts too.
My blog’s title (withgiants.com) came as a riff on the title of my book after the book came out — no help in platform building in advance, alas. But I’m now thinking about changing the blog name to my own name on Chad’s example and the advice of Michael Hyatt’s book “Platform”. That seems to me a good way of building a platform linked to me as a writer, as opposed to linking it solely to one project. Then what I blog about can build connection to readers on the topic of my book, or other projects. It seems like it makes the blog more flexible and doesn’t make publishers think the platform is linked to a title they don’t like.
If any of you have thoughts about this please let me know!
What Gary describes is exactly how we counsel authors and even how we create author websites when it’s on our own dime. The websites/blogs are author oriented, not title oriented.
Dave, you’re question is a good one. I guess I would advise doing anything that backs you into a corner title-wise and especially would back the publisher into a corner. As long as you can eventually be flexible with the title and work that flexibility into the pieces you’re creating prebook, I think you’re fine.
Chad, I love the story about the coupon. 🙂 Thanks for the great post. I’m going to mull it over tonight for my own concept.
This is all so subjective, but here are my thoughts.
I don’t like “One For the World” because “one” makes me think you are talking about the book itself (as in “A Book for the World”). Assuming that’s not what you mean, it throws me off out of the age.
There is, in my perception, a big difference in positioning and approach between emphasis on Ways vs. Christian Communities. When the word “Ways” is featured, it implies that the focus is on the methods and the application of the methods to today, as demonstrated by historical case studies. When “Ways” is not used, and the focus is on Christian community, it implies that the focus is on a historical study, with applications included on a secondary basis. To me, those are very different concepts, and without knowing your plans for content, I don’t know which is accurate. If it’s intended to be a more mass market book, I would think the emphasis should be on ways (more of an application book with historical support, if that is what you are shooting for). I personally love history and read history books a lot, but I’m just trying to think of what I would be more likely to see in my megachurch’s bookstore. 🙂
I’m not a fan of the word “catalyzes.” It feels formal and academic. Mobilizes might be a word to play with that is a little more accessible to people.
My favorite by far based on my own totally subjective criteria of 1) clarity (i.e., I know precisely what the book will be about), 2) general market accessibility (i.e., there is a reason that the average person should be interested in the book), and 3) a compelling call to action (i.e., this is a book that needs to be read NOW!) would be:
6 Ways Christian Community Has Changed the World…And Can Do It Again
or
6 Christian Communities That Changed the World…And How We Can Do It Again (if the emphasis is to be on the communities themselves)
(or 10 if that is the desired number)
typo correction: “throws me off out of the gate.”
Natasha, thanks for excellent input and analysis.
My preference has so far been to refer to “one” rather than “together” (a word that was very frequently suggested in my Facebook brainstorm) but you quite nailed the problem: It sounds like the “one” I’m referring to is the book.
My use of “one” comes from John 17 where Jesus prays not that we will merely come together as individuals, but that we will become one — as Christ and the heavenly Father are “one”. His prayer about community has a much higher aim that we tend to claim.
I’m still working on it, but that is where it comes from.
You are also helpfully on target with your discussion of “ways” vs. “communities.” What I’m working on is six specific movements in history that had their own ways of living out Christian community. I don’t want to organize the book around a set of applications but around the historical movements. A number of practices and structures and values and things flow from the movements — probably more than ten “ways” actually.
In my previous book (Kneeling with Giants: Learning to Pray with History’s Best Teachers) this was how I went about it and it allowed me to introduce readers to historical figures and writings and practices that I then transposed into a modern key so that people today can try out a variety of influential practices in their own prayer lives. There I chose to look at ten teachers of prayer with ten different ways of praying. I’m aiming for the same method here with a different number, because of my criteria for choosing the movements — and that flows from my vocation as a historian.
Thanks as well for your reaction to “catalyzes.” I’m an academic, so maybe that’s the source of the academic sound. Very helpful to know that it sounded the wrong note.
I see better now where you are going with “one”. Perhaps you could play with an idea around identity. It seems that is the underlying concept here – the church’s unified identity in Christ. I don’t have a title to suggest, but maybe that gives you another idea to consider.
I guess the biggest question, that impacts so much of this, is who your target audience is. I’d be interested to know who you envision your target to be.
My two cents on the title: One For All
Thanks, Chad, for your helpful post, and thanks to the gang for your helpful comments thus far.
I will post more when I’m not just dashing something out on a class break, but I’m curious: How did y’all expand my project from six movements to ten?
…by which I do not mean to sound snarky. Is there some greater gravity to ten? Expanding to more movements is possible in a way, but would also change the nature of the project.
I’ll know more as we get into the description and synopsis, but on face value, ten packs more value to the reader than six. That simple.
I see that, but ten is so predictable and cookie cutter. How many top ten lists do you see everyday? Six, while still a popular and even number, breaks that format and sticks out a little. I vote for six, and I don’t have a clue what the six represents here.
I agree both ways – 6 seems weak, but 10 seems bloggy. 8? 🙂
10 Ways Christian Community Has Changed the World. . . And Can Do It Again
I love reading and studying about historical movements that made a difference. The thought of taking the cues of Christian community that has made a profound difference for Christ excites me!
(I would someday love to do something with my blog concept. [number] ways to lead a life lived in close proximity to renewal. I write fiction and non-fiction. I find non-fiction much harder to title. Fiction can have a little more of an abstract bend.)
Yes, I think you’re right about fiction titles. I love your blog idea here, Lisa!
IMHO – the title/subtitle is more impactful when the verbs are made active. Eliminate passive verbs: e.g. has, have. So, perhaps: 10 Ways Christian Community Changed the World. Or with the title suggested by maxgrace, Together for the World: How Christian Community Shaped Civilization. It makes it stronger.
Or: Together for the World: Learning from How Christian Communities Shaped Civilization. But I don’t know; I guess I think it’s clearer as “Have Shaped…”
Coming up with a title is one of the most grueling parts of this game, IMHO. I’d like to hop on Gary’s bandwagon… how about Together for the World: How Christian Community Has Shaped (Blessed?) Civilization or something like that.
Blessings on this process going forward.
I like this title! The word Together is so much better than One for Gary’s concept, in my opinion. Thanks for commenting! A perfect example of the community at work…