One more round of cover questions

[sholio]

Haha, after spending hours last night brainstorming alternate titles, I went to bed thinking that I was just going to revert back to using GATEKEEPER ... and woke up to find that everyone agrees with me that it wouldn't work! Which, I think you're right. So. Once more, from the top ...

Here are 8 different possible titles (including the two I've already tested out on you). Rather than uploading individual covers, I just made a block of 'em. A couple are ones that I'm not super happy with myself (as much as I love the title "Feral Myths" in isolation, I really dislike the - ahem - unfortunate implications of pairing it with a POC cover model). However, I would really be interested to know which of these, if any, you like!





Which titles do you like?

Poll #20220

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 25

View Respondents

Check the ones you like best!

View Answers

Shallow Myths
4 (16.0%)

Iron in the Blood
17 (68.0%)

Gatekeeper
0 (0.0%)

Myth Hunter
7 (28.0%)

True Myths
1 (4.0%)

Myth and Iron
7 (28.0%)

Shadow and Steel
15 (60.0%)

Feral Myths
0 (0.0%)

Suggest a different one in the comments?
1 (4.0%)

The names of the next two books in the series are Echo City and Hollow Souls. Ideally, I'd like something that works well with those. It doesn't necessarily have to be two words, but it would be nice if it conveyed a similar kind of ... idk, magic and urban fantasy, but maybe a little bit unusual or quirky.

The books deal with characters who are basically magical exterminators, though they're not necessarily the good guys, at least not in all cases. Rough draft of the cover blurb under the cut:


Magic. Myth. Mayhem.

Art student Kay Darrow doesn't believe in magic, myths, or monsters, until she finds herself fighting for her life against a creature out of her worst nightmares. When the dust settles, she's the brand-new owner of a life-draining magic sword that has claimed her as its next wielder.

Armed with a magic sword she doesn't know how to use and partnered with a cynical, truck-driving fairy mentor she doesn't trust, Kay sets out to take down her monstrous nemesis before it gets her. But sometimes the definition of “monster” depends on who's asking, and Kay must separate lies from truth and figure out who the real monsters are before she becomes the next sacrifice in a mythic tragedy written long before she was born.


It's not that I'm necessarily going to use the winner of the poll, I just could really use some title product testing. Thank you for the comments you've already given - they're super helpful! <3

(Why didn't I do this a month ago, is what I'd like to know ...)

Comments

[sheron]

shallow suggests 'bad' to me, i wouldn't want that in the title of my book.

i'd stay away from feral.

the others don't sound like i'd easily remember them so i picked the 2 i voted on :)

[sholio]

Yeah, agreed on Feral (as much as I think that'd work under some other contexts)

[edenfalling]

I think "Shadow and Steel" would work better reversed: that is, as "Steel and Shadow".

[sholio]

Ooh thanks, I'll try that out too!

[xparrot]

I like "Shallow Myths" mainly because the other two titles being two word, it feels weird for the first not to follow the pattern?

In all honesty, though, I wouldn't stress too much about the title? At least for me personally, when it comes to books in a series, I'm less likely to remember the titles of the individual books. E.g. I only remember about a half of the Dresden Files book titles, and I don't clearly recall which is which; I tend to think of them more as "Dresden Files book 1" etc. So I'd probably just think of this book as Gatekeepers #1 anyway! (But I agree that calling it "Gatekeepers" when that's also the series name is confusing...)

[sholio]

Shallow Myths is probably my favorite because I think it's got the same slightly offbeat vibe as the other titles in the series, the sort of title that makes you go "wait, what does that actually MEAN??" (read the book to find out, lol).

... but yeah, that's a good point and I agree that with a lot of series books, especially the ones with themed titles, I cannot for the life of me remember them by their individual titles!

I kinda like the idea of breaking the 2-word pattern for the first book because it IS the first book (and because I have other series with a 2-word title pattern and wanted to make it clear that this was not connected to those). But I also kinda like having them all match. And I am well aware that I'm probably worrying about it 1000x more than anyone reading it would care. XD

[xparrot]

I agree that Shallow Myths has a '...so what's that about?' sense, which I like! If "shallow" is a little too negative (as is "feral") is there another option? Rogue Myths? Unsound Myths? Fatal Myths? ...Erm apologies if this is confusing things up even more! ^^;;;

[sholio]

No no, I appreciate the suggestions!! I was going through thesaurus.com looking for synonyms to words like "feral" and "wild", lol. I REALLY like Rogue Myths! Let me see how that looks on a cover ...

[sholio]

I like this one! :D

[xparrot]

Looks good to me! (Also "Rogue Myths" gets almost no Google hits, always a good sign!)

(and heee yeah, I was trolling thesaurus.com too, but "rogue" was the first thing my brain gave as an alternative to "feral"....!)

[sholio]

Yessss, it's unique and also has the advantage of basically describing what the book is about in an intriguing kind of way! I'm not overly fond of the way the sounds work together - I think something like "Deadly Myths" or "Lethal Myths" has a better rhythm, but this one's such a perfect fit for the actual content of the book that I don't really want to let it go ...!

Thank you! I may need to create a new poll ... XD

[yalumesse]

I like:
Shadow and Steel (sounds badass, and works well with the next two titles)

Indifferent towards:
Myth and Iron (interesting combinationbut weird phrasing; want to follow this train of thought, though*)
Gatekeeer (nothing bad about it but very generic in current market, nothing catchy, hard to remember)
Iron in the Blood (um, yep, unless aenemia! "Iron Blood", on the other hand, would work pretty well)

Put me off for some reason:
Shallow Myths (something about "Shallow" makes it seem... er, shallow? Dull? Simplistic. Not a buzzword/not something that draws people in)
True Myths (seems contradictory and lite a Mythbusters show)
Myth Hunter (sounds VERY like a mythbusters show)
Feral Myths (bad for the POC reasons you described)

*Variation ideas for Myth and Iron:
Iron Myth
Mythical Iron
Myth of Iron

Happy to brainstorm some more if you wan?

[sholio]

Thank you!! This is very helpful and I really appreciate all the details.

Xparrot suggested a brilliant option upthread, so I just went and made a new poll with the runoff options. It does keep "myth" but pairs it with something other than iron.

[sartorias]

My problem with Shadow is that there are almost as many titles with Shadow as there are with Shattered.

[sholio]

This is so true. I had to reject a ton of my top faves involving the word Shadow because there had already been at least one book with that title out in the last few years, and it's awfully generic ...

I just posted a new poll with the top vote-getters for a runoff.