Gatekeeper with the original title

I'm off to bed and still dithering massively over titles (I was going to put up a poll of the ones I've come up with so far, but I'm too sleepy) but here's the cover with the original GATEKEEPER title, for comparison.

One more round of cover questions

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!

( Expand the cut to see the covers )

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:

( Cover blurb )

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 ...)

While I'm at it ...

Social media brainstorming. Feel free to skip. That being said, input is welcome and useful. <3

By August, I'll have four active or semi-active pen names. I'm resuming writing things under my real name with GATEKEEPER or whatever it's going to be called (heh, I love that despite my attempts to mix them up so as not to bias people, 2 of the 3 options currently winning the poll are my personal top contenders, and the 3rd was a last-minute addition that *I* like but don't think is as commercial as the others). I'm writing paranormal romance as Lauren Esker, ultra-commercial PNR through the shared Zoe Chant pen name, and I'm also working on something for my new F/F Mar Delaney pen name.

I still need to create a mailing list for myself and some sort of Facebook social presence. I already have a page for my Icefall Studio business (the art business, currently not really a priority, but that's like craft stuff and art and such). I'm thinking about just using that for the books too. It's not super active on FB and doesn't have very many followers because I never did much with it, but I could start livening it up with some activity and book promo posts and whatnot.

But I also really want to get into doing Facebook groups for my books, because I've seen through the Zoe Chant group that people are (or can be) really active in those, and FB is currently downplaying pages and promoting groups. You really need a page too - especially for doing any advertising - but having most of the FB discussion in a group makes the most sense.

If I'm doing my realname writing under Icefall Studio on FB, I'm thinking maybe I should create an Icefall Studio group as well? It'll be for all of my art and comics and non-pseudonymous writing. So it won't just be books. You'd get discussion about the comics pages and photos of my art and that kind of thing.

I'm not sure if it'd be better for "branding" if I have a group that's exclusively for my books, but I think I'm a lot more likely to be active in it if it's for all of my different creative stuff and maybe a little about my life too. I'll probably also create a group just for Lauren's books and generally talking about romance stuff, because that's separate enough from the Layla stuff that it probably works well for dividing it up by interest, as it were. Whereas I think that people who read my webcomic would probably be interested in my realname books and vice versa. (I know there's also quite a bit of overlap with the romance, among people who know me, but as far as general audience goes, I don't think most of Lauren's audience are going to be an audience for the new series, or vice versa.)

So now I need to figure out what to call the group. Icefall Studio Chat? Something more esoteric like Fireside North? (like gathering in a group to talk by the fireplace, y'know ...) Should it have my name in it?

This definitely wouldn't replace talking about things here or anything. It's just an auxiliary, yet another place where people gather to talk about things that I probably won't be able to find time for.

Runoff poll

Okay, at this point xparrot suggested a brilliant alternative to one of the titles I liked that wasn't quite there yet, and my other two favorites are heavily leading the poll, so it's time for a runoff poll!

Click the cut to see what the titles look like on the actual book.

( Cut to spare your eyeballs )

Poll #20221

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 56

View Respondents

Check all the ones you like!

View Answers

Iron in the Blood
29 (51.8%)

Shadow and Steel
26 (46.4%)

Rogue Myths
22 (39.3%)

(For comparison, the next two books are titled Echo City and Hollow Souls.)