The Saga of the Title

"What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." (With thanks to Bill).

I swear that lighting upon a decent title was the hardest piece of the entire puzzle. My original title, when I sent the book to my first batch of beta readers, and indeed to the first selection of literary agents, was Crossroads of the Stars. If you've read the book you'll see the sense of it, but the response of most readers was the equivalent of a mildly bored meh.

A new title was needed. Agonising hours, days, weeks were spent to come up with the neatly alliterative Transit to Treason.

This gem of a title met with universal indifference. “Not punchy” was the pithy opinion of one London-based agent with whom I was having a fairly long exchange of emails. (She was actually positive about the book, so I forgave her. More on agents and publishers in a later post.)

More sleepless nights ensued. Finally – inspiration. Title #3 was decided upon: Counterstrike. Now that, Madam Agent, is punchy. Wonder of wonders, she agreed.

The new title survived for some time. Then, on a dark, winter’s day as the wind howled, and the rain plummeted as only Australian rain can plummet, when clouds lowered above, ominous and heavy with threat, as thunder reverberated with the echoes of ancestral voices prophesying doom, Counterstrike died.

I discovered, quite by accident, that Counterstrike is the name of one of the most successful and popular computer game franchises – a game played by the very people I was trying to turn to reading books. (By which I mean my book.) I figured my target audience might pick up my book in the belief that it was linked to the game, and then toss it aside when they realised it was completely unconnected.

I’m still not sure if I made the right decision, but a decision it was. Counterstrike was dead and buried.

Finally – the precise historic moment is lost in the annals of time – I lit upon the notion that the books of the Tanner Archives should be named after the ships Jack serves on in each volume. Neat, simple, one word titles. Nice.

Then I realised something.

I hated the name of Jack’s ship.

But that, gentle reader, is all we have time for at present. For more of this edge of the seat drama, tune in for the next edition of my blog – coming soon to a screen near you…