How I name my books

Another question I often get in interviews and from readers is: How do you name your books?

First of all, what’s in a name? Well, for books, EVERYTHING is in a name, especially for Indie authors, like me. The name of the book defines it, becomes its legend, or possibly its downfall. The name garners interest or makes a potential reader say, “Eh, doesn’t sound that interesting.” But you haven’t even read the synopsis yet! Unfortunately, that’s the truth of the world we live in. There are A LOT of books and A LOT of authors, all trying to catch readers’ eyes. So that’s what I’m thinking about when naming my books. Is it appropriate for the genre I’m writing in? Is it attention-grabbing? Will it work with any other books planned for the series? Are there any other well-known books out there with the same name?

So how did I name my books? I’ll focus on The Dwellers Saga and The Country Saga, because they’re my two newest series and happen to be sister series, the stories of which are inexplicably intertwined when they crash together in The Earth Dwellers.

1) My YA dystopian series, The Dwellers Saga: The first book is always the hardest! Why? Because the names of the sequels will flow from that, or at least they usually will. A good example is Delirium by Lauren Oliver. By setting the tone with ending in the letter M, Oliver decided to continue with that theme for the series. Pandemonium and Requiem are the sequels. Another popular dystopian series, Divergent by Veronica Roth, has a sequel called Insurgent, again following a theme with the endings of the titles being similar. This allowed a lot of speculation as to what the title of the third book would be, some noteworthy guesses being Convergent or Resurgent. The author even joked that it would be called Detergent. In the end, the title turned out to be Allegiant, a fitting final title.

So back to the Dwellers! I ended up naming the books after the three disproportionate classes that make up the underground society. The middle class are called The Moon Dwellers, which became the title of the first book. The sequels followed with The Star Dwellers (the lower class) and The Sun Dwellers (the upper class). But more importantly, how did I name the classes? Dwellers was easy. The people live in underground caves, or dwellings, so the name flowed from that. But why moon, sun, and stars? The answer is twofold: First, it immediately makes the potential reader wonder why the book is called that. Do the characters live on the moon, in space? The cover adds to the mystery because it shows nothing of the moon or space. By making people want to know what it means, it increases the chances they’ll try reading what’s inside. Secondly, the deeper you go underground, the further you are from the outside light. The sun dwellers are at the top, and are comparable to the brightness of the sun, then the moon dwellers, as bright as the moon, and finally the star dwellers, the dimmest of the bunch. It adds a bit of mythology to the naming of the classes, from the time when they excavated deep beneath the earth and began living there.

2) My YA dystopian series (a sister series to The Dwellers Saga), The Country Saga: There are three books, Fire Country, Ice Country, and Water & Storm Country.

So again, you can see I stuck with keeping the second part of the name consistent throughout the series, Country, which breaks up the dystopian world I’ve created into distinct areas with very different climates and tribes. Fire Country was easy to name, as I wanted a hot, desert climate with cactuses (which the tribes call pricklers). Everything about the climate and arid desert makes you think of heat and burning and fire. Following that logic, Ice Country was also pretty simple. I knew the second country I would write about would be up in the mountains in a cold, snowy place. Snow Country? Nah, too soft. Cold Country? Didn’t sound quite right. Ice Country? Perfect! On to the third book, Water & Storm Country, which you’ll notice is the only one with two countries being mentioned. The first two books are set in a single country, with a single point of view. The third book, however, is set with half the chapters in two different, warring countries, each with a different main character’s point of view. Thus, the slightly different title. One of the tribes sails around on the ocean like pirates in large ships. Again, I had some options, Ocean Country, Sea Country, Fish Country (I’m sort of joking with that one!), but Water Country just sounded the best to me. And the “pirates” enemies live on shore on flat plains where great storms rage most of the time, which made that half of the book title really easy: Storm Country. Water & Storm Country was born!

So that’s it, I hope you enjoyed a bit of an inside look into the inner workings of my strange and random brain as I came up with the names for my two newest YA dystopian series! Even more so, I hope you enjoy (or have enjoyed) reading the books behind the names!

HAPPY READING!

Extras!

In case anyone is wondering about the titles for my other series, here’s a quick rundown. My debut YA paranormal novel, Angel Evolution, was originally going to be named Angels, with the sequel as Demons and the second sequel Archangels. Well, as I got closer to publication, my wife, Adele, and I both agreed it was too generic and bland. So Adele threw out the idea of incorporating Evolution into the title, as that’s a major theme in the books. You see, my angels and demons and archangels aren’t spiritual figures, they’re evolved from humans. The titles Angel Evolution, Demon Evolution, and Archangel Evolution were born!

My children’s series, The Adventures of Nikki Powergloves, were really fun to name. It’s all based off of the name of the main character, a young girl named Nikki. She discovers magical gloves that give her powers, named powergloves by her best friend and sidekick, Spencer. Nikki Powergloves is born! Each of the four books in the series carries her superhero name, Nikki Powergloves, as well as a subtitle. Book 1- A Hero is Born (a pretty obvious choice), Book 2- The Power Council (Nikki meets other superhero kids), Book 3- The Power Trappers (Nikki faces a secret organization trying to trap the kids with powers, and Book 4- The Great Adventure (Nikki competes in an amazing around-the-world adventure against the other kids with powers).