Audio, Mystery/Thriller 1

 

             Easy Titles, right?

Well, I have to admit that I published my latest book, the third in the Templar Map series, three times. 

The first time around was with the title Templar Map 3. I even used the cover for the first book, with a few minor changes. I used that title because I just couldn't come up with a new title. My white board had two columns of possible titles. Finally, I got so worn out with trying to find a good title that I went with the TM3 title. 

However, inside myself I did not feel good about it. I knew I had gotten lazy with the process. So, I came up with three possible titles: The Fifth Soldier, Wolf Hunt, and Burning Love. From there I had my designer create three covers. Each of the three are shown below.

I really liked the image/cover of Fifth Soldier, but I felt that readers might believe the book deals with the military. It does not. I didn't want a slew of angry reviews from readers who felt that they had been misled. That eliminated FS.

That left me with Burning Love and Wolf Hunt. I liked BL because I thought it captured the central theme of the book, which is how does a tough guy come to terms with becoming a father. I also believed that it was so different from the run of the mill thriller title, that readers would pause on it and become curious. 

For two weeks I juggled BL and WH. The image of the wolf in Wolf Hunt kept popping up in my minds eye. I couldn't make up my mind, so I created two ads on Pinterest to allow the public to decide. After a week, the two were nearly equal. Darn it.

I published the book as Burning Love, but after one day of it being live on Amazon, I had a panic attack. Using 'love' in the title of a thriller was against every thing I had learned. Readers browse the thriller section because they want to be thrilled, excited; they want action, fights, edge of their seat suspense. However, 'love' is a word found in the romance section of bookstores. I could not gamble that the public would be attracted to a thriller with 'love' in the title.

What did I do? You guessed it. I yanked Burning Love from publication and published Wolf Hunt. I did have to go back into the manuscript to make a few changes, some minor rewrites, but the finished product will now stay as it is. 

During the process I learned a valuable lesson. I chose the title Burning Love because I wanted the reader to know that the book was more than an exciting action thriller. At its core there is a great love story. But you don't put that in the title. That is in the writing. The title is the smile from across the barroom that attracts the reader. It is meant to draw your attention, to intrigue you enough that you are curious and want more. I hope Wolf Hunt does that. You tell me. 

KRHill