Coming up with names is honestly one of the hardest parts about writing novels.
The hardest part is the silliness that you have to do to self-publish a novel. Advertising, writing ad copy, converting into e-books, all that stuff. That’s really hard.
But after that, coming up with a name that’s punchy and catchy and not too long and still descriptive… it’s tough! I envy the hell outta authors who can drop names like “Snow Crash” or “The Interdependency” or “Ancillary Justice” and walk away like there’s a slow-motion explosion behind them. Not for me, each book title is like wrestling with an alligator.
I haven’t even started dreaming about a title for Novel 9 yet, but it’s definitely too early in the process for that. But I decided on the title for Novel 8 (“A Desperate Path Through the Stars”) about three weeks ago, after the novel had been mostly finished for over a year. Originally I named it “The Trojan Stars,” but those are actually a thing that had nothing at all to do with the story and I didn’t want to confuse people.
Ah well. I’m working on naming a few shorter projects right now, and that’s causing me all sorts of issues. Hopefully something will come to me soon!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!