What's In A Title?
My novels have mathematical titles - I even call them "mathemafiction" when I'm feeling whimsical. The titles have the advantage that there aren't many other novels sharing them, but that doesn't help people find theem on Amazon. You type one title, and Amazon helpfully guesses you really meant another. So my novel (Divide by Zero - the only one published yet) languishes behind Continental Divides and the Zeros of Dangerous Ideas - and then only if you specify you're looking for a book.
Divide by Zero has the disadvantage, of course, that nobody knows what it means, but it's perfect for my book - a village divided under the infinite horror of a terrible crime. Would you pick it up? (Please do!) And will you read the companion novel Infinite Sum, where a middle-aged woman seeks escape from the sum of past trials?
Perhaps you'd rather go for a novel with more fire in its title? I've just read two very different, fiery tales, and enjoyed them both. Their covers and titles are great. And both books languish behind others with the same name when I search on Amazon.
Set the Night on Fire by Connie Dial takes readers back to the early seventies, to the mean streets and demonstrations of Los Angeles, police corruption, genuine police-work, and an under-cover cop who might be even more undercover when she surfaces. After all, back in the seventies, women cops were mostly assigned to policing women's prisons. The protagonist is a younger version of Josie Corsino, from the author's other novels, but you don't have to have read them first. In fact, this might be a great place to start with the series (and I seriously hope there'll be lots more to come, to fill in the gap). Enjoy with this bold intense read with some five-star bold intense coffee.
Donna Fletcher-Crow's An All-Consuming Fire is a Christian romantic suspense that blends English religious history with a modern-day TV show, Christian faith and themes with modern teens, and mysticism with a healthy does of American mother-in-law realism. A very cool blend, to be enjoyed with a nice hot smoothly balanced three-star coffee.
Perhaps the sea offers a source of good titles. It certainly has for author Aaron Paul Lazar, whose Paines Creek Beach series has just had a new addition in The Seadog. This one actually makes it to the top of the page! Seadog, perhaps, has just the right mix of well-known word and new idea. The book has a perfect mix of sensuality, mystery and scares as well, and should be a great read with some well-balanced three-star coffee.
Well-known phrases may be a good source of titles too. So what about Where the Bodies are by L. V. Gaudet? Sadly it's listed way down the page on Amazon. A book asking where the Yummy Tummy is comes before it. Ouch! Where the Bodies are is a story of everyman and everywoman under threat, either as victim or perpetrator of terrible crimes. Each character has a backstory and a reason for every deed, and the sting in the tail might seriously unsettle. Read this one with a seriously dark five-star coffee.
Then there's falling for... Everyone falls for something or someone. Falling for Chloe by D Stearman comes top of its page. At which point I realize the number of positive reviews may have something to do with position on the page, as well as a well-chosen title. Falling for Chloe has 42 of them (a good number), and it's a well-told tale of the lure of fame and fortune, set against true love. There's a nicely underplayed Christian theme that works perfectly with the story, and the voice of the narrator is achingly real. Enjoy some well-balanced three-star coffee with this one.
And now I'll go back to dreaming of 42 reviews and mathemafiction novels that rise to the top of an Amazon page. If you read Divide by Zero, please leave a review! It really needs some more!
Divide by Zero has the disadvantage, of course, that nobody knows what it means, but it's perfect for my book - a village divided under the infinite horror of a terrible crime. Would you pick it up? (Please do!) And will you read the companion novel Infinite Sum, where a middle-aged woman seeks escape from the sum of past trials?
Perhaps you'd rather go for a novel with more fire in its title? I've just read two very different, fiery tales, and enjoyed them both. Their covers and titles are great. And both books languish behind others with the same name when I search on Amazon.
Set the Night on Fire by Connie Dial takes readers back to the early seventies, to the mean streets and demonstrations of Los Angeles, police corruption, genuine police-work, and an under-cover cop who might be even more undercover when she surfaces. After all, back in the seventies, women cops were mostly assigned to policing women's prisons. The protagonist is a younger version of Josie Corsino, from the author's other novels, but you don't have to have read them first. In fact, this might be a great place to start with the series (and I seriously hope there'll be lots more to come, to fill in the gap). Enjoy with this bold intense read with some five-star bold intense coffee.
Donna Fletcher-Crow's An All-Consuming Fire is a Christian romantic suspense that blends English religious history with a modern-day TV show, Christian faith and themes with modern teens, and mysticism with a healthy does of American mother-in-law realism. A very cool blend, to be enjoyed with a nice hot smoothly balanced three-star coffee.
Perhaps the sea offers a source of good titles. It certainly has for author Aaron Paul Lazar, whose Paines Creek Beach series has just had a new addition in The Seadog. This one actually makes it to the top of the page! Seadog, perhaps, has just the right mix of well-known word and new idea. The book has a perfect mix of sensuality, mystery and scares as well, and should be a great read with some well-balanced three-star coffee.
Well-known phrases may be a good source of titles too. So what about Where the Bodies are by L. V. Gaudet? Sadly it's listed way down the page on Amazon. A book asking where the Yummy Tummy is comes before it. Ouch! Where the Bodies are is a story of everyman and everywoman under threat, either as victim or perpetrator of terrible crimes. Each character has a backstory and a reason for every deed, and the sting in the tail might seriously unsettle. Read this one with a seriously dark five-star coffee.
Then there's falling for... Everyone falls for something or someone. Falling for Chloe by D Stearman comes top of its page. At which point I realize the number of positive reviews may have something to do with position on the page, as well as a well-chosen title. Falling for Chloe has 42 of them (a good number), and it's a well-told tale of the lure of fame and fortune, set against true love. There's a nicely underplayed Christian theme that works perfectly with the story, and the voice of the narrator is achingly real. Enjoy some well-balanced three-star coffee with this one.
And now I'll go back to dreaming of 42 reviews and mathemafiction novels that rise to the top of an Amazon page. If you read Divide by Zero, please leave a review! It really needs some more!
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