Help with titles

This is really the very universal question of what makes a good title for any book. I don’t pretend to have all the answers there, but what I do know I’m going to share (and I expect all the rest of you to do so too).

I’ll start off with this. I once heard this publisher guy say that the best title is one that is between 1-5 words and makes you ask a question or wonder something about the book. Let me give you two good examples. Let’s take this title I totally just made up, “Gustavus Boltimer”. There is something about that name that really makes you wan’t to learn who this fellow is. That is good. I’ll give you another example. This is the title I came up with for a historical fiction novel I plan to write after I’m done with my current work. The title is, “Sent Out To Die”. It may just be me, but I think that title is a pretty good attention grabber. However, if I called it, “The trials and adventures of a couple of Armenians during a genocide” I would probably only attract those who are already interested in the subject. That is not good.

Your title also has to have something to do with something very important to your novel. It is important though that you are only giving someone who is looking at your title a question that needs satisfying and not an answer. I think that is the problem with the three R’s. I am sure they have major ties to the most important parts of your novel, but they only give answers, not questions. This probably isn’t the best title, but just to get the point across, how about instead of the title, “Redemption” you made it something like “Delivered And Unworthy”. That may give a little answer but there is still a good deal of question there and I imagine it would still have major ties to your novel’s content.