Every now and again I come up with the perfect title for my manuscript. It is catchy, alluring, and just revealing enough.
Then there are those times that I think I’ve pulled that off but — no. I have not. That was the case with What’s Up, Chuck? I mean, what could be better for a book on vomit? Apparently, something that tells the reader what the book covers. And it has to do it without sounding like an academic title.
I smiled when Taylor Norman (Chronicle Books) told me this at the retreat, because really she was super helpful. But inside I was crying. I hate coming up with titles. Hate it. Really.
More often than not I can’t come up with anything decent but I’m lucky because I do a lot of online writing. State the obvious and do it briefly. Or work for hire. The contract comes with a title.
But this time I have to do it myself. The only word I have so far is “Vomitology.” I’m leaning towards “Vomitology – The Science of Puke,” but I haven’t allowed myself to fall in love. It is far too early for that.
That said, I did test the title out. How? I Googled it. Hmm. This probably won’t work. It seems to be the name of a Death Metal band. It is also an entry in the Urban Dictionary. The example sentence contains the name of a male body part that rhymes with Venus. Yeah, not really the sort of thing I’d want my 8 year-old reader to find. So I’m back to square 1.
When you think you have a spiffy title for your book, Google it. You may not come up with a Venus or a death metal reference. But you may find 15 other books with the same title. What happened when I was looking for Whoosh by Chris Barton. It is a picture book biography about the NASA scientist who invented the super soaker. There was probably a full-page of titles — some spelled Whoosh, others Woosh.
Pukology is also a no-go. Don’t Google it. Just don’t. It was disgusting and this is from the woman writing a book about barf.
Vomitus scientificus?
Ugh. I hate coming up with titles.
–SueBE
