24
votes
Why are one-word titles so dominant in books, film, and games?
I am going to agree with Surtsey here. I do not think single word titles are the prevalent. I still think I can answer the question of what are the benefits of using a single word title. I am also ...
- 3,729
18
votes
Accepted
What should I do if my book's title is already taken?
If you think the title is the best fit for your novel, you should keep it. There are many novels with the same name in the market, which makes it a little hard to find a novel with smaller market ...
- 306
15
votes
System for Coming up With a Good Title
Short answer: no.
Long answer:
A title is a very important part of a novel. That and the cover are the only two things you have selling your book to someone browsing the bookshelves (or internet). ...
14
votes
Why are one-word titles so dominant in books, film, and games?
As with others, I think your assertion is incorrect. Based on an analysis of the 342 film title given in this list of film releases in 2019, I find that 26% of films have 1 word titles, 32% have 2 ...
- 359
12
votes
Accepted
Shortening a title without changing its meaning
It's fine to shorten but only when the reader can fill in the blank.
So far, you have:
Managing a lot of people is a very difficult problem to Lot of
people, difficult problem
In this example, ...
10
votes
Why are one-word titles so dominant in books, film, and games?
The reason, as you guessed, is marketing. One word that sums up something memorable about a movie is a mental handle, it can appear in far larger type on a billboard, it eats up only 1 second in a 15 ...
- 90.8k
10
votes
Why are one-word titles so dominant in books, film, and games?
I think your assertion is incorrect. My collection of movies surpasses 400. More titles begin with the word 'the' than are a single world in their entirety. Single word titles promote the noun (part ...
- 5,233
9
votes
Accepted
Would publishers accept a title which includes the F-word?
There are 3573 entries on Goodreads with the word "f***" in the title (I only splat it for this site, not for my own sensibility). The titles contain the full word, spelled out.
2744 entries with ...
9
votes
Accepted
Reusing story title as chapter title
I think you need either a more general title for your book, or a more specific title for your first chapter.
The main thing I see wrong with that is it will make it seem like the whole story is about ...
- 90.8k
9
votes
Why are one-word titles so dominant in books, film, and games?
The following is a VERY naive piece of research.
I've downloaded the IMDB titles dataset (available here: https://datasets.imdbws.com/title.basics.tsv.gz), and took the 3rd column - primaryTitle. I ...
- 191
8
votes
Reusing story title as chapter title
As the other answers have stated, I don't believe re-using the story's name for the first chapter is a particularly good idea, especially if it means something different later on in your story. ...
- 9,126
8
votes
Accepted
Is it the right call to title my romance a 'legend'?
The Word "Legend" Evokes an Expectation
Putting Legend into a title is fine, but it's a promise to your audience of something a bit larger-than-life.
Given a title like "The Legend of [...
- 7,883
7
votes
How to create a title
I recently watch 7 editors choose stories for anthologies. They had read all of the stories a month or two earlier, and were now considering them in front of a live audience.
Every now and then, an ...
- 23.9k
7
votes
Shortening a title without changing its meaning
How about... "Crowd Management Challenges"
Where "Crowd" encapsulates "lot of people"
and "Challenges" implies "is a difficult problem".
- 10.7k
7
votes
Is a tag line useful on a cover?
I don't think the tag conveys the fact that there is violence, as Cyn's comment says, it sounds "old fashioned".
From "Gentleman" and "Never Tells" my mind jumps to sexual trysts some woman must ...
- 90.8k
6
votes
Accepted
Hyphen or en-dash
Neither; it should be an em-dash or a colon. A hyphen is used to connect a compound (a must-read book, Linux-based) and an en-dash connects a range of numbers (1966–69). I prefer the colon if you must ...
6
votes
Accepted
Is this title suitable for a chapter section?
An informal, jokey title is perfectly appropriate. This is especially true if, as I surmise, you're writing a progrmming manual of some sort. Computer science is a pretty informal field, after all. It'...
- 1,659
6
votes
Is this title suitable for a chapter section?
It's not that it's unsuitable, but the word play of "Ins and Outs" isn't very well matched with the subject of "Boolean Variables." "Ins and Outs" sounds like it's more about GPIO pins.
I'd be ...
- 196
6
votes
Is Having Two Titles Bad Style?
One reason for this style is that, to an event greater extent than today, a lot of novels of this period were studies about a particular character -- modern books have a tendency, at least in most ...
- 686
6
votes
Shortening a title without changing its meaning
Management Difficulties Scale with Headcount
Titles follow the same rule as billboard advertisements: no more than 7 words; no matter what their size. Scientifically speaking, billboard comprehension ...
- 90.8k
6
votes
Accepted
Changing titles, same story different angle
Every good story title is a come hither word or phrase. Phrases are usually better because they can impact more of an idea than a single word. Yes it should encapsulate an important aspect of the ...
- 1,115
6
votes
Accepted
Is it confusing to name a chapter after a non-POV character?
Chapter names serve many purposes so, as long as your choice is one that fits with other chapter names, it's fine.
If you always named the chapter after the POV character then you had one named after ...
5
votes
Use of ampersand, colon and dash in the title of a newsletter article
I would use a colon rather than a dash and I would write the word 'and' instead of using a symbol. Although colons and dashes are often interchangeable, in this case the extra piece could be ...
- 7,433
5
votes
Accepted
Name of a subsection and its parent section clash
The short answer to your general question is "no." If the subsection is titled the same as the section, then either one of them is named incorrectly or else your outline is incorrect. An outline is ...
- 3,527
5
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to tweak a book title after it's got an ISBN?
In the US, the ISBN registrar Bowker allows changing the title. Their FAQ does not say anything about the ramifications of doing that.
If you got the ISBN from someone else, ask whoever assigned the ...
- 23.9k
5
votes
What should I do if my book's title is already taken?
In this case, there's not likely to be a problem if you give your novel the same title as a Czech essay. You're not trying to confuse anyone, and intelligent people are unlikely to be confused by it.
...
- 1,619
5
votes
Coming up with Chapter titles
There's no real criteria for chapter titles, as with most things in writing you can do what you like. There's no reason to have them if you don't want to, either.
That said, it's probably a good idea ...
- 218
5
votes
New story in 'same universe'. When is it a sequel? How to title?
Taking your question on its face, I'd say:
No, it's not a sequel, but a shared title would be appropriate.
What classifies as a sequel?
a published, broadcast, or recorded work that continues the ...
- 476
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