TITLE SEARCH by John M. Floyd I’ve enjoyed reading the opinions in the roundtable discussion of titles this week, and I hope you have as well. I congratulate Paul Guyot for suggesting the idea. I agree that titles play a big role in the impact, as well as the marketing, of fiction — and especially […]

NAMING NAMES by Steve Steinbock Welcome to Round Five of the Titular Roundtable. Guest-blogger Paul (sounds like the name of a rap artist) prodded us with a few questions. I’ll address them, and we’ll see where it goes. Do you have specific rules for your titles, or do they come about through osmosis? That’s two […]

TITLE FIGHT by Deborah Elliott-Upton When I signed with my first agent, I knew little about the world of publishing. I did know that titles weren’t copyrighted and if I’d wanted to name my novel Gone With the Wind, I could certainly do so, but it wasn’t a smart idea. I found that editors most […]

YOUR STORY’S ONE TRUE NAME by Rob Lopresti Titles are important. I don’t feel like I really know a story until I know its title. Sometimes I get most of the way through the first draft before the name appears, but it seldom changes once I find it. (Silly but true: one reason for that […]

WINNING THE TITLE by Melodie Johnson Howe Paul has come up with a great idea and he has given me a lot to think about. I was in a movie directed by Norman Jewison about the life of the young Ben Hecht. I have always loved this movie, which starred Beau Bridges, Melina Mercouri, Brian […]

Last week, Paul Guyot wrote to me suggesting that Criminal Brief do a week-long discussion on the subject of titles. With the assent of our fearless contributors, I agreed, provided that he contribute the opening salvo. (I’ve been trying to get him to contribute a column ever since Criminal Brief got off the ground.) So […]

Ask OXFORD by Leigh Lundin The words ‘Oxford’ and ‘free’ aren’t normally seen in the same sentence, so when I saw Oxford University Press was sponsoring an Ask Oxford web site, that got my attention. It has a number of useful articles for writers (and readers), but today I focus on their Commonly Confused Words. […]