What's in a name

[meredith_shayne]

One thing that I generally have trouble with is thinking of titles for my stories. Sometimes they come easily, but mostly not. I get a lot of my titles from quotes and/or song lyrics, but sometimes nothing really presents itself. I'm on the verge of submitting a novel, which has a name that I'm not sure I'm happy with, which is annoying. I tend to like snappy titles, short and to the point, with at least a tenuous connection to the story itself. Titles can put a reader off - I know that I'm more reluctant to buy a book with a title I don't like, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. But then what makes a good title? What appeals to one person won't appeal to another, so you need to be happy with it yourself, so at least one person likes it, haha.

So, authors - how do you find inspiration for titles? And readers - does the title influence your decision to pick up a story? Do you find yourself favouring certain types of titles over others? Enquiring minds want to know.