Now let's talk about them!

The title, book cover, and description/synopsis of your story is very important to start engaging your reader. Without them, there's nothing there to help get your reader interested to start devouring your book. 

I am going to break down the tips on how you can write all these parts of your book and hope that they can help you.

1. Title

It's obvious that the title should be relevant to your story and give the reader an idea of what the book may be about. It can be mysterious, creative, and simple but smart, or simple but beautiful, anything you can pair with 'simple but...'

However, sometimes even with titles, a lot of authors especially teens either go with the generic and overused kind of titles or spend a lot of their energy to think of a fitting title for their story. Remember, don't overthink it.

Also, if you're planning to give a title that somewhat goes like this or is somewhere along the lines of:

"My Secret Boyfriend is My Cousin", "The Alpha Rejected Me", "Girlfriend is a Super Nanny?", "My Mate is the Alpha", "The Nerd and The Playboy"

Or many other titles that is unoriginal or cliche, please....... Don't put it.

Why?

Besides it being cliche, take "My Mate is the Alpha" for example. Personally, I would not bother to look into the story anymore because the title basically gave off the plot and I can automatically generate and predict the story too easily, so I'm not going to waste my time reading another highly possible predictable love story plot that is already written by many authors. 

Even if the story may have a different flavor or twist than most stories with the plot where the mate is rejected by the alpha in werewolf stories, I'm not going to go that far to find out. It's tiring.

Don't create titles that makes it easy for the readers to guess what's going to happen especially when paired with a story description that gives away more of your story's plot. To avoid these kinds of style of writing your title, ask yourself these questions:

Does the title literally scream "this is the whole story" when you read it?

Does it go with the genre or will it hook your target audience? (sci-fi, adventure; teen, young adult audiences)

What message are you trying to tell?

When you pick a title for your story, here's what you can think of:

a) One-word titles (Oculus, Chosen, Atonement, Ash, Brave, etc.)

These one word titles can get that curiosity out of your reader. You can also use names to title your book if it's relevant (Examples: Annabel, Harry Potter). These are simple but mysterious... Well, to me at least.

Be careful with one-word titles, because when someone searches for that word, example "Heat", a lot of results pop out and it's possible for your story to get buried among many others. If you are still determined to use this method however, then sure. 

I wish you good luck.

b) Write down words related to your story and try putting it together to create a good title

Let's take an example: A fantasy-adventure story with dragons, royalties, and kingdoms, magical powers, etc.

The words I came up with to title this are: Magic, Dragon, War, Throne, Blood, Curse.

Next, I'm going to try choosing from these words according to what the story is all about then start formulating. So the story can be about a cursed prince who embarked on a journey to find a way to break the curse while trying to fight for his throne and sacrifice many things. My story has a dragon in it too that is really, really important to the story.

So?

After taking time to think, I came up with: "Curse of the Dragon's Blood" then I'll pair it with some well thought out story description and eye-catching book cover? I would be set to hooking my reader.

From Jenna Moreci's video on How to Title Your Book: (check out her Youtube Channel and listen to her discussion because the following list is my version of explaining what she said and I didn't include everything from her video) Here's the URL: https://youtu.be/b4GJdEDZYn8

c) What are the themes and symbols in your book? (related to letter b)

Based from the previous example, the themes of "Curse of the Dragon's Blood" besides it being fantasy-adventure is about well... Bloodshed, a prince being born with a curse cuz' you know, it's in his blood, literally. And maybe add something in the story for the "Dragon's Blood" to make sense.  

Look for words or important objects that relate to your story or character and try making a title out of it.

d) What exactly is your book about?

Sometimes you just have to put it in an obvious light. If it's about a rouge's revenge, then maybe you can title it "Revenge of the Rouge". 

Not only is it obvious and easy to comprehend, it's also simple and practical.

But remember! Let it be a good title.

e) Duplicates

Jenna explained this as having your book titles similar to or exactly the same as other titles. The worse case scenario is, the title of your book being the same as another one that is more popular than yours.

If you made your title already, make sure it isn't the same as the others so that your book has a distinction, that's why we have titles.... duh...

f) Ask

Yes, she told us to simply "ask".

And yeah, if you are having a really difficult time selecting a title for your story, then discuss with another writer or reader, present your list of options and ask which one do they like. Of course, after that, the decision is all up to you. The process that you've gone through is your guide to make the choice.

REMINDERS

1. Careful with cliches especially when you're writing a teen story in a school setting. Examples of cliche titles that go with this are, "The Bad Boy and The Nerd", "From Good Girl to Campus B*tch", "Campus Queen/King". Stop these okay?

2. Don't reveal the plot in the title. Like the presented examples.

3. Be careful when using phrases or questions as titles, (Example: "I'm in an Arranged Marriage with my Enemy", "My Neighbor is a Secret Mafia Leader?"; if your titles are similar to these, better not put it up)

4. Be creative and original.

5. I can't put any more suggestions because I want you to think of some ideas yourself too. You have your creativity, use it.

6. Of course the title alone will not work in having your book recognized. Be reminded that this is just one of those first things that people check that's why we still have to carefully think and talk about creating titles.

Next!