New Series: Titles

[Timben]

When starting a series, does one need the hero's name in the title of the book? Example: "Indiana Jones and the..." I normally write Westerns. I thought I would change genres and write an adventure story. Set in the 1930s Africa. Which title sounds better:

"Safari Joe and the Forgotten City"

"Safari Joe and the Search for the Forgotten City"

"Safari Joe and The Lost City"

 

[Phyrebrat]

I find titles really important to mu creative process. It’s like a banner for me to motivate myself when feeling despondent so I appreciate your dilemma !

The problem with the term Safari Joe is it is a weighted name and comes with associations in 21st Century life. Safari and Joe imply a very colonial type energy

 

[paranoid marvin]

I find titles really important to mu creative process. It’s like a banner for me to motivate myself when feeling despondent so I appreciate your dilemma !

The problem with the term Safari Joe is it is a weighted name and comes with associations in 21st Century life. Safari and Joe imply a very colonial type energy

Yes 'Safari' to me suggest a big game hunter.

And bear in mind that 'Indiana Jones' only found his name in the titles after his character had been established in 'Raiders'. Sherlock Holmes first appeared in 'A Study in Scarlet', Biggles in 'The White Fokker' etc.

it may be worth introducing your character in a book with a different title before making his name a charateristic of the title.

 

[Timben]

Yes 'Safari' to me suggest a big game hunter.

And bear in mind that 'Indiana Jones' only found his name in the titles after his character had been established in 'Raiders'. Sherlock Holmes first appeared in 'A Study in Scarlet', Biggles in 'The White Fokker' etc.

it may be worth introducing your character in a book with a different title before making his name a charateristic of the title.

You are right, he is a big-game hunter. Didn't think about that. Thanks for the rewind.

 

[Culhwch]

I find titles really important to mu creative process. It’s like a banner for me to motivate myself when feeling despondent so I appreciate your dilemma !

Lord, I'm terrible at titles. If I needed one before I started, I'd never get anything done! All my WiPs have random placeholder titles, and even my lone(ly) completed novel has a title that I don't exactly hate, but...

 

[BAYLOR]

Journeyman Joe and the City of the Damned .

 

[Steve Harrison]

I do like the idea of connected titles and my working title for the first book of my YA series was Polly Hart and the Blurry Aliens, which would be followed by other Polly Hart and the (insert subject here) books. But in the end, I went off the heroine's name in the title and went for Blurred Vision: The Polly Hart Chronicles, which would be followed by Fuzzy Logic: The Polly Hart Chronicles and various other visual variations.

Unfortunately, Blurred Vision didn't sell well enough for me to complete another in the series (book two remains half-written), something I must have suspected would happen, as I changed the title to Blurred Vision: A Polly Hart Chronicle at the last minute, just in case.

 

[Oligonicella]

My titles reflect the focus of the story in some way (Knockoff (####), The Third Side of The Coin (####), Idol Hands (####), etc) where #### is the time line.

Only two of the series contains my main's name and then as an oblique pun. The series all have the same subtitle however.

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

Yes 'Safari' to me suggest a big game hunter.

And bear in mind that 'Indiana Jones' only found his name in the titles after his character had been established in 'Raiders'. Sherlock Holmes first appeared in 'A Study in Scarlet', Biggles in 'The White Fokker' etc.

it may be worth introducing your character in a book with a different title before making his name a charateristic of the title.

The White Fokker and the African City?
Apologies to all concerned

 

[The Big Peat]

Lord, I'm terrible at titles. If I needed one before I started, I'd never get anything done! All my WiPs have random placeholder titles, and even my lone(ly) completed novel has a title that I don't exactly hate, but...

Ditto. Most of my characters have random placeholder names too. Right now one of my WIPs has Arra and Bastardo. The former is an archer, the latter is illegitimate.

I'm dead creative me!

My titles reflect the focus of the story in some way (Knockoff (####), The Third Side of The Coin (####), Idol Hands (####), etc) where #### is the time line.

Only two of the series contains my main's name and then as an oblique pun. The series all have the same subtitle however.

If it wasn't immoral I would absolutely steal The Third Side of the Coin and Idol Hands as titles.

 

[Swank]

Safari Joe: Big Game Hunter
-in-
The Search for the Lost Forgotten CIty!​

 

[Danny McG]

Maybe "The Search for the Lost City", but if it was a Forgotten City then he wouldn't be searching for it because everyone would have forgotten about it.

Safari Joe and the almost forgotten city

 

[BAYLOR]

Safari Joe and the Lost Kingdom

 

[feralreason]

When starting a series, does one need the hero's name in the title of the book? Example: "Indiana Jones and the..." I normally write Westerns. I thought I would change genres and write an adventure story. Set in the 1930s Africa. Which title sounds better:

"Safari Joe and the Forgotten City"

"Safari Joe and the Search for the Forgotten City"

"Safari Joe and The Lost City"

I don't know if this really applies to series -- but Heinlein seems to have come up with his titles very late in the writing process. He would always have a working title (he sometimes went through more than one) but many times the actual title was a joint effort between some combination of writer, editor, publisher (and I think in a couple of cases, his agent). So "Stranger in a Strange Land", "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", "Starship Troopers", "Methuselah's Children" all got their titles at the last minute. John Campbell seems to have come up with some of Heinlein's short story titles (example: "The Roads Must Roll", "Solution Unsatisfactory") - and these were sometimes based on a problem Campbell expected with the market's reaction (Heinlein's original "Roadtown" title was too static and didn't communicate the potential motivating crisis. "Solution Unsatisfactory" prepared the audience for a less than happy ending.) All of this is from my reading of the William Patterson biography of Heinlein & usually based on quoted correspondence.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Do you need your hero's name in the title of a series? I don't think so. No more than you need it in the title of any stand alone. But for a series you do need something I think, to hang the books together on. So I used Barton Villa in my last series - it's a mythical island where aliens hang out. But it allowed me to change characters as the various stories progressed while holding the books together.

Cheers, Greg.