What would be a good book title?

Question

Here is a short summary of the story. The story is complete, but as yet not turned over to an agent. I am trying to decide on a good title.

The tale is somewhat "Harry Potter-ish" (The first two books appear that way, then in the third book, things change radically -<grin>) A good portion of the first story is about how the four (main character) friends get together. (This being the first book in a series, a lot of it sets the stage for the later books.)

The primary plot of the book is that an evil necromancer has a secret he wants to protect and the kids stumble onto it. The evil dude decides killing them all would be the best way to protect his secret. While he is mentioned earlier, they do not actually come face-to-face with him until the final chapter.

My working title referred to the "ancient evil" which was the 400 year old necromancer and his secret. However, so much of the book relates to the kids meeting and their day-to-day lives, that I am trying to decide if I should make the title something else. One theme in the book between the kids is "Best friends forever". That was another idea I had for the title, so the reader will not be wondering the whole book through when this ancient evil is going to show up…

Basically the rest of that book does have action and all, but the ancient necro-dude is only a small part of it –albeit the final one.

[Note: I already have two of the books of the series finished, this being one of those, and working on two others sort of at the same time.]

Any ideas will be well considered and appreciated.

Answer 1

Sounds good, I&#039;m excited to see how it turns out.  

I actually think Ancient Evil is not a bad title.  However, maybe you could call it Necromancer?  I think that would be a pretty cool title

Answer 2

I, for one, like the idea.

No, Best Friends Forever is an awful title. The irony wont be appreciated.

How about you find the &quot;fate&quot; element in the story (how they came upon this ancient evil) and use that as the title, like &quot;The Mirror,&quot; or &quot;The Amulet&quot;

Good luck! Naming is never easy, and if it truly is a horrible name, the publisher will probably try and work out a better one.  

Answer 3

How bout something like:

Secrets to die for

Secrets, Friends and Ancient Evil

Necromancer

Secrets of the Ancients

Deathly secrets

Friends over anything, even life

Just keep brainstorming ideas, something you like will eventually pop up!

Btw your books sound brill.

Answer 4

Starting off by comparing your book to a current pop series is never a good idea. Also, try to invent your own names for the bad guys instead of stealing from Riddick.

Alos, I&#039;d frown on giving such a dark-themed adventure book a light-hearted title as &#039;BFF&#039;, for the irony may not be appreciated.

Answer 5

You&#039;re not going to like this.

But if the evil guy is only a small part of the plot, I think you&#039;ve paced your story very wrong. I realise this is intended to be the first in a series, but you can&#039;t give the whole book up to &#039;setting the stage&#039;. It needs to stand alone as a complete story (a publisher is unlikely to commit to a whole series before he knows you&#039;ll sell). If this is a fantasy novel (not a teen friendship novel) then the best friends getting together should be a subplot, and secondary to the fantasy storyline. The fantasy storyline should have an inciting incident within the first quarter (approx) of the book, continued drama and stake-raising throughout the next two quarters, and a crisis, climax and resolution in the final quarter (approx). The friendship stuff should be woven between these central plot problems and events.

With that in mind, you should stick with a fantasy title, because it&#039;s a fantasy book. Right?

Only telling you what an agent will tell you later...

Good luck x

Answer 6

it sounds stupid but why not ancient evil, or evil unleashed, but nothing with the friends theme it sound too teen-girly and would put boys off.

Answer 7

Not to diss your idea or anything, but it sounds like a spoof. A rather good one, infact....what would happen if Harry Potter were spoof-ified...I think you should write that instead, it might be a roaring next bestseller. Therefore, I have no advice to offer, and should shut up now.