Monday, June 21, 2010

Titles Titles Everywhere

Most days, it feels like all of the good titles are taken. Wicked Lovely. Bleeding Violet. The Dark Divine. Shiver. All great YA titles and all already taken by authors I love and admire.

Now it's time for a completely unscientific and self-serving poll. If you were in a bookstore and saw the following titles in the YA paranormal romance section, without knowing anything about the book, which one would you pick up?

Barely Breathing
Echo
Echoes
Eternal Past
Vivid
Voices Carry
Breath Away
Eternal Symphony
Keeper's Secret
Echoes of Eternity

On this date: In 1965 Mr. Tambourine Man is released by The Byrds and the folk-rock revolution begins.

36 comments:

A Journey Illustrated said...

Definitely - Barely Breathing...

k said...

Echo stuck out the most to me :)

Jess said...

Barely Breathing.

Vivid would be my second choice. I like one-word titles.

Goldfinch said...

Barely Breathing... sounds like love to me :)

Dahlia (TheBookShopaholic) said...

Echoes of Eternity

Adriana said...

Barely Breathing I also really like Vivid.

Nomes said...

I'm another fan of Barely Breathing and vivid :)

Melanie said...

I like Voices Carry the most.

Jay Asher said...

Barely Breathing.

CJ Omololu said...

Ooh! You guys are good - keep em coming!

Travis said...

Barely Breathing
or
Echo

Cheryl Renee Herbsman said...

I like Barely Breathing and Voices Carry

Robin Mellom said...

Hard to pick just one! I would go with...

Barely Breathing
Echo
Vivid

but not in that order. I dunno which order!

Gwen said...

I agree.

Barely Breathing or Echo

Rebecca Christiansen said...

Barely Breathing, by far.

Unknown said...

Barely Breathing

Love it!

R.L. LaFevers said...

ECHO is my favorite, but clearly I'm in the minority.

CJ Omololu said...

Looks like Barely Breathing or Vivid so far. I'm liking the choices - thanks all of you for playing! This, BTW is narrowed down from 67 possibilities.

Titles are not my thing.

Kathryn Rose said...

I like ECHO best. :)

That was fun! :D

Alethea said...

Barely Breathing - also my favorite Duncan Sheik song... though I only like, maybe 3 of his songs. XD

Candace said...

Barely Breathing.

Sarah Billington said...

I like Barely Breathing and Voices Carry.
Oh, and SIXTY-SEVEN TITLES? Lord, I wouldn't be able to pick after that either!

MonsterAteMy said...

Voices Carry

April (BooksandWine) said...

Definitely Voices Carry, it isn't like the other ones!

Emily said...

I really like Echoes of Eternity :)

Melissa Marr said...

It would depend on the cover. Barely Breathing & Voices Carry are the most evocative, & they both open up good cover possibilities (& have the "y" which can add a swoop to a font if you are going for that market). They could also go more staccato, bold font, typewriter font, bullet-ish if the story is edgier. Echo is too myth-centric for me, & it limits your font & cover options more.

CJ Omololu said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
CJ Omololu said...

Great points - I'm so thrilled that all of you are weighing in and are so much smarter than I am. I hadn't even thought of the font.

I like Barely Breathing also because it is part of the lyrics of the song I listened to constantly while I was writing the book - Breakeven by The Script: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yZ1uI5yPbY

Carin Siegfried said...

Barely Breathing is good but it makes me think of the Duncan Shiek song. Be careful about one-word titles. They are very difficult to look up in books databases. Just try looking up a few in Amazon or goodreads, and you'll see what I mean. They're not only hard for readers to find, btu can be hard for bookstore and library workers to look up too.

CJ Omololu said...

You're right about the song, but it was released in 1996, so I think (hope) that a lot of teens won't have that connection. I hadn't thought of the look up - I know that when I look up Dirty Little Secrets, I get a lot more than my book. Good point!

Anna Staniszewski said...

Another vote for Barely Breathing - it definitely jumped out at me.

Julie_c said...

Gotta vote for ECHO. I love the sound of the word. I love it visually. And I love that the one word can hold so much potential. (But you know I love me some single word titles; Shiver, Linger, Wake, Fade, etc.)

holly cupala said...

67 isn't too bad (we had over 200before the subconscious pulled through...yeesh). I like Voices Carry, but then it makes me thing of that Hush hush song.

A Breath Away, or One Breath Away?

Anyways, I feel your pain! It will come to you. :)

Kari said...

My favorite is Keeper's Secret--but then, I've seen that book, so it might not be an objective decision....

Keely said...

Barley Breathing - so full of on the edge promise!

Beverley BevenFlorez said...

I'd pick up Keeper's Secret because I would be intrigued by the notion of a mystery.