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I’m excited to announce that my novel Forgotten April is a finalist in the 2012 Book Bundlz “Book Pick” contest. And guess what? You can help me win. Book Bundlz “Clubies” vote for the winner.

It’s free to become a Clubie, and you can vote once a day from now until voting closes on 4/26. If you love the book and/or you love the idea of helping me out, I encourage you to vote.

Here are some other ways you can help:

  • Spread the word (on FB, Twitter, Google+, or any of the other places you hang out).
  • If you have read the book and you liked it, consider leaving a review on Goodreads or on the bookstore website where you bought it from.

Thanks in advance for all of your support!

By the way…Book Bundlz is a really cool site…it’s all about books, book clubs, and the readers who love both. Poke around and have some fun. Enjoy!

xoxo

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  1. I told someone that my second novel is coming out in October. Here’s what he said (via email): “Will I be able to get it on my Nook? Or in store?” (Notice the order of those two phrases.)
  2. I was driving through the winding roads of my apartment complex, and I spotted a young woman walking up a hill, her attention completely focused on her Kindle.
  3. I’m reading Lolita, one of those classics I’d never gotten around to checking out. I bought it from Annie’s Book Stop, a wonderful indie bookstore that’s hosted my writers’ group for the last 6.5 years. The owner closed the shop this past weekend, and he’s had these amazing “everything must go” sales.” I bought Lolita for 50 cents. When I was reading it in bed the other night, sand poured out from between the pages (that’s a first for me…and not something that’s likely to happen with my Nook).

What interesting things have happened to you this week?

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Some of you may know that I’m a freelance copywriter (Copy Bitch) by day. My so-called specialties include writing taglines, punchy headlines, and pithy ad copy. I’m fast. Churning out pith is easy for me. Unless, of course, it involves titling my novel.

For some reason, titling my short stories hasn’t been an issue. Maybe it’s easier for me to see the title in shorter pieces. But my novel? Heck, this thing has gone through no fewer than four titles in ten years.

Titles, like cover art, are a big deal because they’re often a reader’s first introduction to the book. In my mind, effective book titles must:

  • Capture a person’s attention
  • Capture a person’s imagination
  • Be memorable
  • Tell a story without giving away the whole story
  • Work with the cover art, not compete with it
  • Did I mention be memorable?

In this digital age, it also helps if the title you choose doesn’t compete with phrases that already have a ton of indexed pages on Google or that already exist in, say, the Amazon store. So originality should also be part of the list, even though you know what they say about originality — there’s no such thing.

Brevity is important as well. Looking at the top 20 on Kindle, I’m seeing three with one-word titles (Unbroken, Switched, Killer) and most of the rest are two- or three-word titles (Saving Rachel, Water for Elephants). The one exception on length is The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (which I think is a great title and, of course, is consistent with the whole “The Girl Who…” brand).

So how did I finally come up with Forgotten April for my book (cover art to the right)? It kind of just hit me after much stressing and much brainstorming (some of which I did with my fab copy editor). When I wrote it for the first time, I had an a-ha moment: That’s it, I thought. I hadn’t felt that way with any of my other titles. Why was I so sure about this one? Well, the title has double meaning, one that will be obvious early on and another that will be revealed towards the end. Double meaning is something I appreciate in a title (obviously not all titles are going to have it, but for this book it makes sense).

Oh, and in case you’re curious as to the other titles I’d used, here they are (and most of ’em are stinkers):

  • The Lucky Ones Die
  • Permission to Be
  • Petrichor
  • Truth (Lost & Found)

How do you come up with titles? Share in the comments.

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