Unusual Book Titles

Just when I thought everything was done and dusted on my first attempt at a novel,  and my finger was hovering above the KDP button of no return, I fired the cover and title out to a few more experienced authors for a round of applause.

What I received, however, was a unanimous ‘Mmm – not sure about the title, John’. With cogent reasons given, I, stunned, stared at the title I had been working with for maybe three summers, hoping that inspiration would emerge from the out of focus title page fog.

Thankfully, it did, with, Beatles-like, a little help from my friends.

Am I, shamelessly, allowed to pre-advertise a forthcoming novel? Let’s just say The Bait Digger will be available from all booksellers in the near future. If you like historical spy novel, this one, set in 1796, might, no, will definitely, be up your street. I wanted to use the word compelling, but I should leave that to it readers.

Apart from advertising my first fictional baby, it made me think about titles.

A school of thought amongst some poets is to uproot and discard titles altogether and treat them as distractions at best and rather dictatorial oppressors of poetic meaning at worst! I’m not sure what to make of that, all I know is that I do like an eye-catching title.

Here’s a few that have caught my attention:

Extreme Ironing, Still Stripping After 25 Years, The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Windows and Disappeared, Green Eggs and Ham.

For some reason my favourite is Driving Over Lemons, by Chris Stewart. The subtitle, if that is what it is, An Optimist in Andalucia, doesn’t disappoint. A delightful read as well. It’s survived various book-shelf-culls in recent years , in particular a recent downsizing move, so there’s a book recommendation for an enjoyable autumn read if nothing else.

Looking through 2025 UK best-sellers’ titles, I’ve happened upon History. Not at all a compelling title, one would think, especially if like me, one of the challenges in my teen years was remaining awake in history lessons. But then, in larger letters, just above the title is the name of the author, Miles Jupp. The comic genius. I dare him to use Please Don’t Buy This Book as his next book title…it’ll sell like hotcakes.

For the rest of more humble humanity, a good title and a good cover, ain’t a bad thing.

I’m encouraged that the Almighty resorted to a non-burning bush to attract Moses’ attention. Who knows what other methods God may have used before, only to see Moses walk on by?

To conclude. I am very grateful to my fellow Resolute authors, and other beta-readers, who volunteered their thoughts and advice at various stages of the gestation of The Bait Digger and especially, the title itself.

And, I would love to hear from anyone who’s been drawn to a book because of its title.