Title announcement and how it happened!

Many of you may know that my upcoming book just received it’s official title — Forbidden Faith. But you may be wondering how novels end up with their titles and who gets to decide.

When submitting a manuscript, most authors fret over the title, wanting it to be perfect and shiny and to command the publisher’s or agent’s attention. But there’s no need to worry about that too much because the final title will usually change.

In most situations, once a manuscript is accepted for publication, a sales team convenes to choose a title based on what they know of the market and of the book. I’m not sure exactly what kind of magic goes on in that meeting. But I do know that the publisher asks authors to submit title ideas as well as brief explanations of themes, characters, and compelling situations for the sales team to consider as they brainstorm possibilities. They also search online to make sure the titles they’re considering aren’t already taken or used in a similar way, especially in the same genre.

Once the decision was made, the acquisitions editor at Cedar Fort sent us a very nice email explaining the sales teams thought process and seeking our agreement, which we readily gave. We are so happy to be part of this process.

Many of the titles my co-author, Mechel Wall, and I sent contained the word Faith. But Forbidden? We hadn’t considered that at all. Needless to say, we are thrilled that the sales team came up with it—it’s a perfect fit for the novel. Why? Well, you’ll have to read it to find out.

You may have seen the book title announcement on my Facebook author page where I used a Facebook live video. It was my first try. The whole video ended up sideways and flipped (yikes!). This copy is much better, although the words still look like your’e reading in a mirror. Ah well…there’s always next time! More updates will be coming both on Facebook and here!

I’d love to hear your thoughts about our new title or about the titling process in the comments below! And if you haven’t subscribed to my newsletter yet, now is the perfect time! 😉